George Fox the Younger: an early Quaker conservative?
Quakerism is conventionally viewed as a politically radical movement at its foundations. This thesis has been challenged recently, but the problem remains that early Quakers provided little justification for a politics comfortable with established social and political hierarchies. This article propo...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Quaker studies
Year: 2024, Volume: 29, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-21 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CG Christianity and Politics KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KBF British Isles KDG Free church |
| Further subjects: | B
Quakerism
B Theology B Restoration B English Revolution B Political thought B English Civil Wars |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Quakerism is conventionally viewed as a politically radical movement at its foundations. This thesis has been challenged recently, but the problem remains that early Quakers provided little justification for a politics comfortable with established social and political hierarchies. This article proposes that early Quakerism’s ‘incoherence’, a feature which intellectual historians are often alert to within political texts and movements, was patched up by the efforts of George Fox the Younger (d.1661), a previously little studied Friend. Scholars have often discounted or misinterpreted Fox’s work, but it can provide a key to understanding political boundaries which the movement respected in practice. This essay establishes his thought’s representative quality, despite the relative singularity of his voice. This may provide a hermeneutic for other studies of Quakerism and intellectual history; and some reflections upon Fox’s abiding normative importance are made. |
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| ISSN: | 2397-1770 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Quaker studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.16995/quaker.16585 |
