quakerism

Nontheist Center at the 2025 FGC Online Gathering

While preparation for Nontheist Center activities at the online Gathering was a bit challenging, as were some technical glitches during the week, overall it was fairly successful. We ranged from 5 – 17 participants in each of the afternoon sessions, and the content was well received, at least from the responses we were given.

Reviews of Publications on Quaker Nontheism in the 2010s

Contents: Introduction Review #1: Patrick Nugent’s homework assignments Introduction: For a general introduction, see the document on this website with reviews from the 1960s. There is also a list of publications on Quaker nontheism on this website. It does not include letters, editorials, book reviews or internet blog postings (an exception was made for two … Read more

Reviews of Publications on Quaker Nontheism in the 1960s

Contents: Introduction Review #1: Claire Walker and the Questing Quakers Review #2: Larry Miller’s review of Honest to God Review #3: Toward a Quaker view of theology Review #4: Dan Seeger and nontheist conscientious objection Review #5: Carol Murphy Review #6: Bradford Smith Review #7: Joseph Havens Review #8: Scott Crom Introduction: Learning about the … Read more

What Next for Quaker Nontheism?

Minute and Epistle of the gathering of nontheist Friends at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, Britain, Feb 18-20 2011 “There are nontheist Friends… Friends who might be called agnostics, atheists, sceptics, but would nevertheless describe themselves as reverent seekers.”   So began the report of the first formal workshop for nontheist Friends, held in New York State … Read more

Doctrinally Open Membership in the Religious Society of Friends

Doctrinally open membership is becoming more accepted by Friends.  What is this method of arriving at membership decisions?  How does it affect other areas of Quaker life and what does this imply for the future of the Religious Society of Friends? The Method Consider a typical Friends meeting.  Members gather in silent worship.  They cooperate … Read more

One nontheist’s understanding of “the light” of Quakerism

To seek to live in the light is essentially a value, a principle of living, rather than a belief. We need no theology, nor even a particular conception of “the light” as a distinct quality, in order to seek to live by it. Perhaps it would help me to clarify my point, if I described my own quirky, incomplete, and mostly psychological sense of where “the light” comes from

Intellect and Spirituality

…I don’t mean that everyone should engage in or care about this kind of intellectual wrestling, and I certainly don’t mean that our worship should become intellectual debate or performance–yuck. But the widespread fear of and distaste for intellect, as if the search for understanding could possibly be a bad thing, does not serve us well…

Nontheism Among Friends at Powell House, January 2-4, 2009

One person attended because of the laughter from the nontheism workshop at the Friends General Conference Gathering. Another came because a fellow Meeting member who attended in 2007 was so impressed. A third signed up because he questioned whether Quakers could be nontheist. A teenager brought her dad.

Zach Alexander (Cambridge MM, NEYM) and I, co-leaders for this weekend, met for the first time at the 2008 FGC Gathering, 5 minutes before we were scheduled to facilitate an interest group together. The interest group went well, and we agreed to pair up again.

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