Reasons for Hope: The Faith and Future of the Friends Church [Paperback]

John Punshon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2001

Reasons for Hope is a mini-course in evangelical Friends theology, church history, and philosophy. It is also a call for renewal. Punshon cites the biblical bases of the Friends distinctives—open worship, decision-making under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, foregoing outward practice of the ordinances, and the Friends testimonies of simplicity, integrity, and nonviolence—and builds a case for the role these distictives can play in the growth of the Friends Church in the twenty-first century's postmodern culture.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Punshon has recently retired as Professor Quaker Studies at Earlham College and Earlham School of Religion. He is a member of First Friends Meeting in Richmond, Indiana, and is a recorded minister in Indiana Yearly Meeting. His other books include Portrait in Grey (1984), Patterns of Change (1987), Encounter with Silence (1987) and Testimony and Tradition (1991).

Product Details

• Paperback: 395 pages
• Publisher: Friends United Pr (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0944350569
• ISBN-13: 978-0944350560
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,008,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Baptizing Revitalization, But Needs Editing, January 14, 2003

By 

Jedidiah Palosaari "Not My Real Name" (Fes, Morocco) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reasons for Hope: The Faith and Future of the Friends Church (Paperback)

We just finished analyzing this book in our meeting to understand what Punshon might have to say about the future of *our* church. The book is good as a revitalizing point, stretching and encouraging us to change and at the same time stay with the core of who we are. I appreciated all the info he shares on Friends history, especially more recent events of this past century, which are hard to find a record of. Punshon also does a very good job of explaining aspects of Friends theology. I was excited to learn that my denomination, Evangelical Friends International, one of those which this book focuses on, is actually an acessionary movement, not secessionary- it was formed from a gathering together of different churches rather than a splitting off. This is something holy.

But a more systematic theological approach to these subjects would have been helpful. A number of Punshon's theological points are not well backed up- they would only convince the choir- or meeting, as the case may be. And he really could have used a much better editor- there are large sections of the book that need to be skimmed because nothing concrete is said. The second half of the book is much better, more cohesive, with it's foci on worship, discipleship, holiness, end times, and the future. But Punshon's section on Holiness is very confusing- at some points he says that Friends are Holiness and at other points he says they are not; he says that Wesleyan Holiness, Methodist Holiness, and Friends ideas on perfection are all different, but never gets around to explaining how this is so. This section clearly demonstrates that the author assumes a large background in theology from his readers.

I still don't understand why a whole chapter is devoted to the end times, especially when Punshon states that it has never been a great focus to the Friends. As for the subtitle "Faith and Future", the book is long on faith, and short on future- to the tune of one chapter of future. A reissue of this work would be greatly benefited by more focus on possible future ideas.

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