Heaven on Earth: Quakers and the Second Coming 2018
by Ben Pink Dandelion (Author), Timothy Peat (Author), Douglas Gwyn (Author)
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Central to the faith of early Friends was the present sense of the Second Coming of Christ and the bringing of heaven on earth. Friends around the world may still be able to unite around this vision of a transformed society but how and when heaven will be fully realized are questions which have underpinned three centuries of change and division. This book looks again at the letters of Paul, the experience of early Friends, and the history of Quakerism through the lens of the Second Coming and draws radical new connections which the authors believe have the potential to give Friend and others a clarity about the Quaker tradition and the power to offer a key component in the revitalisation of Quaker faith.
288 pages
13 July 2018
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James Gordon
5.0 out of 5 stars Never more relevantReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 18 September 2021
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I write as a Quaker (convinced) who left the Society in 1999, unaware: (a) that there had for much of that decade been courses run at Woodbrooke, the Quaker college in Birmingham Selly Oak, precisely on Quakers and their evolving attitude to the Second Coming (b) that, unknown to me, a book about these had been published, back in 1998. Though my main reason was that I needed to explore spirituality outside the Society, I was unhappy with Friends' apparent indifference on what to me was an absolutely key aspect of Christian belief, and indeed life, the promise of Christ's return at the end of time, initiating a new age, a new Heaven and a new Earth.
This excellent book's being republished in 2018 was timely enough, but I think most would agree it is even more so given the way things have developed in the three years since the republication.
Not only is this an abiding concern of at least a minority of Friends now, but it was such a major concern at the start of our movement in the mid-17th century, that in the early part of the Commonwealth the Society was actually known to its members as 'The Lamb's War'. Friends saw themselves as Christ's agents. It hardly mattered whether or when he came on the clouds (though it was always expected sooner than has actually happened). All changed with events in 1656, when the Society of Friends began to be known by such a name, and thenceforward organised itself as a church alongside other churches, as The Society of Friends in the Truth. During the eighteenth century Quakers became inward-looking in more than just the doctrinal sense, broadened in the nineteenth (also dividing into different groupings), and in the twentieth (especially in England) became predominantly so eclectic as to welcome even a quite substantial number of seekers from other faiths and indeed none; perhaps one-third of the Woodbrooke intake could even describe themselves as atheist or agnostic.
All of these are assertions (based on sound research - the three authors are all reputed academics) made in the book itself. It gives a very good historical account of the origins of the Society as a prophetic movement which, like other extreme dissenters of the time, believed in the promise of Christ's Coming, though they somewhat differed on its timing. They also always saw it as at least in part metaphorical, that the promises of the Lord's return (parousia) were to be interpreted inwardly, spiritually. We should be 'perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect' quite irrespective of whether the events leading up to the Last Judgement are to come tomorrow, or at some later date, or even strictly at all.
All that said, I was struck by how little mention there is of the signs that Jesus clearly told us to look out for, and which are apparent in our time in a way, and to an extent, that they have not been in the centuries since his ministry. (The discussion of prophecy of the Parousia in the book is almost entirely drawn from Paul's Letters, on which it is illuminating and helpful). Jesus tells us (Mark 13.23) to keep our eyes open ("see, I have foretold it all to you.") Later he warns us "keep awake" and specifies that he is talking to all of us (yes, all) not just the disciples he was addressing at the time (13.37). Us.
In the years since Peat, Gwyn and Dandelion compiled this definitive work, the signs have become more glaring with every year that has passed. The end of the age between Christ's two comings is now alarmingly easily identified as our own, far more so than the age in which early Friends operated, extremely much more so than when the Apostles did; even if wars and rumours of wars, floods, plagues, earthquakes and so on have always been part of human experience, they are surely particularly so today, when, so far as we can see, we are approaching actual extinction as a species.
COVID-19 has itself revealed itself as one of these possible signs, with my own Meeting no longer meeting as Friends have met for three and a half centuries; even when adversaries had burnt their Meeting House down, in the depths of their sufferings, under serious persecution (by other Christians!), they came and worshipped together on the rubble.
Not today. Today Friends find themselves falling out over such issues as whether or not masks should be worn, and have divided over how to meet, if at all, or what notice we should take of government 'advice', or even direction. Some of us await normality to return. Others resort to Zoom, or to open air gatherings, some to small groups in each other's houses.
In this context, it is I think instructive for Friends today to read of aspects of our history, many of which I was myself unaware of, even though I first discovered Friends fifty years ago, and have been for much of that time (not all) in full membership of it. It is perhaps now time for Friends to redouble, if not rediscover their earlier zeal to change the world, to be themselves the agents of the change that Christ, the Apostles, and the early Friends also taught and practised.
