Customer Reviews

Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism: An Historical Analysis of the Theology of Holiness in the Quaker Tradition (Studies in Christian History and Thought)

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While Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism is written for an academic audience, I hope others, especially Quakers, will explore the compelling story Spencer tells. I was delighted to see that her definition of "Holiness" isn't monolithic, but rather combines classic strands of Christian thought into a uniquely Quaker synthesis.

Much of the interest here comes from her description of the initial synthesis, and then her analysis of how later periods of Quakerism and specific individuals within those periods exemplified or wandered away from those aspects. The fracture lines that would later become schisms make more sense in this context, and it feels much easier to me to discuss what Quakerism has lost in the centuries since its founding given this structure.

I also recommend the appendices, which examine the ties between Quakerism and earlier Christian mysticism, other movements of the same time, and Methodism. Each of them could probably become a book of its own (as could other aspects of the book), but they introduced some new areas worth exploring.