The Kingdom of God, Quakers, and the Politics of Compassion
Gerard Guiton
The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies
Edited by Stephen W. Angell and Ben Pink Dandelion
Print Publication Date: Sep 2013Subject: Religion, ChristianityOnline Publication Date: Dec 2013DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199608676.013.0143
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In This Article
The kingdom: a biblical exegesis
Compassion as Revolutionary Politics
The early Quakers’ kingdom hermeneutic
Francis Howgill
George Fox
Isaac Penington
Present-day Quaker orthopraxis of the kingdom
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Suggested Further Reading
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Abstract and Keywords
The early Quakers’ principle focus was the Kingdom of God as it was for Jesus, their inspiration. They gave the Kingdom many names including the ‘Covenant of Peace’. Like Jesus, it was something for which they were prepared to suffer, even die.
This chapter is divided into three sections.
- The first offers a brief biblical exegesis of the Kingdom and delineates Jesus’ subversive politics of compassion in twelve points to which the Friends adhered.
- It then investigates the Quakers’ hermeneutic of the Covenant, focusing on the work of Francis Howgill, George Fox, and Isaac Penington.
- Finally, the Covenant’s unconditionality to time and space allows us to understand its urgent validity for all ages and places, something the chapterhighlights through some key testimonies of Friends of the modern era as they have embodied the politics of compassion.
Keywords: Kingdom of God, Covenant of Peace, Sermon on the Mount, politics, compassion, unconditionality, orthopraxis, testimonies
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Gerard Guiton
Gerard Guiton is the author of The Early Quakers and the ‘Kingdom of God’ (Inner Light, 2012) and The Growth and Development of Quaker Testimony (Edwin Mellen, 2005).
He co-edited Overcoming Violence in Asia: The Role of the Church in Seeking Cultures of Peace (2009) for the Historic Peace Churches and World Council of Churches. Gerard is a spiritual director in private practice, a peace activist, a workshop leader and a regular contributor to Quaker journals and newsletters worldwide. He is a member of Australia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.
