First Among Friends: George Fox and the Creation of Quakerism (review)

Book Reviews Edited by Thomas D. Hamm First Among Friends: George Fox and the Creation ofQuakerism. By H. Larry Ingle. New York & Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994. ix + 265 pp. oftext plus 142 pp. of notes, bibliography and index. $45.00. To those ofyouholding comfortable or idealized visions oftheperson andwork ofGeorge Fox, you had better "fasten your seatbelts" as you begin to peruse Larry Ingle's book, for there is "turbulence ahead." This "biography" of the "First Friend" is a brilliant, amazing and instructive study ofthe man, George Fox, warts and all! The main thesis of the book traces the conflict between the "radical individualism " which George Fox preached and promoted between 1647 and 1660 and Fox's call for group discipline, unity and control to assure the "institutional survival" ofthe Quaker movement during the period ofdivisiveness and persecution which Friends endured 1660-1689. The fact that "The Religious Society of Friends" is the only radical religious reform group from Commonwealth England to survive to the present day, is proof to Ingle of Fox's "essential genius" and despiteFox'sunsystematic"trial-and-errorway"Fox"wasabletomuddlethrough" and founded an institution which has survived (p. 285). One comes away from reading this book with the sense that Larry Ingle holds a reluctant and somewhat grudging admiration for George Fox and his accomplishments. One wonders whether it is fair to analyze Fox, his message and his movement on the basis ofthe "Post 18th Century Enlightenment" categories of"individualism " versus "institutionalism." As a George Fox scholar myself, I question the fairness or validity ofthis analysis. One wonders also, with Ingle's portrayal ofFox andhis numerous shortcomings, why upwards of50,000 people would be gathered into Gospel fellowship and obedience by the preaching of such a "difficult person"? Ingle marshalls many helpful historic and sociological evidences fortheir being gathered; but the joy early Friends knew in looking at one another in astonishment at the realization ofthe Kingdom ofGod come in their midst, is rarely found in Ingle's narrative. A major concern of Larry Ingle is to flesh out and correct the "moderate and sanitized" picture ofGeorge Fox as portrayedby Thomas Elwood's careful editing of Fox's Journal of 1694. Larry Ingle proceeds to describe the teenage Fox as "a little prig" (p. 18), as a "gnostic" (p. 1 12), as vehement and illogical (p. 205), as "self-righteous" (p. 226), as "ill educated and rough hewn" (p. 245) and as acting in an authoritarian manner (p. 256). Since this writer has often said that George Fox was "quarried ofprophetic flint," and since I admire the "rough hewn" power of the biblical prophets and since I consider dear George Fox to be one ofthem, I am not troubled by these "so-called" flaws in Fox's character. However earthy the vessel, the great thing about Fox was the power of God shining through the man and his message. Like the prophet, Moses, before him, one sees the man's flaws in the perspective of the great things God accomplished through his words and deeds. I share two sentences from Fox's Epistle No. 227 written in 1663, a time of severe persecution of early Friends. We read: Sing and rejoice you children ofthe Day and ofthe Light. For the Lord is at work in this thick night ofdarkness that may [be] felt, Truth does flourish as therose,the lillies do grow among the thorns, theplants a-top ofthe hills, and upon them the lambs do skip and play. 60Quaker History Never heed the tempests, nor the storms, floods or rains, for the Seed, Christ, is overall and does reign. (T. Canby Jones, ed., ThePoweroftheLord is Over All: The Pastoral Letters ofGeorge Fox, p. 185) These sentences exude the joy, hope and confidence in the power of God so characteristic ofGeorge Fox. On wishes for much more ofthis emphasis in Larry Ingle's biography. Larry Ingle does understand and correctly portray the basic elements of Fox's message. Good examples of this are found on pages 42-43, 74, 78 and 111. For instance, on page 78 Ingle says: Fox's early theological message consisted ofabout equal (and tangled) parts ofapocalyptic warnings about the Day ofJudgment...