A Dream of Peace: Edward Hicks of Newtown, and: Edward Hicks: A Peaceable Season (review)

64QUAKER HISTORY era of hard work and "making do," which is past for many people. Some of these lessons may have to be relearned in the new age of scarcity. George Fox CollegeArthur O. Roberts Early Quaker Christology by Maurice A. Creasey. Manasquan, N.J.: Catholic and Quaker Studies. $7.50 (postpaid) . The aim of this doctoral dissertation, presented in 1956, is to show that the Quaker doctrine of the inner light is a Christological rather than an anthropological doctrine. This is established from the writings of several early Friends. Certainly one of the clearest expressions is that of George Bishop in 1665 which is quoted on p. 25: "So that when we speak of die Seed, we speak of Christ, and mean Christ die Seed . . . And when we speak of die Light which is within, we mean Christ, the light of the World. For it is the same thing though under different appellations, because of its effects In view of Creasey's aim stated above it is puzzling to have the author end his dissertation with a doctrine of the Holy Spirit rather than a Christology . This leads him to conclude that early Quakerism belongs to Bishop Newbegin's "third stream of Christian tradition," which is neither Catholic nor Protestant, but Pentecostal. Nevertheless this is a study in great depth of early Quaker Christology. It merits careful reading by all who are concerned to know how the early Friends saw dieir central doctrine. GermantownJohn H. Curtis A Dream of Peace: Edward Hicks of Newtown. By Edna S. Pullinger. Philadelphia: Dorrance & Company, 1973. 96 pages. $3.95. Edward Hicks: A Peaceable Season. Introduced by Eleanore Price Mather. Princeton: The Pyne Press, 1973. 60 pages. $4.95. Amid the proliferation of Quaker journals are numerous observations and commentaries on the social ills and religious problems which stirred the Quaker in response to "the voice of eternal truth." Rarely, however, does a Friend refer in his writings to the decorative art objects or the fine arts which surround him—items taken for granted as long as diey were serviceable and "of the best sort but plain." Until die mid 19th century, paintings were considered "superfluities" and not consistent with the Society's "Testimony of Simplicity" in much the same vein as card playing, the dieater, excessive drinking, and tombstones. Thus one would not expect to find "the most extraordinary painter to spring up from die nation's grass roots" to be a Quaker minister from Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, named Edward Hicks. Certain of Hicks' contemporaries felt it was incongruous that art emanated from a member of the Society of Friends, particularly from a respected minister. Even today, while Hicks' Peaceable Kingdoms are the "acknowledged masterpieces of American Primitive Art," they are seldom viewed as an extension of a Quaker's public ministry. The artist's idealized dream of peace on earth as envisioned by Isaiah was established in America, Hicks felt, by William Penn in his Treaty with the Indians. For Hicks diis oldfashioned virtue seemed to have been forgotten amid the violence and riots BOOK REVIEWS65 of the Jacksonian era with the clouds of impending Civil War approaching. Penn's Treaty was to be exalted as the ideal condition where the animal instinct for conflict yielded to reason and trust thereby establishing the ideal peace which Hicks wanted for all mankind if diey would but follow Penn's example. All of this background combined widi the agrarian Quaker culture which nurtured this vision seems to be stripped away today when Hicks' art is studied. Thus it is refreshing to be reminded that nodiing is created in a vacuum. Not since Alice Ford's eminent biography Edward Hicks (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952), now long out of print, has a book been published devoted to the historical background and imagery of Hicks' canvasses. Simply and directly presented, Edna S. Pullinger's A Dream of Peace fills a need. Hicks' own observations are used to put his life and art in perspective by which understanding of, and appreciation for, diis sensitive Quaker and his work can be gained by anyone, from casual observer to serious student. From die "grass roots" to...