Hello everyone -
Apologies for being tardy with bringing this thread to a close – a bit of a cliff hanger eh? Well I’ve had a lot on recently of a taxing personal nature and I thought I needed a rest from writing too much about religious persecution (getting a bit bogged down I reckon). So I’ll just leave this one in the air for a little longer (although I think you can guess where it’s heading – and its almost cooked).
Note that I’m actually doing something very relevant to this discussion on another thread at the moment - namely the new thread on the Quakers which is in the ‘Church’ section. I’ve mostly held my peace about the Quakers until now, although I have seen a couple of threads in which questions about them were asked. However, I feel my knowledge - for what it’s worth - is needed to clear up a few of the myths and misperceptions that I’ve seen written about the Quakers on this site, all good errors made in good faith and without partisan malice I might add. I think we have much to learn from historic Quakerism – and so when invited I had to pile in.
Also the thread is helping me clear my mind of other issues that I was going to put on a supplementary thread here -which would have meant that they would probably would not have been looked at by many - namely the dialectic between Christian Radical Universalism and Establishment universalism in the History of the English and America Churches (and yes that is a bit of a pompous mouthful that I’ve just given voice to; sorry Friends!). This topic has already come up here regarding ‘The Family of Love’. It would come up again on the Athanasian Creed thread – but I think it’s best for me to deal with it separately given the current interest (and this will make the Athanasian thread a lot simpler and more focussed. The topics I hope to look at on the Quaker thread of relevance to the Ecclesiology thread will emerge -
When I look at of the history of the later radical English Universalist sects - the Levellers, the Diggers, and the Quakers, and of the slightly barmy Philadelphians,
When I look at the lone passionate voice of the heterodox - but still well worth listening to - English visionary William Blake who is part of the radical Universalist tradition.
When I look at the influence of the Wesleyan Holiness movement on later English Universalism. This is rooted in Wesley’s theology of ‘sanctification in which he drew upon the Universalist Greek fathers – Clement Origen and Gregory Nyssa – for inspiration. In America the Wesleyan Holiness movement gave birth to Pentecostalism and a revisit of Wesley’s Holiness theology may be of interest to Charismatic’s who are also universalists (I’m thinking of Sherman here if he reads this – and I’ve already written the post if you want a sneak preview) IN Britain when allied with some of the English Evangelical Quakers who still revered some of the older Quaker traditions (and they were only a minority at the time) the Wesleyan Holiness movement inspired the pre-Keswick Broadlands Universalist conferences which included George MacDonald, Andrew Jukes and Hannah Whitall Smith as participants.
When I look at the High Tory Anglican Universalist William Law – a High Tory Non-Juror not normally associated with Universalism - whose influence was immense across boundaries; his Universalist writings were treasured by the eighteenth century Quakers, by William Bake, and by the Broadlands Conference. The Tentmakers site makes much of his influence on the Wesley brothers and on Henry Venn of the Clapham sect. However this is only a partial truth (which wrongly implies that Universalism inspired all three). William Law wrote a book early in his career entitled ‘A Serious Call to the Devout Life’ – that certainly did inspire the fathers of the Evangelical Revival. However, this is not a Universalist text and was written before Law read Jacob Boehme and was persuaded, like others before him had been, to take Boehme’s thinking in a Universalist direction (although Boehme himself was not a Universalist). The Serious Call is beautifully written –as is everything that Law wrote because he was a great English stylist. It also has some memorable and witty caricatures like that of ‘Mr Mundanus’ the worldly fuss body. But it is a bleak book that focuses on rejecting all worldliness and all fun and merriment, applying oneself solely to the seriousness of duty. Indeed reading it seems to have increased poor Dr Johnsons’ melancholy tenfold. However, of course it appealed to the Wesley brothers and to Henry Venn. And for a time William Law acted as a sort of soul friend to the young and anxious Wesley brothers. However, in the end young John Wesley broke off with old William acrimoniously for he thought him to be not sound on justification through faith alone. In later life Wesley as a mellowed old man who had begun to believe in a wider hope – set very wide actually – if not in universalism per se, expressed the view that even though William Law was not ‘sound’ on justification doctine as a formula he was none the less justified through Christ. But the books that influenced the universalists were actually Law’s later Boehme inspired writings ‘The Spirit of Prayer’, ‘The Spirit of Love’, and the ‘Address to the Anglican Clergy’ written when he was close to death and was no longer afraid of coming out explicitly as a Universalist.
Thanks for your patience and do catch up with me on the Quaker thread if you have time and inclination.
All the best
Dick