Through the Flaming Sword
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Exploring Quaker spirituality, history, faith & practice. Through the Flaming Sword, is venue for conversation about the history and future of the Religious Society of Friends, popularly known as Quakers.
Through the Flaming Sword
1d ago
I’ve been reading “Accusations of Blasphemy in English Anti-Quaker Polemic, c. 1660–1701,” by David Manning, from Quaker Studies 14/1 (2009) [27–56]. The article focuses on polemical charges of blasphemy against early Quakers based primarily on early Friends’ theology of the light within as anti-Trinitarian and on a claim that Quakers were identifying themselves with God ..read more
Through the Flaming Sword
1d ago
Usually, when we’re asked to hold someone in the light, it’s in the midst of some other situation, very often just after meeting for worship, and we devote no real time or attention to the practice. This is why I feel it’s mostly an outward form whose only value is the shared sympathy it evokes ..read more
Through the Flaming Sword
6d ago
In my last post, I questioned whether holding someone in the light does more than jusst make the people who do it feel better. But I do think it could do more; I think it could sometimes actually project healing energy to the recipient. I have seen this work. But it needs more shaping than ..read more
Through the Flaming Sword
1w ago
In the largely post-Christian liberal Quaker milieu that is my religious home, the most common form of “prayer” is “holding someone in the light.” In this practice, we are not asking God or Christ or some other spirit to do something. We are projecting a grace-conferring energy. Does it confer any blessing on the recipient—does ..read more
Through the Flaming Sword
1w ago
I’ve just finished reading “Aspects of 17th Century Quaker Rhetoric,” by Richard Bauman, published in The Quarterly Journal of Speech*, and learned some great stuff about early Quaker rhetoric. By “rhetoric,” Bauman means “the art of persuasion,” in in Quaker terms, the art of convincement. Bauman lays out four explanations and justifications early Friends gave ..read more
Through the Flaming Sword
1w ago
We have already partially segued from relaxation into prayer with the affirmations I outlined in the previous post. But I say the affirmations for myself to myself; I do not address them to a divine presence in the way that prayer is normally understood. But I do pray in the way we normally understand it ..read more
Through the Flaming Sword
1M ago
We are a kind of do-it-yourself religion, in that we do not have paid religious professionals. So the job of knowing and passing on our tradition comes down to us. If we wanted to become find players of the cello, we would seek out good teachers, study music theory, and practice, practice, practice. Likewise, to ..read more
Through the Flaming Sword
1M ago
When we strive to be Spirit-led in our vocal ministry, what do we mean by that? What, or who, is the Spirit by which we hope to be led? For centuries, the Quaker answer to that question has been pretty straightforward: it is Jesus Christ who gathers us in worship and who leads us in ..read more
Through the Flaming Sword
2M ago
Another passage from Theodore Parker’s essay “A Discourse of the Transient and Permanent in Christianity” (1841). In this excerpt he makes a case against the infallibility of scripture and a more radical case against the authority of Jesus as revealer as opposed to the truth of the revealed. But the current notions respecting the infallible ..read more
Through the Flaming Sword
2M ago
This is a long post—lots of ground to cover. So here’s a brief outline: Introduction I subscribe to an email newsletter of Academia, a site that aggregates academic articles, and I’ve set a filter for Quaker articles. I get stuff I want to read regularly—can’t keep up with it. Today, I got “Quakers and Non/Theism ..read more