Derek Guiton

The Quaker movement in Britain is beset with problems - growing secularisation, incompatible belief systems, ideology as a substitute for faith. Add to these the emergence of theologically-based 'special interest' groups with their own sectarian agendas and campaigning methods and we have a genuine existential crisis on our hands. A Man that Looks on Glass analyses and questions the thinking that has led to this situation. It challenges the supposed inevitability of the 'Godless' strand in British Quakerism and calls for a renewed emphasis on transcendence. It ends with a positive look at a Quaker mystical theism based on individual and corporate religious experience. (Good Reads review)… (meer)

The Quaker movement in Britain is beset with problems — growing secularisation, incompatible belief systems, ideology as a substitute for faith. Add to these the emergence of theologically-based ‘special interest’ groups with their own sectarian agendas and campaigning methods and we have a genuine existential crisis on our hands. A Man that Looks on Glass (the title is from a poem by a seventeenth century poet) analyses and questions the thinking that has led to this situation. It challenges the supposed inevitability of the ‘Godless’ strand in British Quakerism and calls for a renewed emphasis on transcendence. It ends with a positive look at a Quaker mystical theism based on individual and corporate religious experience.… (meer)