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62Quaker History Quakers in Britain, a Century of Change, 1895-1995. By Alastair Heron. Kelso, Scotland: Curlew Graphics, 1995. xiii + 184 pp. Glossary, bibliography. £7.50 A Sociological Analysis ofthe Theology ofQuakers: The SilentRevolution . By Pink Dandelion. Lewiston, Edward Mellen Press, 1996 (Studies in Religion and Society Vol. 34). xxxiv + 41 7 pp. Appendices, glossary, index, bibliography. $109.95. American Friends are often in awe and ignorance of British Quakers. A balance of these two studies of their beliefs from scholars of divergent views, with John Ormerod Greenwood 's three volumes onQuakerEncounters in relief service and missions, may cover 20th century Friends in Britain, "the mother of Yearly Meetings." Alastair Heron begins from the Manchester Conference of 1 895, when young Quaker leaders such as J. W. Rowntree, W. C. Braithwaite, and Edward Worsdell introduced Friends to the new world of historical Bible study and liberal doctrines, and planned toward Woodbrooke College and the Swarthmore lectures. Heron covers compactly the First World War (when 279 out of 1 1 00 British Quaker CO's were imprisoned, and War Victims relief evolved into the feeding and rebuilding of Europe), the interwar years (when Friends supported unemployed miners and ceased recording Ministers), and the Second War, when Heron himself became a Friend through CO service in the London "blitz" and European relief. He sees the "Brave New World" of 1946-69 in terms of the Friends World Conference of 1952, the 1959-65 revision of the Discipline, the booklet Towards a Quaker View ofSex ( 1 963), and through careful analysis of the Swarthmore Lectures by Harold Loukes, Hugh Doncaster, Richenda Scott, and John MacMurray, he sees as a key turning point Kathleen Slack's, which showed that Friends had made diversity of belief about Christ and the Bible desirable in an "open society." Heron's theme for 1969-94 (half his book) is thus "the search for a new identity." Key events were the 1 978 merging of the old Peace, Service, Education and other central Committees into four Departments; the two Swarthmore lectures by George Gorman ("The Amazing Fact of Quaker Worship," 1973) and Janet Scott ("What Canst Thou Say," 1980); Martin Davie's thesis in response about Friends' "Increasing reluctance to be definite"; the Young Friends' challenge for responsible investments; and the first of American-style residential yearly meeting sessions in 1993. But Heron says (p. 99), "British Quakers welcomed the opportunity to be comfortable, and to enjoy an uneventful yearly meeting." Membership in London (since 1994, Britain) Yearly Meeting is static at 17,000, attendees enroll slowly. Heron concludes with a series of searching queries in his role as prophet, Book Reviews63 reminding us (pp. 150, 163) that "we are a part of the people of God," and "our deepest need is to . . . re-discover what it means to 'wait upon God,' confident that God will inspire, guide and enable us." The same issues underlie Ben Pink Dandelion's just published doctoral thesis in the Sociology ofReligion for the University ofBrighton. It centers on 692 responses to his Questionnaire (in his Appendix) sent in 1990 to members in all British Meetings (Heron had done a similar survey of Yorkshire Friends) and 1 39 to a shorter one given out to four non-Quaker church groups and to a class he taught. He has statistically analyzed his returns in terms of age, gender, rural vs. urban and large vs. small Meetings, and length of membership or attending worship. Dandelion obtained the Clerks' consent and attended many local meetings and Meeting for Sufferings as a leader of Young Friends and his own Meeting (he is now Quakerism tutor at Woodbrooke). He discusses in methodological chapters the assets and drawbacks this double role created for his survey. His Questionnaire was unbiased and skilful, with some specific and some openended questions. He offered multiple-choice answers, e.g. to why Quaker beliefs are not creedal, and subsequent interviews. His statistics show that less than half of British Friends can describe God clearly, affirm traditional Christian doctrine, give central or unique authority to Christ or the Bible, or call themselves Christian. His analysis describes a "Quaker double-culture" which combines liberalism about belief with...

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