The Quaker Story (review)

Book Reviews The Quaker Story. By Sidney Lucas. Foreword by C. E. M. Joad. New York : Harper & Brothers in association with Pendle Hill. 1949. 144 pages. $1.75. C IDNEY LUCAS has succeeded admirably in writing a short history of Quakerism—in some respects a more difficult task than to write a long one. Following, in the main, the methods and conclusions of the longer Quaker histories, he has produced a readable and fresh book which will be useful to put in the hands of inquirers and valuable for those who are more familiar with the records. The work is well-proportioned , although this reviewer would have appreciated a longer concluding chapter on "Modern Times" with some reference to the current religious stress on man's Inward Darkness over against the Quaker belief in the Inward Light. Space for this might have been made by curtailing his longest chapter, "Extending the Society of Friends," by adopting another method than the country-by-country and colony-bycolony expansion. This book should also be useful in adult discussion groups, for the author's candid appraisal of the weaknesses as well as the strength of the Quaker movement is most provocative. For example, persecution is shown to have been a factor in the Quietistic development and also to have been a refining fire making for vigor and expansion. Which role did persecution play? Or did it play both roles? And what about Quietism? Is the author too severe in his judgment? Sidney Lucas has a gift for telling phrases such as: "a robust universal message, dwindled into a domestic homily"; "[the Society] tended to become a monument rather than a movement"; "[with the Quietists] God was becoming a Principle not a Person, a Great Abstract, not a still small voice." Possibly we might have been spared: "The early leaders crossed the seas, the later one [s?] dotted the i's" (p. 104) . The "Fifth Monarchy" of the extreme Puritan sect was held to be foretold not in "Revelation" (p. 68) but in the Book of Daniel. But these are very minor matters. The total impression left by reading the book is that of solid worth. Valuable appendixes include sample Advices and Queries, a good bibliography and an index. Hartford Theological SeminaryAlexander C. Purdt 46 ...