The nature of knowledge gained in and through Inwardness

This section examines two major issues. One involves mystical connections and interpretations of immediate or direct knowing, the other is about reflection on experience after the event and for Quakers its, largely, Christian interpretation. Several authors, discussed in this section, raise issues relating to the mystical and revelatory nature of knowledge gained in and through Inwardness. This is knowledge gained personally and experientially.

King writes of the individual who is turned to God as engaged in an ‘ultimate experience’.⁹⁵ Accordingly she identifies in Fox’s writing references to salvation as a coming out of the transitory into the permanent and secure, from the changeable into the unchanging, to God as ‘unchanging’.⁹⁶ Additionally, King refers to living in the light ‘in that which is unchanging’.⁹⁷ This ‘self-authenticating intuition’ is, for King, about

experiencing that which is ‘eternal’ is ‘internal’ i.e. inwardly known.⁹⁸ Quoting Fox, King emphasises his statement to his followers to: ‘See if you can find something in your

92 See Eeg-Olofsson above on the difference between experiential knowledge gained via mystical means as distinct from knowledge gained by psychological means.

93 Changing perceptions of this relationship are discussed in connection with ‘growth of measure’ in chapter 6.

94 See below on the purpose of knowledge gained.

95 King. Light Within, p. 112.

96 King. ibid , p. 114.

97 King. ibid, p. 114.

98 King. ibid, p. 112.

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understandings made manifest which is eternal, to guide your mind out of all external things, which wither and fade’.⁹⁹ Thus King understands the nature of knowledge gained in Inwardness as that which is enduring and stable.

Hinds too emphasises an ‘eternal embrace’ from within the knowledge gained in Inwardness. However, her concern is to clarify the nature of ‘the kairotic, or a-temporal, within Friends’ experience. As indicated above, she writes that Friends of the early period

‘revealed, enacted and affirmed’ a ‘seamless material-spiritual world’.¹⁰⁰ There is also here a sense of ‘definition’ that was, at the same time, a matter of declaration,

demonstrated in the very manner of Quaker living, both as individual and corporate.

Hinds’ position is analogous to mystical perspectives in which spiritual experience is seen to be timelessly interwoven in the ever present moment.

‘Coming into contact with God’ is, for Eeg-Olofsson, intimately concerned with an understanding of mystical traditions and is significant in relation to spiritual experience.

For Eeg-Olofsson, then, inwardness even in its general interpretation is relevant to a mystical interpretation of Quakerism; his spiritual, mystical view offers a perspective on the manner in which inwardness allows humankind to connect with God. Further Eeg-Olofsson proposes that inwardness, in a general sense, is a divine disposition in humanity through which people can come into contact with God. There is a parallel here with Hinds’ view of the ‘revealed’ and ‘enacted’ life of Quakers which keeps the contact between Inwardness, outwardness and the social dimension of life. What is known through Inwardness lifts all living to a new dimension of spirituality.

Gwyn understands the manner in which knowledge is embodied or enshrined in human beings as covenantal. He claims that Fox fully understood and taught the implications of the New Covenant, professing a radical theology that placed ‘inward knowledge in first place over outward knowledge-experience over scripture-while

99 King, Light Within, p. 109.

100 Hinds, George Fox, p. 120.

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maintaining a mutually informing relation between the two’.¹⁰¹ For Friends, the ‘mutually informing relationship’ is important because, in the early days of Quakerism, Scripture was regarded as confirming experience. Subsequent understanding was more to do with the fact that the Inwardness of experience was both self-validating and reaped rewards in the consequences of Inwardness: the latter fulfils the relation between the inward and the outward.

Bailey stretches the understanding of how ‘physical inwardness’ prevails in Fox’s view of himself and, potentially, his followers. He suggests that, in Fox, there is the sense of ‘the inward revelation of the everlasting gospel, the rising of the Christ within’.¹⁰² For Bailey, this understanding of Fox is essential to recognition of the core of Fox’s message:

the indwelling Christ, once acknowledged and fully embraced within people, bestows knowledge that is transforming. Bailey claims that, as a prophet, Fox brought a message of this potentiality to and for all people; as a magus, he (Fox) performed miracles that endorsed his own power and convinced the people of his status and, as an avatar, he was the Son of God. He indicates that Fox proclaimed his own divinity in terms of

‘christopresentism’; this inferred Christ’s indwelling as ‘celestial inhabitation’, available for all to know in themselves.

