I have come to believe that Quakerism may have been the rebirth of Gnosticism in
its modern incarnation. Gnostics have/had an amazingly tolerate view of other
faith traditions saying that the current existence is an illusion (sounds
Buddhistic to me), but that we can reconnect with God (Christian), which is the
Great Light (Pagan), as we all carry the spark of the Divine (Pantheism) within
us. Some older Gnostics postulated about the existence of lesser divine entities
(Hinduism) but still more modern ones see those as archetypes (modern Jungian
psychology) of that struggle which goes on inside each of us (a jihad as Muslims
call it) as the Inner Divine seeks to awaken (Buddhist) to the Light (Pagan and
Pantheist).

I hope that made sense.

Greg

George Amoss <g_amoss@...> wrote:
From my reading of early Quaker material, it seems to me that there was
no question that Jesus was the Christ and that the Christ was God. But
neither was there any question that those who were born into the life
of the Spirit by submitting to the Light's inward leading became
members of Christ and therefore partook of the nature of God (hence
their perfection). Fox argued those points forcefully. For example, in
The Great Mystery he asserts, "Doth not the apostle say, the saints
were made partakers of the divine nature?" (See the Historical Material
section of my Quaker Electronic Archive -- http://www.quakerarchive.org
-- for selections from The Great Mystery and other early writings.) The
universalism of early Quakerism was based on the belief that the Seed
or Light of Christ is in everyone, and that therefore anyone who turns
inward and submits to the guidance of the Light can be reborn as part
of the one divine, spiritual "body" of Christ -- "to be of his flesh
and bone."

That's how our tradition began; I feel strongly that we need to
acknowledge, understand, and respect those beginnings if we want to
retain the heart of Quakerism as we help guide its evolution. The
language may be strange to us, but the core truth of being lifted up,
transformed, and joined together in love is something we know from
experience.

George Amoss

--- Barbara Birch <birchcarl@...> wrote:
> When I read the original testimonies of early Friends, I find that
> many of them resisted making clear statements of belief about Jesus
> and the Christ. It seems to me that they were trying to walk a fine
> line between outright heresy and openly admitting doubts about Jesus
> as divine. Their statements seem very vague and opaque, almost
> intended to say one thing and mean another. Many, of course,
> suffered greatly for their expression of their beliefs.
....


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com


---------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links

To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quf/

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
quf-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]