Chuck Fager

This provocative collection of papers from the Quaker Theology Roundtable 1995 will spark discussion, thought and controversy. The essays take on such topics as Quakerism and witchcraft, Friends' role in the launching of capitalism, Quakers and ecofeminism, new ways of naming God in the 21st century, learning from Black theology, and several new slants on the place and meaning of Christ, among others. This Roundtable gave an exciting new forum to both seasoned scholars and fresh new voices show more among Friends. show less

Who and what shapes modern American liberal Quakerism? What kind of theology does it have, and where did it come from? These questions have yet to be probed by historians, and have been ignored by the Quaker bodies that are its heirs. This book opens the way toward their understanding. These essays report on pioneering research which points, as the title of one notes, "beyond the age of amnesia" among liberal Friends. With wit as well as scholarship, Chuck Fager blazes new paths toward a show more better understanding of the past of this vital religious movement, and a more informed and intentional shaping of its promising future.. show less

The Progressive Quakers were the radical seed of activist American religion in much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Emerging in the decades before the Civil War, the movement included pioneer crusaders for abolition and women’s rights. They challenged authoritarianism in churches and questioned many traditional dogmas. They stood for applying reason to doctrine, the Bible and theology; yet they were also welcoming to the burgeoning spiritualist movement. They also shaped the show more contemporary liberal stream of the Quaker religious movement. Beginning as a band of pacifists, some agonized over the Civil War, while others joined up to end slavery and rebellion. In the post-Civil War decades, through the first “Gilded Age,” they addressed modern imperialism and militarism. The shaped modern liberal Quakerism, even as their separate identity faded. show less

The June 2017 Quaker History Roundtable noted that not much study has yet been done on the 20th century among Quakers – although a LOT went on: wars, peace movements, chronic conflicts over doctrine and practice; insurgencies by women, persons of color and LGBTQs are all underway, and far from settled.