My Little Gnudren,
Wisdom hopefully comes with age, as does dribbling in the beard and many other delightful eventualities of being gnuman or human. Old Gnu has been much obsessed with his physical ailments recently. He has turned to the internet to do some self-diagnosis. There you find an array of people who have found miraculous solutions for your ailments, and they preach their newly discovered gospel of a wonder food or substance that will put an end to your ills. The one thing that they don’t take into account is that we are all different and what works for them and others may not work for all.
The same thing has been true of our communal religious (and to a certain extent political) ailments. Old Gnu must not believe that the intense spiritual illumination and holiness he has attained of late – Mrs. Gnu is coughing loudly in the background – is the way everybody finds The Almighty.
In Britain in the 16th and early 17th centuries (Henry VIII, Edward VI, (Bloody)Mary), Protestants and Catholics were burning, murdering and beating the hell out of each other. Following the lead of Mr. Scripture-Alone-Martin-Luther, the Puritans were bashing at the Authority of the Church, Tradition, Pope with the Authority of the Bible. It was very convenient that the King wanted to bash the Authority of the Church and Pope at the same time because he wanted to marry his next wife. He also wanted the enormous wealth of the Monasteries; they thought the Pope and Church’s authority would protect them. And so those who used the Bible to bash others got the slightly upper hand in Britain with the help of a King. God moves in a mysterious way indeed! The Authority of the Church was bashed into reasonable subjection. The King not the Pope became head of the Church – just what Paul would have prescribed if he had time to write a third letter to the Corinthians. But the Bible Brandishers alas found, to their disgruntlement, that they were called on to do more bashing some decades later.
Because along came a man who said neither the Church nor the Bible were the absolute authority. His name was George Fox. He said the [Holy] Spirit who illumined the scriptures to our minds and hearts was the prime authority.
Incidentally Mr. Fox did not invent Quaker Oats despite similarities in appearance. Anyone can dress up like a Quaker if they choose to. Once Prince Harry dressed up as a Nazi, but we all know he’s not a Nazi nor a Quaker for that matter, as far as Old Gnu can tell.
Mr. Fox was a ‘Friend’ and other Friends (not in the manner of Facebook) joined him. So they called themselves “The Religious Society of Friends”. However, they were given the derogatory name of Quakers. Mr. Fox himself says that this was because he told people that they should tremble at the word of the Lord….see the film “Cold Comfort Farm” for an example of probably non-Quaker quaking. Some Quakers in America became known as Shakers because they took quaking one step further. But much of their shaking looks like dancing to old Gnu:
A brilliantly clear and coherent statement of Quaker thinking emerged in 1676 when Mr. Robert Barclay apologised:
His Apology significantly influenced the King – James II. Mr. Robert Barclay looked like this:
And is not to be confused with Mr. Henry Purcell who looked like this:
Neither is he a thinner version of Mr. George Handel who looked like this:
They must have all gone to the same Barber.
Anyway, at a time when the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh [James Ussher] stated the world was created in precisely 4004BC – a view sufficiently “canonized” as to be included in the margin of the King James AV from 1701 onwards – Mr. Barclay voiced the opinion of the Quakers: A correct understanding of the Bible was centrally important. As opposed to a literal and proof text approach there was a comparing of texts and an attempt to understand the situation in which the texts were written. The Bible was not dictated verbatim and had inevitable errors in some details in transmission. Martin Luther had emphasised the authority of “scripture alone”, and the Catholic wing of the Church “Tradition and Scripture”. Robert Barclay underlined the primacy of the Holy Spirit: it is the Spirit who reveals to us both the Word and the Son. Christ himself was the Word and not the Scriptures. [Read John 3, seems to be what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus about the work of the Spirit].
Well old Gnu reminds you of what Jesus said: “By their fruits you shall know them.” [We tend to think, “By their Doctrines you shall know them”.] And the Quakers have produced much fruit. They gave us Cadbury’s and Fry’s Chocolate, Rowntree Sweets, Barclays Bank, Lloyds Bank, Friends Providents and C & J Clarke the Shoemakers. At least all lovers of Cadbury’s Chocolate will say a loud “Amen” to Jesus words.
The Quakers did not resort to any kind of violence. They were against slavery more than a century before The Abolitionists arrived. They anticipated the direction of academic study of the Bible by 200 years. They believed in the equality of women and men, and practised it in their religious affairs and family life. We’re getting round to this bit in the 21st Century. And, most impressively, they did not believe in murdering their religious opponents. We haven’t quite mastered this one yet.
Yes, they had a few loony figures but so has the Anglican Church – [old Gnu was a vicar once.] So put your hands together and let’s hear it for the Quakers!
[You can find what Robert Barclay said about the Bible if you go to www.qhpress.org and enter ‘The Third Proposition’. Read point I, II & III before you dismiss it out of hand.]
Vetus Pater Gnu
Amans in Cadburis Chocolatum
Academiae Musicorum et Theologia
Turris LA
III Mensis Mai MMXXI