by Dorothy Craven
This article first appeared in a 1985 issue of Quaker Religious Thought on the subject of Accountability.
Table of contents
Concern about accountability stems partly from the great emphasis some place on individual autonomy. Many claim they have a right to make their own decisions; to fulfill themselves; to live their lives as they choose, without being answerable to anyone else — either human or divine. Nor do they want to be involved with, or have responsibility for anyone else.
This attitude goes back as far as the very first family in the Bible. When God asked Cain where Abel was, he replied: “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9 RSV). Again, when God sent Elijah to rebuke Ahab for his seizure of Naboth’s vineyard, Ahab asked, “Have you caught up with me, my enemy?” (1 Kings 21:20 TEV). Even as loyal as Ananias was to God, he was understandably hesitant about getting involved with the persecutor Saul. But when he was convinced that the message to visit Saul really came from God, he overcame his fear and was even able to address the former persecutor as “brother Saul” (Acts 9:17).
All who claim to be Christian undoubtedly would agree that they are responsible for obeying God’s commands and are accountable to Him for such obedience, whether their lives measure up or not. But many feel that their accountability ends there: “Why should I be answerable to anyone in the meeting? It is God to whom I consider myself accountable.”
A careful examination of Biblical teaching discloses, however, a strong emphasis on being responsible both to God and to others in the community of faith. To return to the first family in the Bible, God created Eve because, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen 2:18 NAB). After their sin, Adam and Eve blamed one another and were called to account to God for their disobedience, just as was Cain later for his murder of his brother.
The covenant relationship between the Israelites and God emphasized their answerability to Him for obeying His commands, but it also included responsibility both to fellow Israelites and to strangers. And great stress was laid on parents’ responsibility for teaching God’s statutes to their children (see Deut. 10 and 11).
In Micah’s well-known formulation of God’s expectations: “What does the Lord require of you but to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 NIV).the obligation to be both just and merciful implies accountability even to the human community for such actions. And we have numerous instances in the Old Testament of people being called to account for their violations, as in Nathan’s visit to David, God’s calling Eli to account through Samuel, and Amos’s calling people to repent for their injustices.
Accountability in the New Testament
For most of us, the New Testament is even clearer in its emphasis on accountability both to God and to others. That we are accountable first of all to God is stressed again and again. There is Jesus’ imperative: “Set your hearts on his kingdom first and on his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33 JerB). Peter and the other apostles declare: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29 NAS). And Paul reminds the Romans: “We shall all stand before God’s tribunal…each of us will have to answer for himself” (Romans 14: 10,12 NEB). Our accountability to other people is very closely related to our accountability to God.
In fact, as we shall see, an important function of the community of faith is to help individuals as well as the group to be and to act in accordance with what God expects. We recall that when Jesus was asked which commandment has the greatest, He said: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.’ That is the greatest commandment. It comes first. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (Matt. 22:37-39 NEB).
Jesus also indicated responsibility both to others and to God in His two statements: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you;” and “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15: 12,14 RSV). But some might still say: “Yes, I accept these responsibilities as Christ’s commands, but I am not answerable to any person or group for obeying God’s commands, not even to love other people.”
The implications for daily living of our love for God and for others indicate no clear separation between what we owe to God and what we owe to other people. Nor should they, since the two are so closely intertwined. Nevertheless, Biblical teaching may clarify our accountability to each other, even if it sometimes defies precise definition. Actually, to make a set of rules would comprise a new legalism. Rather, we need guidelines to help us understand how to function most effectively as disciples of Christ.
Jesus’ description of His followers as branches of Himself, the Vine; His repeated prayer that all His followers may be one by being in Him as He is in the Father; and the emphasis in Paul’s letters on Christ’s disciples as members of Christ’s body — all make clear that we are answerable to each other as well as to God. The vine and the branches analogy in John 15 is surely intended to show not only that we derive our life from abiding in Him, but also that we are integral parts of one whole. What we do affects each other so vitally that we can hardly escape the need of answering to each other for our actions.
In John 17 Jesus prayed for his disciples’ future: “Now I am to be no longer in this world, but they are to remain in the world, while I am to return to you. Holy Father, keep them by your power which you gave me, so that they may be one just as we are” (v. 11). In the same prayer, He later asked: “It is not for them only that I make this request. It is also for those who through their message come to believe in me. Let them all be one. Just as you, Father, are in union with me, and I am with you, let them also be in union with us, so that the world may believe that you sent me” (vv. 20-21 Goodspeed). Such oneness as this would necessarily involve not only responsibility for each other, but also accountability to each other.
