Reflections on Rufus M. Jones Quaker Giant of the Twentieth Century

Reflections on Rufiis M. Jones Quaker Giant ofthe Twentieth Century By Wilmer A. Cooper* Rufus Jones was one ofthe religious and spiritual giants ofthe twentieth century. He was a beloved and respected Friend (both large "F" and small "f') by Quakers and a multitude of others around the world. He was a scholar, writer, lecturer, professor of philosophy, a mystic, visionary, humanitarian, peacemaker, and reconciler. There were those who did not always agree with him, but growing out ofhis Socratic-Platonic orientation he was able to dialogue with and engage them in positive and constructive ways. Very little happened ofsignificance during Rufus Jones's lifetime in the Religious Society ofFriends onwhichhe didnot leave his mark. I have often said and written that if we were to select a half dozen most influential Quakers in our 350-year history, Rufus Jones would be the one to represent the twentieth century. In 1956 1 completed my doctoral dissertation atVanderbiltUniversity on "Rufus M. Jones and the Contemporary Quaker View of Man." (Now, I would make the title more gender-friendly by substituting "Human Nature" for "Man.") The last year of Rufus Jones's life I was a T. Wistar Brown Fellow atHaverford College working onmyM. A. inPhilosophy. I also had memorable contacts withRufus over a dozenyearsbefore the lastyear ofhis life at Haverford in 1948. Myfirstobservance ofRufus Joneswas in 1940 attheFiveYears Meeting of Friends (now Friends United Meeting) at Richmond, Indiana. As a freshman at Wilmington College in Ohio I went to the FYM sessions held in the large meetinghouse on East Main Street in Richmond. The seventyseven year old Rufus Jones was giving one ofhis many addresses to FYM Friends. In front of the meetinghouse I saw him trying to cross the street, probably to take his lunch at a restaurant where Friends were gathering. He made it across but I was concerned that he might be struck by an auto at that busy intersection. A couple of years later I met Rufus Jones personally. As World War II approached, my Draft Board at Wilmington, Ohio assigned me CO. Status (conscientious objector to war) and sent me offto a Civilian Public Service Camp (CPS) under the care ofSelective Service and the American Friends Service Committee. Soon after my arrival, Rufus Jones came to visit our * Wilmer A. Cooper, retired from Earlham College, is the author of, among others, A Living Faith: An Historical and Comparative Study of Quaker Beliefs and Growing Up Plain Among Conservative Wilburite Quakers: The Journey of a Public Friend. 26Quaker History camp at Buck Creek, NC, where I had a briefbut memorable conversation with him. He remembered my Uncle Cyrus Cooper who was a recorded minister of the Conservative branch of Friends. Rufus told me of an encounter with Uncle Cyrus, who apparently told Rufus at the end of a session ofPhiladelphia Yearly Meeting (where RMJ had spoken), "Rufus, thee thinks too much!" (i.e., he thought Rufus was not spiritual enough). This was a typical reaction of Conservative Friends, who did not feel comfortable with Rufus Jones and the more progressive Philadelphia Friends. About the same time, 1900-03, seven members of the Cooper family migrated from Philadelphia to the Conservative Ohio Yearly Meeting at Barnesville, Ohio. There they found greater unity with Friends and soonmarried into these Friends' families, settling around Salem, Damascus, and Middleton, Ohio—ninety miles north of Barnesville. My third memory of Rufus Jones was in 1 946 when I came back to Wilmington College after four years in CPS during the war. There he was giving the Trueblood Lectures. I still have the green folder with his picture announcing his nine lectures given at the college in the mornings and Wilmington Friends Meeting in the evenings. In his opening lecture at the college, Rufus caught our attention by stating that he had spoken in more college and university chapels than anyone else in America, save John R. Mott. I can still visualize his winning radiance and enthusiasm as he rose to speak! In the next several years I had an opportunity to see and hear Rufus Jones when after CPS I worked briefly forthe AFSC in Philadelphia. Butthe main opportunity came when Emily...