I will be posting information about our Quaker History Reading Group in the blog.  We will be reading the first eight chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies.  I propose that we break the readings into three parts:

Session 1:  Introduction, Chapter 1: Seventeenth-century Context and Quaker Beginnings, Chapter 2: Restoration Quakerism.

This session will focus on the origins of the Quaker movement and its organization into a religious sect.  I can provide extra readings from George Fox’s Journal and perhaps some Isaac Pennington.

Session 2: Chapter 3: Quietist Quakerism, Chapter 4: Hicksite, Orthodox, and Evangelical Quakerism

This session will focus on the trans-Atlantic Quaker culture of the 18th century and the diversification of Quakerism in the 19th century.  I can provide some additional readings from John Woolman’s Journal and maybe some letters from Lucretia Mott.

Session 3: Chapter 5: Modernist and Liberal Quakers, Chapter 6: Five Year’s Meeting and Friends United Meeting, Chapter 7: Evangelical Quakers, Chapter 8: Conservative Friends

This session will explore the different branches of Quakerism.  We may learn about the rise of Quakerism in the Southern and Eastern Hemispheres and look at the current controversies within the Society of Friends.

If you are interested in meeting with us, send an email to me, Ben Frisch at bfrisch@friendsseminary.org and I will send you a Doodle Poll.