Paul’s favorite analogy for oneness in Christ is that we are members of His body. In 1 Cor 1 2 he sets forth vividly how the unity coupled with diversity in the body of Christ resembles that we experience in our own bodies. The analogy is clear when he says: “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (v. 26 RSV). To take this analogy seriously we must have the same care for each other that we exercise for the parts of our own physical bodies.
But how do we do this? We realize that our local meetings do not always show such unity of purpose and life. Our most dramatic Biblical illustration is the body of believers after Pentecost. We read in Acts that “They met constantly to hear the apostles teach, and to share the common life, to break bread, and to pray…. All whose faith had drawn them together held everything in common: they would sell their property and possessions and make a general distribution as the need of each required. With one mind they kept up their daily attendance at the temple, and, breaking bread in private houses, shared their meals with unaffected joy, as they praised God and enjoyed the favor of the whole people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those whom he was saving” (Acts 2:42, 44-47 NEB).
What had happened to these people which caused this community of believers to develop spontaneously? When they had asked earlier: “What shall we do?” Peter answered: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:37.38 RSV). Their unity came then from following Peter’s admonition. They became one through being baptized in the name of Christ, receiving the Holy Spirit, and following His leading. This was what Jesus had promised just before His ascension: “When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 TEV).
Even earlier, before His death and resurrection, Jesus had said: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13 RSV). The continued story in Acts tells how these believers were guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit in becoming truly the body of Christ at work in the world.
Paul also emphasizes in his letters that it is through the guidance of the Spirit that we can realize oneness as the body of Christ. One of his clearest expressions of this is Ephes. 41.6, which Phillips paraphrases:
As God’s prisoner, then, I beg you to live lives worthy of your high calling. Accept life with humility and patience, generously making allowances for each other because you love each other. Make it your aim to be at one in the Spirit, and you will be bound together in peace. There is one Body and one Spirit, just as it was in one hope that you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is the one over all, the one working through all and the one living in all.
Commitment and Willingness
If we take as our pattern the New Testament account of how believers became the body of Christ, our foundation stones would be commitment to the Lordship of Christ and willingness to be led by the Spirit. Are we willing to make such a commitment as members of Christ’s body and to be accountable to each other for continued growth in living it out? If we are, then we can consider making that a condition for membership in our meetings.
As we read of the activity of the young church as recorded in Acts and the Letters to Young Churches, we realize that the leading of the Spirit affected every part of the believers’ lives — their worship, their convictions, their vocations and service, their interpersonal relations, their ministry to those outside the fellowship, even their economics. We also find illustrations of their accountability to each other in regard to these various facets of their life together. Even though some of our situations may seem very different from those in the first century of the church, let us see how far we may be able to apply what we learn from them.
It was as people waited on the Lord and prayed together, that many significant things happened. Acts 1 records that “these all [the eleven apostles] continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers” (v. 14, NKJV). Then after they had chosen Matthias to fill Judas’ place, we read: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:l RSV) and the Holy Spirit came upon them. After this great event and the increase in numbers following Peter’s sermon, “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42 RSV).
As we noted earlier, out of these experiences came the remarkable fellowship which led to their common sharing and which impelled others to join their number. Their growth came out of their worship and proclamation of the Gospel and the fellowship which followed. It was while many were gathered together praying that Peter was released from prison, even though those praying were “amazed” when he stood before them (Acts 12:ll-16). Do answers to our prayers sometimes surprise us?
Guidance also came to the church at Antioch “while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting.” It was then that “the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’ ” (Acts 13:2 RSV), and they obeyed and sent out the first missionaries.
When we see the remarkable results which came from corporate worship and prayer, we understand why the writer to the Hebrews said, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” (Heb. 10:24-25 RSV). One aspect of our accountability to each other in the community of faith, then, is to worship together faithfully.
Changes in Belief
It was also as these believers were responsive to the Spirit of God that people’s convictions changed. Sometimes the change occurred even when the person himself did not seem to be seeking new light. Although Saul was certain that he was right in persecuting the followers of Christ, he was totally changed after his encounter with the Lord on the Damascus Road. And it was after Peter’s housetop vision in Joppa, that he, staunch Jew that he was, who had “never eaten anything impure or unclean,” could tell Cornelius and the others in his household: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or to visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection” (Acts 10:14, 28-29 NIV). Furthermore, when Peter explained to the circumcision party at Jerusalem all that had happened, we read that “they stopped their criticism and praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given to the Gentiles also the opportunity to repent and live’ ” (Acts 11:17-18 TEV).
