Writings

We will be posting here a number of writings that are helpful for deepening one’s own personal spiritual formation or for use in spiritual formation and adult religious education classes and workshops. Some of these may already be posted in other sections of this site but will also be linked to from here. We welcome recommendations, particularly if you have these in .pdf or Word document format and are reasonably certain the material is either out of copyright or is all right to post on an educational website like this one. Email Peter Blood for suggestions or feedback.

First Friends (17th-century writings)

Robert Barclay

• Barclay in Brief is a Pendle Hill Pamphlet by Eleanor Price Mather that is a heavily edited version of Barclay’s Apology for the True Christian Divinity. The Table of Contents includes links to each of the full original 15 propositions on Quaker Heritage Press website.
• Biblical Roots of Quaker Worship describes in detail how Friends’ early beliefs & practices were rooted in their understanding of scripture in the 10th Proposition of Barclay’s Apology “Concerning Worship”.

Margaret Fell

• Women’s Speaking Justified
• Testimony of Margaret Fell concerning Her Late Husband, George Fox

George Fox

• This I Knew Experimentally is an excerpt from Fox’s Journal describing when he first heard Christ’s voice in his heart
• Journal of George Fox (Nickalls ed.)

Francis Howgill

• Francis Howgill’s Testimony : the preface to Edward Burrough’s Works describing the early days of the Quaker movement in the 1650’s

James Nayler

• Selections from the Writings of James Nayler, ed. by Brian Drayton (Note: the following two pieces are taken from the collection above.)
• Not to strive but to overcome by suffering is an excerpt from his 9th Epistle relating to the inner dimensions The Lamb’s War.
• The Lamb’s War against the man of sin
• The Works of James Nayler, ed. by Lisa Kuenning (on Quaker Heritage Press)

William Penn

• Primitive Christianity Revived, ed. in modern English by Paul Buckley
• The Diverse Dispensations of God to Men, written as a preface to The Journal of George Fox

Isaac Pennington

• The Inward Journey of Isaac Penington — a greatly abbreviated collection of Penington’s writings, edited by Robert J. Leach. Pendle Hill Pamphlet #29 published in 1943.
• Some Directions to the Panting Soul contains the often-quoted admonition to “Give over thine own willing…”
• Our life is love & peace & tenderness…

Middle Period Friends (18th & 19th centuries)

Samuel Bownas (1676-1753) was an English traveling minister

• A Description of the Qualifications Necessary to a Gospel Minister is the best-known classic Quaker writing aimed at nurturing the gifts of those carrying a call to vocal ministry to bring people to life in Christ. This is the 1989 edition with modern punctuation and usage and includes an in-depth introduction by Bill Taber.
• An Account of the Life & Travels of Samuel Bownas

John Woolman (1772-75) was an American Quaker who labored long against Friends being enslavers of African Americans. He also wrote and spoke about how greed and overconsumption harm the poor, encourage warmaking, and damage God’s creation.

• A Plea for the Poor (or A Word of Remembrance & Caution to the Rich)
• On Worship by John Woolman is a 1950 collection of Woolman’s writings on the subject edited by Herrymon Maurer
• Mysticism & Activism: Learning from John Woolman is the 2002 Michener Lecture by Michael Birkel that describes Woolman’s vision of Quaker social concern & action.

20th-century writings

Lewis Benson (1906-86) was a Quaker scholar of George Fox who helped to re-establish a uniquely Quaker understanding of Christianity.

• • A Universal Christian Faith (originally entitled Catholic Quakerism: A Vision for All Men—1966)
  • A Revolutionary Gospel (1974)
  • On Being Moved by the Spirit to Minister in Public Worship (1979)

Elise Boulding

• Children and Solitude(Pendle Hill pamphlet, 1962)
• God’s Ordinaries (Friends Journal article, 1992)
• The Roots of Peace in Conflict (Wider Quaker Fellowship pamphlet, 1995)

Kenneth Boulding—a world-renowned economist, pioneer of peace research, and deeply Christ-centered Friend (1910-93)

• There Is a Spirit: The Nayler Sonnets written in the war years 1939-43, inspired by the deathbed testimony of James Nayler.
• The Practice of the Love of God—the William Penn Lecture to Philadelphia YM (Orthodox) in 1942.
• The Veracity of Outwardness, a Friends Journal article in 1977 on the value of a careful validation of truth using rigorous methods.

Howard Brinton was director of Pendle Hill from 1936-52.

• Sources of the Quaker Peace Testimony (PH Pamphlet #27 in 1941.
• Social Testimonies (an excerpt from Guide to Quaker Practice, 1943, an early source of what is now referred to as “SPICES”)
• Prophetic Ministry (PH Pamphlet #54, 1950)
• Reaching Decision: The Quaker Method (PH Pamphlet #65, 1952)

Edward Grubb was an English Quaker who earlier opposed adoption of the Richmond Declaration of Faith by London YM. He delivered this 1914 Swarthmore Lecture to London YM on the subject of The Historic & Inward Christ.

Cecil Hinshaw was a pastor in Iowa YM (FUM). He was president of William Penn College from 1944-48 gathering together many young Quakers coming from Civilian Public Service camps and prisons for refusing the draft.