Bailey quotes Fox, who preached:

The Scripture saith God will dwell in men, and walk in men … Doth not the apostle say, the saints were partakers of the divine nature? And that God dwells in the saints, and Christ is in them, except they be reprobates? And do not the saints come to eat the flesh of Christ? And if they eat his flesh is it not within them?¹⁰³

The understanding of celestial inhabitation is, according to Bailey, crucial to Fox’s message. It involves not only acknowledging the ‘indwelling Christ’ but also turning inward to the Christ as ever present.¹⁰⁴ Bailey’s argument is that Christ in humankind is

101 Gwyn, Apocalypse, p. 107. See above on the focus of knowledge gained.

102 Bailey, New Light, p. 27.

103 Fox, The Great Mystery of the Great Whore, (Works 3) pp. 181-182.

104 See Bailey, ibid, pp. 77-84 and pp. 90-97 for full consideration of ‘celestial inhabitation’. Note also Williams, R. The Edge of Words: God and the Habits of Language , (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), p.

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not a spirit within, leaving the Christ-body far away in a distant celestial realm, but rather that the whole of Christ is substantially within people, and ever-present in all creation.

Bailey seems to suggest that this understanding raises the level of knowing to the wisdom of the saints.

‘Celestial inhabitation’ is not, for Bailey, restricted to the heart, but extended to a total and substantial revelatory embodiment.¹⁰⁵ If this view of Fox’s faith, and the Christ within, is accepted it is easy to comprehend how early Friends were transported into a whole new perspective and framework for interpreting their own lives in Christ: clearly as in the Bible (John 15:4) mankind should ‘Abide in me and I in you [as I abide in you]’ so for Quakers; Quakers abide in God as God abides in them.¹⁰⁶

Eeg-Olofsson presents a different set of considerations, in which his argument concerns the psychological nature of some of the knowledge gained inwardly.¹⁰⁷ Eeg-Olofsson, using Barclay’s Apology as his reference, discusses a significant difference between knowledge gained that he terms ‘mystical’ and that which is ‘psychological’ in character, exposing distinctions which he considers to be lacking in Barclay’s

explanations of Inner Light.¹⁰⁸ Further, he aims to show that Barclay is unclear or misconceived as to the manner in which contact with God is possible claiming that, in Barclay, there are competing lines of thought.¹⁰⁹ This discussion again raises the question as to the nature of knowledge gained inwardly and whether it can legitimately be called

‘unmediated’ as Quakers have claimed historically, and to which Barclay gives scholastic consideration. Additionally, Eeg-Olofsson, referring to the New Testament, claims two

169, quoting Jasper, D. The Sacred Body: Asceticism in Religion, Literature, Art and Culture, (Waco, TX:

Baylor University Press, 2009), on ‘the absolute participation in the body of the Godhead at its deepest depths of humanity…’, p. 169.

105 By contrast with, for example, the new covenant ‘written in the heart’.

106 Note also:Eph. 3:17, 'That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith...’

107 The psychological interpretation may require consideration of ‘pre-conditions’ of experience.

See references to Steven Katz and Robert Forman in reassessment of previous literature in chapter 6.

108 See also chapter 4 on Barclay.

109 See Eeg-Olofsson, Inner Light, pp. 134-5, concerning the grace of God’s gift as mystical versus man’s own insufficient efforts as psychological. Also more general discussion of the Inner Light. pp. 99-102.

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kinds of relationship to God - spiritual through God’s gift (mystical), and fleshly through humankind’s efforts (psychological).