These are only samples of the way people’s beliefs were changed as they became open to God’s leading. Is not a willingness to receive new truth — to be open to God so that we can receive it — another area in which we also need to be accountable to each other if we are to be in truth the body of Christ? In fact, this need to be open to truth is one reason for committing ourselves to faithful sharing in both worship and business meetings. As Parker Palmer has pointed out in his Pendle Hill pamphlet, A Place Called Community:
In a Quaker meeting, for worship or for business, there is more than waiting and silence. There is also speaking for one’s self and feeling the weight of the words of others. The quest for truth among Friends is meant to be corporate, not a private reverie. The leading of the gathered group is to be trusted, and when you or I speak we must be willing to test our truth against the truth received by others.
…If we affirm community we must take the risk that our partial versions of truth will be enlarged or even made uncouth by the light given to others.’ [Pendle Hill Pamphlet #202, 1977, p.28.]
Because new truth comes to us in private as well as in worshiping together, another area in which we can encourage each other and hold each other accountable is in our private waiting upon God. While it was in the corporate setting that the circumcision party came to a new understanding, it was while Peter was praying alone that his vision came. None of us should attempt to prescribe to others the frequency or form of their private prayer; rather, we should help each other find the best practice and be faithful to that.
Exercise of Gifts
Nowhere is the guidance of the Spirit more important than in the discovery and exercise of our gifts as members of the body of Christ. Paul’s masterful exposition in 1 Cor. 12 of how these gifts come and how they can work in harmony merits our careful attention. Paul’s emphasis that “all these [gifts] are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (v. 11 RSV), shows the wisdom of the Jerusalem church dedicating with prayer those who would distribute aid to the widows (Acts 6:l-6). The same applies to the Antioch church praying for Barnabas and Saul as they sent them forth to proclaim the Gospel (Acts 13:l-3).
Are we not accountable to each other in our local meetings to encourage each person to faithful exercise of gifts? If we really have the conviction Paul expresses that every needed service contributes to the body’s wholeness, then we can help others rejoice in their own gifts rather than longing for the gifts that other people have. As we follow what Paul calls “a still more excellent way,” the way of divinely imparted love which he describes in 1 Cor.13, then “let us think of ways to stir up one another to love and to good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24, Laubach).
When Paul says: “And his [Christ’s] gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipment of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ,” he goes on to say that we are to be freed from being “carried about with every wind of doctrine…. Rather,” he says, “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love” (Ephes. 4:11-15 RSV).
We note here that “when each part is working properly,” growth in love is possible. Certainly, “speaking the truth in love” is an essential part of calling each other to accountability as members of Christ’s body.
Every exercise of our gifts, whether in ministry to members of the body or those outside the fellowship, is a direct result of knowingGod through His Spirit. Again and again we are told that we cannot earn our salvation or make ourselves righteous; rather, “God has made us what we are, created in Christ Jesus to do those good deeds he planned for us to do” (Ephes. 210, Phillips).
It is good deeds which are the expected result of God’s transformation of our lives. They are the natural fruit of the Spirit whose leading makes us “the sons [that is, children] of God” (Romans 8:14). As James makes clear, our faith in God is demonstrated by the lives we live, by such very practical matters as the right use of our tongues, the elimination of partiality in our treatment of others, the doing away with jealousy and selfish ambition, and the undergirding of sympathy with actual material help. James even defines pure and undefiled religion as “to care for children who have no fathers or mothers; to take care of widows in their trouble; to keep yourself clean from the world’s evil ways” (James 1:27, Laubach).
Basis of Friends Testimonies
The spiritual basis of early Friends testimonies was the conviction that the Word who was “in the beginning” does indeed enlighten every person. Therefore we dare not, for example, kill anyone, since God enlightens all. We must relieve as far as possible the suffering of every person for the same reason. No one is excluded: the foreigner, the child, the slave, the prisoner, even the mentally ill — all are included in John’s statement: “The real light which enlightens every man [person] was even then coming into the world” (John 1:9 NEB).
Therefore accountability to each other as members of Christ’s body includes helping each other to be guided by the Spirit in making decisions about participation in war, about the kind of lifestyle which permits us to share freely with others, about eliminating our deeply ingrained prejudices against those different from ourselves, about any matter which relates to our responsibility for God’s other children. Jesus’ repeated statements about loving even enemies, forgiving rather than retaliating, returning good for evil, make it imperative for us to call each other to account in regard to the Friends peace testimony. This applies equally whether it involves peace on a personal, community, national, or international level. Also, Jesus makes central, both by example and teaching, the compassion we should have for those in need. As his picture of the Last Judgment makes clear, our acceptance or rejection depends on what we have done to “the least of these” and thus to Him (Matt. 25:31-46).