• Nonviolent Resistance: A Nation’s Way to Peace (1956)
• An Apology for Perfection (1964) describes how First Friends’ fundamental religious principles were built on the possibility of social transformation through faithfulness to God’s guidance.

Thomas Kelly is a major figure in 20th-century Christian devotional literature. His most well-known work is Testament of Devotion.

• The Simplification of Life given as the William Penn Lecture to Philadelphia YM (Orthodox) in 1938.
• The Gathered Meeting written in 1940.

Leonard S. Kenworthy has written many books on Quaker history and practice. Here are first 4 chapters from his book Quakerism: A Study Guide on the Religious Society of Friends (1st published 1981, now out of print). As of 1982 he was a member of Brooklyn Monthly Meeting in New York.

• Quakerism is the Seventeenth Century:: George Fox & the Early Friends
• Quakerism in the Eighteenth Century:: Consolidation, Cultural Creativeness, and Conservatism
• Quakerism in the Nineteenth Century: Dividing Our Inheritance and Promoting Quaker Concerns
• Quakerism in the Twentieth Century: Expansion, Service, and the Search for Identity

Lucy Fryer Morland

• The New Social Outlook is the 1918 Swarthmore Lecture to London YM. The lecture is devoted to a history of Friends’ work of charity for the poor and calls on Friends to shift to empowering the poor and working people to fundamental social transformation to end the root causes of poverty and economic injustice.

Mildred Binns Young was raised in Ohio YM and an active member of Philadelphia YM. She wrote five Pendle Hill pamphlets with a special concern for radical simplicity/voluntary poverty. She and her husband Wilmer Young worked for fifteen years for AFSC with sharecroppers in the South.

• Functional Poverty (1939)
• Another Will Gird You: A Message to the Society of Friends (1960)
• The Candle, the Lantern, the Daylight. Reflections on her experience of using the written prayers of others in her spiritual journey (1961)

Wilmer Young

• Visible Witness: A Testimony for Radical Peace Action (1961)

21st-century writings

Paul Buckley is a Quaker historian & theologian well-known to Friends of all stripes through his workshops, courses, and writings. He lives in Richmond, Indiana.

• Primitive Quakerism Revived outlines in detail Buckley’s call to Friends today to find our way as a faith community today by returning to our roots as a world-transforming movement — like the one that burst forth in England in the 1650s.
• Primitive Christianity Revived is Buckley’s translation into modern English of Wm Penn’s 17th c. classic work that views the Quaker movement as a return to 1st century Christianity.
• Beyond Abolition: Elias Hicks’ Five Points of True Restorative Racial Justice from the Friends Journal January 2023 issue on Quakers & Reparations.

Brian Drayton is a member of Souhegan Meeting in New England YM. He blogs at Amor Vincat (“May Love Have the Victory”).

• An Historical Note on Recording Gifts in the Meeting was originally published in The New England Friend in 2000
• Why Climate Change Theology Matters in the Real World (a blogpost written in 2000)
• Climate Change: A Spiritual Challenge (a letter written to New England Friends in 2011)
• Becoming a Witnessing Body (a 2nd letter to Friends written in 2012)

Doug Gwyn is a Quaker historian, theologian, and retired pastor. Here is a list of many of his books and pamphlets.

• Revolutionary Witness: Learning from the Lamb’s War of the 1650’s is a talk given in 2007 to the Spiritual Formation Program of Quaker Peacebuilder Camp.

Quaker Bookstores

• QuakerBooks is the book service of Friends General Conference in Philadelphia.
• Pendle Hill Publications publishes many books and pamphlets in addition to their quarterly Pendle Hill Pamphlets series. They have both an online and in person bookstore.
  Note: See the List of Pendle Hill Pamphlets available in this online library.
• Friends United Press is the publication arm of Friends United Meeting.
• Barclay Press comes out of Newberg, Oregon. Publishing since 1959.
• Quaker Book Shop of Britain Yearly Meeting has both a physical bookshop and online store based in London.
• Inner Light Books has a growing important collection of publications by leading Quaker authors of today including Marcelle Martin, Elaine Emily, Brian Drayton, Paul Buckley, and Lloyd Lee Lewis among many others – as well as new editions of some early Quaker works.
• Quaker Heritage Press has extensive publications of early Quaker writings including the original Barclay Apology and the collected works of James Nayler, Isaac Penington, and Job Scott among others. Most of these works are available to read online.

Libraries

• Quaker Religious Education Collaborative has a large and growing online resource library of resources for both children and adults
• The Quaker Collection of Haverford College Library includes the records of Orthodox YMs in North America.
• Friends Historical Collection of Swarthmore College includes the records of Hicksite YMs in North America.
• Friends Collection of Earlham College Library includes the records of Guerneyite YMs.
• Digital Quaker Collection is a huge online collection of early Quaker writings. Unfortunately, the software is rather old and searches are difficult.
• Quaker Bible Index is another valuable resource under Earlham’s wings. You can use it to find early Quaker writings that cite a particular biblical passage and vice versa.
• Friends Library of Britain YM is located in Friends House in London.