Quaker Journals: Varieties of Religious Experience Among Friends

An essential overview and survey of Quaker journals, a central literary form of Friends' transmission of their experience with Spirit in their lives.

Because Quakerism is primarily a religion of inward personal experience rather than creed or ritual, the religious autobiography, usually called a journal, is its most characteristic form of writing. Journals were written as a witness that might be helpful to future generations. In this volume, Brinton applies the collective approach of William James (in Varieties of Religious Experience) to Quaker journals over the centuries to define the various stages of religious progress which the Journalists recorded. Out of this study emerges a consistency of pattern which serves as a sort of hallmark of these very personal journeys into Truth.

Because Quakerism is primarily a religion of inward personal experience rather than creed or ritual, the religious autobiography, usually called a journal, is its most characteristic form of writing. Journals were written as a witness that might be helpful to future generations. In this volume, Brinton applies the collective approach of William James (in Varieties of Religious Experience) to Quaker journals over the centuries to define the various stages of religious progress which the Journalists recorded. Out of this study emerges a consistency of pattern which serves as a sort of hallmark of these very personal journeys into Truth.

Because Quakerism is primarily a religion based on inner personal experience rather than creed or ritual'' writes Brinton, the religious autobiography or Journal has been the most characteristic form of Quaker writing and for three centuries have recorded the well-spring of Quaker Conscience.

Through studying the journals of prominent Quakers--particularly those of the 17th and 18th centuries, Brinton uncovers a recognisable and consistent pattern that serves as a hallmark to these very personal journeys into Truth.

SEE ALSO 'FINDINGS' by Jack Wallis (16A)