Quakers and the Arts
A Survey of Attitudes of British Friends to the Creative
Arts
from the Seventeeth to the Twentieth Century
by Frederick J. Nicholson
Friends Home Service Committee, London
First published July 1968
©Friends Home Service Committee, Friends House, Euston Road, London, N.W.1
Printed in Great Britain by Henry Burt & Son Ltd., College Street, Kempston, Bedford
Cover design and layout by John Blamires
The text of this book is the copyright of the Literature Committee of Quaker Home Service (Britain Yearly Meeting), and is reproduced with its permission. You are welcome to download the whole or part of this text for private study or for use in study groups, but it must not be modified in any way, or reproduced in other publication, conventional or electronic, without permission. On the WWW, you must link to this document, rather than put up your own page.
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 ‘Burthening the Pure Life’
Chapter 2 ‘The Lure of False Lights’
COMING: Chapters 3-6
Preface
In the course of this survey I have allowed Quakers and their critics to speak for themselves. Their witness, however, has been supplemented by facts found elsewhere and by some deductions which I hope are legitimate. I have tried to be just but I do not claim the disinterested detachment of a social scientist. As a member of the Society of Friends I am concerned for its welfare. I am firmly persuaded of the inestimable value of the creative imagination in religion no less than in the Arts; and I am convinced that much harm has been done (not only by Quakers) by fear or suspicion of this precious endowment. It has always seemed to me that religion without creative vision and imaginative expression soon becomes mere moralism; while art without reli gious insight, impulse and direction readily degenerates into irrespon sibility. My views, however, should not be taken as representing the corporate testimony on the Arts of the Religious Society of Friends. This survey covers a long period and a wide field—an area recognised by Quaker historians and writers but never explored. To examine it fully one would need to be well versed in the disciplines of theology, psychology and aesthetics; and I am not trained in any of these. It is my hope, however, that some specialists in these studies may be stimulated by my general survey to pursue in greater detail and depth some of the interesting and important aspects of the theme.
I have restricted my survey to British Quakers but have occasionally quoted pronouncements of Irish and American Friends when these seemed to correspond to contemporaneous British attitudes.
Another limitation to my survey is that I have not attempted to describe the artistic achievements of individual Friends active in various fields today. Such a description would require a volume in itself, and, in any case, I am not competent to make it. The reader will, however, find an account of the foundation and activities of the Quaker Fellowship of the Arts. As some readers of this book may not be Quakers I have provided a few explanatory notes on Quaker terms and practices. If these notes whet the appetite for fuller information readers are referred to A Brief Dictionary of Quakerism, compiled by Horace B. Pointing and published by the Friends Home Service Committee,obtainable, as most Quaker literature is, from the Friends Book Centre, Euston Road, London, N.W.1.
For the general historical background to my survey I have drawn upon the standard histories of Quakerism by W. C. Braithwaite, Rufus Jones and A. Neave Brayshaw; and also upon the more recent works of Hugh Barbour, D. Elton Trueblood, Elfrida Vipont and Harold Loukes: all of which have been acknowledged In text or notes. I have tried to make explicit acknowledgement of my debts to the numerous other books and sources perused or consulted, and I apologise for any possible omissions.
The two British Quaker periodicals, The Friend and The British Friend, are mines of information about the views and activities of Quakers from 1843 when they began publication. The British Friend, which came to an end in 1913, was rather rigidly conservative in attitude while The Friend (happily still with us) has usually been more liberal in outlook. The reader may wish to remember this when perusing quotations from these periodicals.
I gladly acknowledge my debts to many people. Most particularly am I grateful to members of the Council of Woodbrooke College, Selly Oak, Birmingham, not only for granting me a year's Fellowship at the College but also for their encouragement. At Woodbrooke I could not help benefiting from the daily contacts with staff, students and visitors from so many countries and of such various backgrounds and beliefs. I thank them all for their friendship and interest. I owe special thanks to Dr. Maurice Creasey, the Director of Studies, who so carefully read and discussed each chapter; and to Mrs. Joan Walford, librarian, who so willingly made the full resources of the library available. Thanks are also due to Kenneth Barnes, Quaker headmaster, writer and broad caster, and to Edward H. Milligan, Librarian to the Society of Friends, for suggestions and criticism; to Bernard Canter, former editor of The Friend, for his generous encouragement; and to George H. Gorman, Secretary of the Friends Home Service Committee, for all his kindness and helpfulness.
F.J.N.
December 1967
Prologue: ‘THE FULL RELIGION’
The perfect religion must not only have the power of dealing with man and men throughout
the whole course of their manifold development; it must have the power of dealing with the
complete fulness of life at any moment. It must have the present power of dealing with the
problems of our being and of our destiny in relation to thought and to action andto feeling. The
Truth which religion embodies must take account of the conditions of existence, and define the
way of conduct, and quicken the energy of enterprise. Such Truth is not for speculation only: so
far it is the subject of Philosophy. It is not for discipline only: so far it is the subject of Ethics. It
is not for embodiment only: so far it is the subject of Art. Religion in its completeness is the
harmony of these three, of Philosophy, Ethics and Art, blended into one by a spiritual force, by a
consecration at once personal and absolute.
from ‘Christianity as the Absolute Religion’ in Religious Thought in the West by Bishop B. W. Westcott.
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