News
Plans are being developed for the 2025 Conference of the Quaker Studies Research Association.
The theme will be Quakers and the Spirit
Quakers have tended to use the term “Holy Spirit” interchangeably with the “Inward Light” as a way of speaking about the continued presence of the living Christ guiding and directing their lives both individually and corporately. More recently, Liberal Friends have perhaps tended to drop “Holy Spirit” in favour of “Inward Light”, while Orthodox Friends have neglected the language of the Light Within while continuing to use “Holy Spirit”. In keeping with the suspicion of theological “notions”, speculation about the third person of the Trinity, as the Holy Spirit is usually understood in other Christian traditions, has been avoided in favour of emphasising the lived experience of the Godhead that can empower a prophetic voice.
In reflecting on “Quakers and the Holy Spirit”, we might consider the meaning of the Light of Christ within, George Fox’s claim that there is “that of God in everyone”, the basis for discerning the will of God, the experience of meeting for worship, the ways in which Trinitarian thought may or may not be evident in Quaker discourse, and the nature of prophecy.
The formal call for papers will go out in October with proposals due for submission in January.
The theme will be Quakers and the Spirit
Quakers have tended to use the term “Holy Spirit” interchangeably with the “Inward Light” as a way of speaking about the continued presence of the living Christ guiding and directing their lives both individually and corporately. More recently, Liberal Friends have perhaps tended to drop “Holy Spirit” in favour of “Inward Light”, while Orthodox Friends have neglected the language of the Light Within while continuing to use “Holy Spirit”. In keeping with the suspicion of theological “notions”, speculation about the third person of the Trinity, as the Holy Spirit is usually understood in other Christian traditions, has been avoided in favour of emphasising the lived experience of the Godhead that can empower a prophetic voice.
In reflecting on “Quakers and the Holy Spirit”, we might consider the meaning of the Light of Christ within, George Fox’s claim that there is “that of God in everyone”, the basis for discerning the will of God, the experience of meeting for worship, the ways in which Trinitarian thought may or may not be evident in Quaker discourse, and the nature of prophecy.
The formal call for papers will go out in October with proposals due for submission in January.
Quaker Studies is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary.
Quaker Studies feeds into and from theology, history, philosophy, politics, sociology, anthropology, womens studies, peace studies, literary studies and cultural studies. The Quaker Studies Research Association (QSRA), formed in 1992 and with an international membership, is the umbrella organisation for all those studying, teaching, researching or connected with research into one of the areas of Quaker Studies. With the Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies at Woodbrooke, the QSRA holds an annual conference, hosts the George Richardson Lecture, and oversees the David Adshead Scholarship for new postgraduates. There the fully-refereed journal, Quaker Studies, is published by Open Library of Humanities twice a year. All journal subscribers are automatically members of QSRA: you can join by subscribing to the journal HERE.