The New Testament provides much counsel about the way members of the Christian community are to relate to each other. Let us note a few of the most basic points. Crucial to wholesome life in the body of Christ is sincere speech: “Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another” (Ephes. 4:25). Unless we can count on each other’s words, we have no real basis for community.
While we are expressing ourselves openly and honestly, we also need to remember to “speak the truth in love,” and we do well also to heed the imperative: “Drop all bitter feeling and passion and anger and clamoring and insults, together with all malice; be kind to each other, be tender-hearted, be generous to each other as God has been generous to you in Christ” (Ep.h 4:31-32 ,Moffatt). Without the practice of loving forgiveness, accountability to each other will not last very long.
Genuine sharing is another essential, as Paul’s counsel makes clear: “Be glad with those who are glad. Weep with those who weep. Live in peace and good will toward one another. Do not be proud. Associate with humble people. Never be vain” (Rom. 12:15-16, Laubach). “Shoulder the loads of one another.” At the same time “every man has to stand on his own two feet” (Gal. 6:2,5 Jordan). Obviously Paul is not condoning shirking one’s share of the burdens.
Sharing also involves the sharing of goods and money, as is emphasized repeatedly in the Gospels, Acts, and the Epistles. In fact, Jesus had so much to say about the dangers of wealth and the importance of what one does with his or her possessions that Mildred Binns Young may well be correct in finding “the root of most of the causes of our spiritual decline” as Friends in our uneasiness with our “preferred” economic “status.” [What Doth The Lord Require of Thee?, Pendle Hill Pamphlet #145, 1966), p. 10] Here again, our accountability to each other does not involve telling each other what we must give, but rather helping each other find the Spirit’s leading and being faithful to it. As Richard Foster says in Freedom of Simplicity, regarding the communal sharing of the believers after Pentecost:
This is not some pattern to be slavishly imitated. What we do see is an incredible freedom to experiment with practical ways to flesh out the meaning of love for God and neighbor. Under the authority of Christ they were freed to try new ways to love one another.
Isn’t this the model for us? Not a legal system, but a fresh freedom to discover what it means to live as Christ’s disciples together. And the caring we see in the Acts gives us significant clues as to which direction the winds of the Spirit desire to blow in our day. [Harper & Row, 1981, p.44]
We do have ample evidence from both the Old and New Testaments that we are expected to give in proportion to what we have been given, as Jesus’ praise of the widow’s two mites makes clear (Luke 21:34).
Spiritual and Cultural Priority
In all of this caring for others, there is a radical difference from the priorities of our own culture. Christ calls us away from yearning for power to the role of servanthood. He told His disciples when they were arguing over who was the greatest:
Among pagans it is the kings who lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are given the title Benefactor. This must not happen with you. No; the greatest among you must behave as if he were the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves. For who is the greater: the one at table or the one who serves? The one at table, surely? Yet here am I among you as one who serves. (Luke 22:25-27, JerB).
Accountability to each other requires genuine acceptance of the servant role and affirming each other in it so that we can actually give up our desires for prestige and position in order to be faithful to the Spirit’s leading. As one facet of this Paul stresses concern “never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother” (Romans 14:13 RSV). He uses meat offered to idols as an illustration; and, even though he does not feel that eating such meat is wrong, he concludes that “if food trips up my brother, 1 will eat no flesh as long as I live, for fear I should trip up my brother” (1 Cor. 8:13, Weymouth). Real Christian love calls us also to such accountability.
Restoration of Fellowship
So far we have been emphasizing the ways in which we need to help each other discern and meet Christ’s imperatives upon us. Perhaps the clearest instances in the New Testament of accountability to each other concern violations of these imperatives. Both the teachings of Jesus and the counsels of the writers to the churches clearly ask us to call those to account who sin against us or against others. A clear procedure to follow is found in Mt 18. Here the purpose is to bring the erring one to repentance and to restore fellowship. The first step is for the persons offended to talk privately with the offender. Then, if necessary, one or two friends should help in restoring the relationship, or the whole community may need to be involved. In the Sermon on the Mount Christ reminds us to take the initiative if someone has something against us. Only after restoring the hurt relationship can we present our gift at God’s altar (Matt. 5:23-24).
The sin referred to in Gal. 6 is not necessarily against someone in the fellowship, but rather any sort of fault or trespass. Here again, the purpose is restoration, and the “spiritual” ones who are to “restore” the person are cautioned to do it “in a spirit of gentleness,” with the further counsel: “Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted” (v. 1 RSV).