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Peter
5.0 out of 5 stars Very readableReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 9 September 2019
Verified Purchase
Excellent book. To find out more about Quakers.
Report abuse
Top reviews
James Gordon
5.0 out of 5 stars Never more relevantReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 18 September 2021
Verified Purchase
I write as a Quaker (convinced) who left the Society in 1999, unaware: (a) that there had for much of that decade been courses run at Woodbrooke, the Quaker college in Birmingham Selly Oak, precisely on Quakers and their evolving attitude to the Second Coming (b) that, unknown to me, a book about these had been published, back in 1998. Though my main reason was that I needed to explore spirituality outside the Society, I was unhappy with Friends' apparent indifference on what to me was an absolutely key aspect of Christian belief, and indeed life, the promise of Christ's return at the end of time, initiating a new age, a new Heaven and a new Earth.
This excellent book's being republished in 2018 was timely enough, but I think most would agree it is even more so given the way things have developed in the three years since the republication.
Not only is this an abiding concern of at least a minority of Friends now, but it was such a major concern at the start of our movement in the mid-17th century, that in the early part of the Commonwealth the Society was actually known to its members as 'The Lamb's War'. Friends saw themselves as Christ's agents. It hardly mattered whether or when he came on the clouds (though it was always expected sooner than has actually happened). All changed with events in 1656, when the Society of Friends began to be known by such a name, and thenceforward organised itself as a church alongside other churches, as The Society of Friends in the Truth. During the eighteenth century Quakers became inward-looking in more than just the doctrinal sense, broadened in the nineteenth (also dividing into different groupings), and in the twentieth (especially in England) became predominantly so eclectic as to welcome even a quite substantial number of seekers from other faiths and indeed none; perhaps one-third of the Woodbrooke intake could even describe themselves as atheist or agnostic.
All of these are assertions (based on sound research - the three authors are all reputed academics) made in the book itself. It gives a very good historical account of the origins of the Society as a prophetic movement which, like other extreme dissenters of the time, believed in the promise of Christ's Coming, though they somewhat differed on its timing. They also always saw it as at least in part metaphorical, that the promises of the Lord's return (parousia) were to be interpreted inwardly, spiritually. We should be 'perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect' quite irrespective of whether the events leading up to the Last Judgement are to come tomorrow, or at some later date, or even strictly at all.
All that said, I was struck by how little mention there is of the signs that Jesus clearly told us to look out for, and which are apparent in our time in a way, and to an extent, that they have not been in the centuries since his ministry. (The discussion of prophecy of the Parousia in the book is almost entirely drawn from Paul's Letters, on which it is illuminating and helpful). Jesus tells us (Mark 13.23) to keep our eyes open ("see, I have foretold it all to you.") Later he warns us "keep awake" and specifies that he is talking to all of us (yes, all) not just the disciples he was addressing at the time (13.37). Us.
In the years since Peat, Gwyn and Dandelion compiled this definitive work, the signs have become more glaring with every year that has passed. The end of the age between Christ's two comings is now alarmingly easily identified as our own, far more so than the age in which early Friends operated, extremely much more so than when the Apostles did; even if wars and rumours of wars, floods, plagues, earthquakes and so on have always been part of human experience, they are surely particularly so today, when, so far as we can see, we are approaching actual extinction as a species.
COVID-19 has itself revealed itself as one of these possible signs, with my own Meeting no longer meeting as Friends have met for three and a half centuries; even when adversaries had burnt their Meeting House down, in the depths of their sufferings, under serious persecution (by other Christians!), they came and worshipped together on the rubble.
Not today. Today Friends find themselves falling out over such issues as whether or not masks should be worn, and have divided over how to meet, if at all, or what notice we should take of government 'advice', or even direction. Some of us await normality to return. Others resort to Zoom, or to open air gatherings, some to small groups in each other's houses.
In this context, it is I think instructive for Friends today to read of aspects of our history, many of which I was myself unaware of, even though I first discovered Friends fifty years ago, and have been for much of that time (not all) in full membership of it. It is perhaps now time for Friends to redouble, if not rediscover their earlier zeal to change the world, to be themselves the agents of the change that Christ, the Apostles, and the early Friends also taught and practised.
Read less
One person found this helpfulReport abuse
Peter
5.0 out of 5 stars Very readableReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 9 September 2019
Verified Purchase
Excellent book. To find out more about Quakers.
Report abuse
