Quaker Voices in the 21st Century

Kenneth was special to AYM as he gave the first Backhouse Lecture, The Evolutionary Potential of Quakerism at the inaugural AYM in 1964. He was an economist/scientist/poet and husband of Elise, who gave our 1996 Backhouse Our Children, Our Partners – a new vision for social action in the 21st century.p1 The scientific history of the Universe can largely be written in terms of three great concepts – equilibrium, entropy and evolution… All equilibrium states are temporary. Otherwise there would be no history…a nation or a religious society has its origins in some creation of social potential. As its history unfurls this potential is used up and unless it can be renewed the organisation likewise matures, ages and dies…p7 There is however another process at work in the Universe which is creative rather than destructive, which builds up rather then tears down, which makes for diversity rather than uniformity and for the complexity of structure rather than for the simplicity of chaos…p8 It is the combination of mutation and selection which gives rise to the evolutionary process and which permits the realisation of evolutionary potential…p9 With the development of the human nervous system an apparatus was devised which could learn, that is carry on an evolutionary process within itself…p12 …The Quaker mutation is purely a mutation from the Christian phylum, not from the phylum of Buddhism or Islam. It is a mutation furthermore, from Western, indeed English, Protestant, Puritan Christianity. Some Friends who conceive of Quakerism as embodying a universal and absolutely valid truth may not find this statement attractive, but its historic truth can hardly be denied.p13 …The gulf that divides Quakers from those most like them, who were undoubtedly Baptists, is much larger than that which divides Baptists from the Congregationalists or Independents. The magnitude of the Quaker mutation alone makes it of an unusual historical interest. It represented a change from existing beliefs and practices in a considerable number of important religious and cultural elements. The first one of these, and I think the most important, although historians differ on this point, is that the Quakers were perfectionists. (George Fox) claimed that he was bought not only into the innocent state of Adam before the fall, but into the state of Jesus Christ which should never fall…p14 A second very important strand in the Quaker mutation might be called “experimentalism”. This is the insistence on first-hand experience.p15 …It is a matter of some debate…as to whether experimentalism implies mysticism… Traditional mysticism however, which emphasises ecstatic states…is very different from the characteristic Quaker experiences although it has some superficial characteristics. The object of Quaker meditation is not so much to achieve union with the divine as to receive instructions from the divine, and very practical instructions at that.p20 Quakers played a disproportionate role in the rise of modern science and technology and in the so-called industrial revolution in England in the eighteenth century…this was not unrelated to the religious characteristics of the Society of Friends, and that indeed science and modern technology would be unlikely to develop outside of a society in which the ideals of perfectionism and experimentalism were present.P21 …it is a constant source of spiritual difficulty to the sensitive Quaker perfectionist to realise that many of his opportunities and successes arise because he takes advantage of social situations which he not only did not create but of which he does not approve. The geographic spread even of a religion as gentle as Quakerism is not unconnected with the fact that it has been embedded in a highly aggressive and militaristic culture… I think Quakerism is an example of a mutation which was in a sense premature before its time.P23 ..I argue that it is precisely in religious experience that one finds the evolutionary potential that looks forwards to the ultimate future of man…It is the drive within him that looks beyond this that has real evolutionary potential. This is why I think that religion will not pass away as we move from civilised to post-civilised society but will become immensely strengthened and enriched… It is not impossible for a new religious mutation to arise out of Quakerism. If it did so I doubt if this new wine could be contained in the old bottles. I suspect therefore that Quakerism will have to remain, perhaps somewhat uneasily, within the fold of Christianity… One likes to think of Friends also as specialising in dialogue with other religions or non-religions and a constantly tending to open windows which people intent upon coziness tend to shut.Edited and collated by Katherine Purnell 15.2.07