r/Quakers
PostsWikiJoin Discord server
8
Posted by
u/trailblazer687
1 year ago
Quakers and Salvation
Is there a general consensus on what Quaker believe in terms of salvation amd the after life?
4 Comments
------
91% Upvoted
This thread is archived
New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast
SORT BYBEST
level 1
lordofkullab
1 year ago
With the caveat that this is looking back several hundred years in a way that might make it of purely historical interest, rather than illuminating the current situation, on the topic of salvation there are some very interesting writings by early Quakers, cf William Penn:
“The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout souls are everywhere of one religion; and when death has taken off the mask they will know one another, though the divers liveries they wear here makes them strangers. This world is a form; our bodies are forms; and no visible acts of devotion can be without forms. But yet the less form in religion the better, since God is a Spirit; for the more mental our worship, the more adequate to the nature of God; the more silent, the more suitable to the language of a Spirit.” (https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/19-28/)
Also Barclay’s third apology (http://www.qhpress.org/texts/barclay/apology/prop3.html) which argues (I reckon sensibly) that even those who have never had the chance to hear or read scripture have the opportunity of salvation via the holy spirit; which I read as arguing against the Protestant doctrine of salvation by faith alone, not back in the direction of the Catholic salvation by works, but as a further logical conclusion of the Protestant step away from it: that one can be saved not by faith in Christian scripture, but by the grace of God which every person has access to by virtue of being human, and the capability of inner reflection and access to that of God in every person.
9
Give Award
ShareReportSave
level 1
macoafi
Quaker (Convergent)1 year ago
Nope.
Evangelical types probably believe Evangalical-ish stuff.
The others...you'll probably find a lot of theories about it all, followed by a lot of "but what really matters is this life, so eh, I don't worry about it too hard."
5
Give Award
ShareReportSave
level 1
IndigoBoot
1 year ago
No, not to my knowledge.
4
Give Award
ShareReportSave
level 1
TechbearSeattle
1 year ago
While never expressed as such, many early Quaker writers seemed to be Christian univeralists: Jesus died for our sins, humanity is redeemed, and all we have to do now for salvation is not squander this gift.
This stands in stark contrast to the Calvinist Doctrine of the Elect, which says that everyone is going to Hell except for the few that God has made righteous,
and to the more common Protestant doctrine that we must buy our salvation through obedience.
In my experience (granted, mostly in the liberal stream of the Society of Friends), this remains the general sense: we are saved, so let's focus on other agenda items like manifesting Christ in our daily lives.
(Christian universalism is distinct from theological universalism, which holds that all expressions of the divine, in every religion and culture, are equally valid.)
2
Give Award
ShareReportSave
(Christian universalism is distinct from theological universalism, which holds that all expressions of the divine, in every religion and culture, are equally valid.)
2
Give Award
ShareReportSave
