The Liturgies of Quakerism

The Liturgies of Quakerism explores the nature of liturgy within a form of worship based in silence. Tracing the original seventeenth century Quakers' understanding of the 'liturgy of silence', and what for them replaced the outward forms used in other parts of Christianity, this book explains how early Quaker understandings of 'time', 'history', and 'apocalyptic' led to an inward liturgical form. The practices and understanding of twenty-first century Liberal Quakers are explored, showing that these contemporary Quakers maintain the same kind of liturgical form as their ancestors and yet understand it in a very different way. Breaking new ground in the study of Quaker liturgy, this book contrasts the two periods and looks at some of the consequences for the study of liturgy in general, and Quakerism in particular. It also explores evangelical Quaker understandings of liturgy.

Contents: Foreword; Introduction; The end of time and the beginning of Quakerism; The liturgy of silence; In the world but not of it; Different confessions, different liturgies; Present-day practice; The means to experience; Reading liberal silence: new intimacies and the end of time; Bibliography; Index.

Programmes Leader, Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies, Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre and the University of Birmingham. He is also Editor, Quaker Studies, and Convenor, Quaker Studies Research Association