Customer Reviews

The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman

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A classic in Christian engagement with the world, by a Quaker minister best known for his role in convincing others in the Society of Friends - as individuals and as a group - to withdraw from the slave trade and stop holding slaves. Woolman also contributed insights into the nature of war and conflict, wealth and simplicity, right livelihood and spiritual humility.

This is the definitive edition - as in, this is the one that scholars and serious readers want, with a solid introduction, explanatory footnotes, and notes on which passages were changed along the way. Woolman based his Journal on personal diaries, rewriting and editing it with his Quaker audience foremost in mind. His essays apparently were aimed for a wider audience; they show his familiarity with Enlightenment trends that many Friends ignored. The essays "On Keeping Negroes" and "A Plea for the Poor" are included in this edition.

After his death in 1772, the Journal has passed through the hands of a succession of editors, including Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier, whose edition can be found on the web. From one generation to the next, Friends and others have rediscovered John Woolman and cherished his sweet reflections on human relations and Divine leading.

A year before I purchased this particular edition, I read a library copy of the regular journal of John Woolman. The journal was remarkably inspiring and deepened my desire to know Jesus Christ. I was moved by the holy desires, and struggles against sin, of the young John Woolman.
After I decided to buy a copy of the Journal, I had a hard time finding an unedited copy, and settled on this one. I found all of Phillips P Moulton's footnotes very distracting and annoying. Twice or more on every page, his footnote bullets come up, and they are hard to ignore. When you read them, they are mostly useless and dry academic comments. I am very unhappy with this version, for it is like trying to watch a favorite film with a friend who interupts every few minutes to comment on some trivial aspect of the movie.
The only positive comment I can offer is that this edition can be used as a study tool or academic reference. However, if you want to read the Journal for spiritual reasons, I strongly recommend avoiding this version.