Both in Matt. 18 and in the case of discipline about which Paul writes to the Corinthians, the body of believers is authorized and even urged to remove from them the member who will not repent of his or her sin. This separation, however , seems to be for the purpose of helping to bring the person to repentance, since Paul admonishes the believers “not to labor the point,” for the penalty has “met the offence well enough. Something very different is called for now: you must forgive the offender and put heart into him; the man’s sorrow must not be made so severe as to overwhelm him” (2 Cor. 2:5.7 NEB).
Our responsibility includes praying for others who depart from the truth. As John points out, “If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life” (1 John 5:16 NIV).
As members of Christ’s body, we need to take seriously the admonition to settle internal disputes within our own community rather than suing the offender in a law court. Paul even suggests: “To have lawsuits at all with one another is defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?” (1 Cor 6:7 RSV) Richard Foster is again helpful in suggesting not to turn this example “into a new law that binds rather than liberates.” He explains, “There may well be times when going to court is the right and good thing to do… Paul was not giving a law but setting forth a perception into exactly how we can prefer one another in love (Romans 12:10).” [Ibid. p.48]
Conclusion
In conclusion, let us turn to a few suggestions about how we might hold each other accountable. The main emphasis in this paper has been on the spiritual basis of accountability and the practical areas in which it needs to operate. The structures for accomplishing that are the topic of another paper but a few possibilities that are not necessarily new may be worth considering here.
If in our local meetings we define those essential areas of commitment and accountability that we are willing to accept and practice faithfully, we will be in a better position to explain these to prospective members. Then both they and we can decide whether our fellowship is the right one for them. This should not be done legalistically, nor can we expect either ourselves or new members to adhere perfectly to what we see as desirable. But we should make clear to each other how we seek to grow as we are led by the Spirit.
The New Testament counsels already referred to suggest that renewed concern to be faithful under the leading of the Spirit in helping people discover and exercise their gifts, in encouraging them when they do minister, and reproving them when they err, would increase accountability among us. Continued creative use of Queries and Advices could also be an aid in self-examination.
Scripture implies that accountability may work best in groups small enough to share intimately with each other. Persons would then be more able to answer to each other both in encouragement and counsel. I say “implies” because I do not find any clear descriptions or accounts of just how this may have worked in the early church. Although many were joined together after Pentecost, their “breaking bread in their homes” suggests rather small groups. There are also several references to a church in someone’s house (see Romans 16:5, Col. 4:15, and Philemon 2).
Such small group settings facilitate some of the activities mentioned in the New Testament which would be most helpful to genuine fellowship and accountability. For example, mutual responsibility in worship is suggested when Paul writes: “When you hold meetings, one of you may sing a song of praise, another teach a lesson. Another may reveal the truth that God gave him. Another may speak in a strange language, and another may explain its meaning. Whatever you do in the service, always aim to build up the members of the church” (1 Cor. 14:26, Laubach). Or again: “Be rich in the words of Christ. Let them live in you. Teach and guide others in wisdom. Sing psalms and hymns and songs of the spirit. Thank God with all your hearts, Whatever you say or do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, and give thanks to God your Father through Him.” (Coloss. 3:16, Laubach). Teaching and guiding one another could happen best in small enough groups to facilitate interaction. James’ counsel, “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed,” would seem to be carried out best in a small group which has developed a high degree of mutual affection and trust (James 5:16 RSV).
If we accept as fact that small groups provide a good dynamic for mutual responsibility and accountability, our meetings might either remain small, forming new meetings when the old ones become too large for intimate sharing, or we might consider setting up small meetings or groups within the larger meeting.
The Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C. has actually done both things. Although small groups for prayer and sharing have helped many Friends meetings, the Church of the Saviour has gone further. A particular mission or ministry is the basis around which the small groups are organized. Thus each group shares a common call to a particular mission. This method has the advantage of bringing together people not necessarily homogeneous and also involving them in more of the functions important in the body of Christ, such as worship, sharing, exercising gifts, and ministering both to each other and to those not in the fellowship. The body analogy does suggest such close coordination and working together as only a small group makes possible. It also permits multiple functions, analogous to those a physical body performs.
By whatever structures we seek to carry out our responsibility and accountability to one another, we do well to ponder often and practice faithfully this counsel of Paul: Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the
peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. (Coloss. 3:12-15 RSV)
This paper was first published in Quaker Religious Thought: Vol. 61, Article 4, in 1985. The article may be downloaded at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/qrt/vol61/iss1/4
Gratitude to George Fox University and Quaker Theological Discussion Group for making articles in Quaker Religious Thought available via Christianity Commons.