Walking in the Way of Peace: Quaker Pacifism in the Seventeenth CenturyThis book investigates the historical context, meaning, and expression of early Quaker pacifism in England and its colonies. Weddle focuses primarily on one historical moment--King Philip's War, which broke out in 1675 between English settlers and Indians in New England. Among the settlers were Quakers, adherents of the movement that had gathered by 1652 out of the religious and social turmoil of the English Civil War. King Philip's War confronted the New England Quakers with the practical need to define the parameters of their peace testimony --to test their principles and to choose how they would respond to violence. The Quaker governors of Rhode Island, for example, had to reconcile their beliefs with the need to provide for the common defense. Others had to reconcile their peace principles with such concerns as seeking refuge in garrisons, collecting taxes for war, carrying guns for self-defense as they worked in the fields, and serving in the militia. Indeed, Weddle has uncovered records of many Quakers engaged in or abetting acts of violence, thus debunking the traditional historiography of Quakers as saintly pacifists. Weddle shows that Quaker pacifism existed as a doctrinal position before the 1660 crackdown on religious sectarians, but that it was a radical theological position rather than a pragmatic strategy. She thus convincingly refutes the Marxist argument that Quakers acted from economic and political, and not religious motives. She examines in detail how the Quakers' theology worked--how, for example, their interpretation of certain biblical passages affected their politics--and traces the evolution of the concept of pacifism from a doctrine that was essentially about protecting the state of one's own soul to one concerned with the consequences of violence to other human beings. |
Contents
3 | |
13 | |
NEW ENGLAND | 75 |
WAR | 141 |
Appendix 1 The 1660 Declaration | 234 |
Appendix 2 The 1673 Exemption | 238 |
Appendix 3 The Rhode Island Testimony | 242 |
Problems of Historical Interpretation | 245 |
Notes | 255 |
Bibliography | 309 |
Index | 341 |
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Walking in the Way of Peace: Quaker Pacifism in the Seventeenth Century Meredith Baldwin Weddle No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
Aquidneck Aquidneck Island arms assembly Bartlett behavior Boston called Quakers Captain carnal weapons Carter Brown Library Christ Christopher Holder conscience council Court early Quakers enemies England Yearly Meeting English example Exemption fight Fox's garrison George Fox God's Governor hath House Library Ibid Indians individual Island Historical Society Jesus John Carter Brown John Easton Josiah Winslow killed King Philip's King Philip's War Kingdom letter London Lord Manuscripts Margaret Fell marriage Massachusetts Men's Minutes microfilm military militia Monthly Meeting Narragansett Newport NEYM Collection Nicholas Easton non-Quaker nonviolence pacifist peace principles peace testimony persecution person Plymouth Plymouth Colony political Providence Quaker belief Quaker History Quaker pacifism quoted refused religious Rhode Island Colony Rhode Island government Rhode Island Historical Rhode Island Quakers Richard RIHS Roger Williams Sandwich scripture soldiers spirit suffering sword Thomas tion town Truth United Colonies violence Wampanoags warr William Coddington Winslow Winthrop wrote York
Popular passages
Page 22 - Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you...
Page 48 - Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels ? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
Page 47 - For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ...
Page 263 - Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. 11 Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath : the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
Page 307 - Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
Page 302 - And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a mill stone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.
Page 289 - Ye lust, and have not ; ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain ; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not ; ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Page 318 - An apology for the true Christian divinity as the same is held forth and preached by the people called in scorn Quakers...