A Review of Early Quakers and their Theological Thought, 1647-1723

Early Quakers and Their Theological Thought, 1647-1723, edited by Stephen Angell and Pink Dandelion features the foremost scholars of seventeenth century Quakerism in a concise, groundbreaking volume. Quaker Studies is something of a growth industry as new approaches are being tested and previously inaccessible sources mined in digitized collections.1 The dynamic duo of Angell and Dandelion have combined to plan and edit the Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies, Early Quakers and their Theological Thought, and the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Quakerism. These three volumes make the best of research on Quakerism accessible to wider audiences, and solidify a base of active research that brings Quaker Studies the attention and rigor it needs to foster vibrant inquiry

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Book Review: Andrew R. Murphy, William Penn, A Life (New York: Oxford Universit Press, 2019)

William Penn (1644-1718) needs little introduction among Quakers. After his convincement in the mid-1660s Penn quickly rose through the Quaker ranks as a prolific author, capable debater, and a staunch advocate for religious freedom. Beginning in 1681, he became a colonizer and traveled widely to recruit emigrants to his colony. While Penn is often touted among Friends, and sometimes reviled for his slave-owning and colonialism, Andrew R. Murphy does a great service in producing a comprehensive biography of Penn that is free from both the ahistorical anxieties and accolades Quakers sometimes resort to when considering this controversial figure. Indeed, Murphy’s book, William Penn, A Life, shows how controversial Penn was among the Quakers of his own day and in British society in general

Anthony Benezet\u27s (1713-1784) Revolutionary Rhetoric: Slavery and Sentimentalism In Quaker Political Remonstrance

Following the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), many Britons resented the human and financial cost of the war and looked to the colonies for partial reimbursement. To this end, Britain passed the Stamp Act in 1765, which levied a tax on paper, and beginning in 1767, the Townsend Act, which taxed imported tea, lead, and other products. Colonial printing presses quickly decried these taxes as unfair and rebuked the general economic interference in colonial life by lawmakers in London. The American Patriots employed a rhetoric of virtue, natural rights, and liberty to enflame the popular colonial conscience with the conviction that they were being used unjustly

Review of Dandelion, P. The Cultivation of Conformity: Towards a General Theory of Internal Secularisation, (Routledge, 2019).

Ben Pink Dandelion\u27s book, The Cultivation of Conformity: Towards a General Theory of Internal Secularisation, is a serious examination of religious expression using British Quakerism as a test case. Even for one like me-who is not trained in the methods of the social–scientific study of religion, which the book employs–The Cultivation of Conformity is immensely useful to understand the changing dynamics of Quakerism, and Quakerism’s relationship to culture. Dandelion is a British Quaker and the foremost sociologist of Quakerism. His book builds on decades of research, presents a clear-eyed analysis of Quakerism and advances the study of religion in a way that will appeal beyond the boundaries of Quakerism. Dandelion’s book offers a new theory of religious dynamics for the secular age we live in. There are many, many takeaways in The Cultivation of Conformity, but let me just state one at the beginning: one should not discount the effects of secularity and secularization simply because one is a person of faith. Building on the work of Charles Taylor and others, Dandelion describes how for persons who live in North America and Europe, secularity defines the era we live in, including the faith we do, or do not, hold (see 38-39)