Suggested Reading for Isolated Friends
Alternatively, see also Suggested Readings with Direct Citations for Seekers.Books I can personally recommend:
- The Holy Bible. The Biiible Cafe has a searchable Bibles database of a number of translations of the Bible. It is really quite a remarkable feat.
- Anything offered by the Tract Association of Friends.
They offer many of their tracts for free on their website in text and pdf. I also highly recommend the book they publish of excerpts from George Fox's Journals called Early Prophetic Openings of George Fox.
- excerpts from Quaker Strongholds, by Caroline Emelia Stephen, available from Pendle Hill Pamphlets for free online as a PDF. The full work is available online at the Digital Quaker Collection.
I read this book the weekend after finishing my own extensive additional witnessing to the Truth on this website (~1st of Tenth Month 2006). As I read this pamphlet excerpted from her work I thought, she has already said it all, and said it all better. For a moment I bemoaned my "wasted" efforts. And then I rejoiced, realizing all over again how great God is and how permanent and unchanging his Truth in the Life and the Way. It was a revelation to read how Elizabeth Stirredge's experiences in the late 1600s so mirrored my own experiences today. Now I know that Caroline Stephen had these self-same experiences and was brought to the very same Truth in the mid-1800s. God is an Eternal Good whose Truth is available to all of us through the Inward Teacher, the Christ within, whose Light will illuminate for us all that is within us, and will help us root out the bad and to raise up the good.
This pamphlet was created in 1951. Caroline Stephen (1834-1909) first published the original work in 1891. A Friend I admire mildly suggested this was a good book for those seeking to discover if Quakerism is "for them." I say it should be required reading for all!
- Quaker Faith And Practice Of Britain Yearly Meeting: The Book Of Christian Discipline Of The Yearly Meeting Of The Religious Society Of Friends (Quakers) In Britain, 3rd Edition
This compilation of Quaker lives and testimonies is engaging, with sections and short entries that are easy to mentally digest. - Advices and Queries
Friends have traditionally used Advices and Queries to remind ourselves of truths fellow Quakers have felt important to hand down over the centuries. Compact but helpful in providing an orientation to living in the Way and the Truth. - Lloyd Lee Wilson's Essays On The Quaker Vision Of Gospel Order
I found this work heartening and affirming of my Quaker experiences. - Robert Barclay's Apology
This book requires some heavy mental lifting, but an advantage is that it is very thorough and precise. Quaker Heritage Press has it for sale or for free online. This is not Dean Freiday's modern language edition. I found too much editing in that version for my comfort, though others have found great spiritual encouragement there. - Samuel Bownas' A Description of the Qualifications Necessary to a Gospel Minister
This book was the first by an early Friend that I read, and I was shocked by how a man writing centuries ago was describing spiritual experiences that mirrored my own. This book and its author are solid, wise, weighty, seasoned and of good savour. - Brian Drayton's On Living with a Concern for Gospel Ministry
A modern version of Bownas' Qualifications, it is eminently readable, invariably inspiring, and soberly enlightening. - Thomas Kelly's A Testament of Devotion
Not everyone likes his poetic prose, but I found it full of richness that only comes from a life lived in the Way and the Truth. - Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline
Particularly helpful information for the isolated Friend, this book offers a comprehensive view of the various disciplines that Christians have found fruitful over the millenia. - Truth of the Heart and its companion Light to Live By, compiled by Rex Ambler.
The first is a compilation of George Fox's writings organized by topics, with a facing page offering a modern transcription. The second book offers up a spiritual practice that R. Ambler gleaned from his reading of Fox's works. - Pendle Hill Pamphlet 264, Paul Lacey's Leading and Being Led
One of my favorite resources on discernment. I return to it time and again. - John Punshon's Encounter with Silence
A thorough overview of Quaker practice and experience, liberally sprinkled with the author's own spiritual experiences.
Suggested Quaker Journals
- Journal of George Fox
- John Woolman
- Elizabeth Stirredge's Strength in Weakness Manifested
- Isaac Penington
- Also see the Earlham College's Digital Quaker Collection
- The Journal of Ann Branson (1807-1891), an American Minister of the Gospel in the Society of Friends.
Suggested Reading for Isolated Friends
Books other Friends I admire have suggested but I have not yet read.
It is recommended for its short passages and collections of passages from early Quakers.
This work comes highly recommended as a well-loved companion and source of solace.
Also offered to me as a book that may be a helpful and worthy companion for the isolated Friend.
I have to confess I own this book and have not really looked at it. Others tell me it is an excellent source of a wide-range of Quaker writings on the Quaker spiritual experience.