Eeg-Olofsson suggests that in Barclay the ‘mystical’ and the ‘psychological’ align with different aspects, or levels, of the spiritual. He claims, however, that a

‘spiritual’/‘moral’ link can be justified and that, although outer performances and practices are ‘psychological, and therefore not in themselves ‘inner’, ‘mystical’ or ‘necessarily right’, they can contribute to ‘mystical ‘ knowledge’. It is also intimated by Eeg-Olofsson that ‘inner revelation’ can be ‘psychological’ and at one and the same time ‘mystical’.

The discussion is complex but does not contribute any definitive understanding for an interpretation of knowledge gained by Quakers in Inwardness.

Gwyn’s contribution to understanding Inwardness, and the nature of knowledge gained, revolves, in the main, around Fox’s concern with New Covenantal assurances of the ‘second birth’ that the light and law are ‘written in the heart’ of humankind.¹¹⁰ His outlining of issues relating to Inwardness not only rehearses the nature of this revelation but also Fox’s teaching concerning a) the incarnation of Christ, as full embodiment of the Light, and b) the manner of Quaker witness in worship and the ministry of living. In terms of worship Gwyn emphasises the significance of silence, waiting and watching.¹¹¹ Gwyn’s views are thus fully Christian relating to the lived gospel, as taught by ‘Christ the Prophet’, and Fox’s proclamation that ‘Christ is come to teach his people himself’.

A Christian interpretation is also expressed by Creasey, and, for the latter, in terms of the person and work of Christ. The primary concern of Fox’s teaching is, for Creasey, to do with understanding Quakerism as a spiritual religion in which Christianity is central.¹¹² Creasey maintains that interpretation of the favoured terms of Friends, and consideration of light issues, is only meaningful within a Christological doctrine, and faithful to early

110 In the main, Quaker references to the ‘heart’ are more likely to imply matters of feeling than actual/literal heart focus i.e. attention given to the heart as an organ. Yet the latter is not precluded and does relate to the focus and depth of Quaker spiritual practice as described in chapters 2-5.

111 Gwyn, Apocalypse.p. 161.

112Creasey identifies three features of early Quaker faith and practice. These are ‘doctrinal’,

‘experiential’ and ‘operational’, and he emphasises the intimate relationship of these three features in

‘Rethinking Quakerism’, Collected Essays, pp. 393-416.

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teaching as an interpretation of the Person and work of Christ. Inwardness is then, for Creasey, to do with encountering ‘that of God’ within the person, known and interpreted as the Person and work of Christ. This view is then essentially Christocentric rather than theocentric.

Of importance to the argument within this thesis, is Creasey’s reference to ‘genuine interior change’; Inwardness is not a matter of ‘superficial acceptance of ideas’. It is a matter of transformational growth.¹¹³ Indeed the nature of knowledge gained inwardly is not, in general, to do with ideas, although subsequent interpretation that embraces

doctrinal positions is undoubtedly relevant. The knowledge, which some of the authors examined have referenced in ways that suggest a context of mysticism, is, according to Keiser, linked with tacit and non-cognitive experience.¹¹⁴

Two major issues thus arise in relation to the nature of knowledge gained in Inwardness: one concerns mystical connections and the means by which experiential knowing is accessed immediately and directly. The second relates to reflection on experience and the Christian interpretation, which has prevailed to a large extent throughout the history of the Religious Society of Friends.

It is, then, relevant to note that the significance of Jesus Christ i.e. Christianity, is acknowledged by each of the authors, but given most precise emphasis by Creasey in terms of the Person and Work of Christ. Insofar as the main focus of each is, respectively, Fox, Barclay, Penington and Penn i.e. Quakers of the 17th-18th centuries, it is unsurprising that the interpretative context is Christian. However, of importance to later discussion within this thesis is:

a) The extent to which the experiential knowledge of Quakers continues to be interpreted in Christian terms in the modern era

113 See section below on the purpose of knowledge gained in Inwardness.

114 Note Keiser’s reference to tacit/non-cognitive thinking and skein of connections, f/n on p. 13, no 56, concerning various relevant texts.

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b) The extent to which the Christian framework has itself been re-interpreted in the more recent past (20th-21st Centuries).¹¹⁵

The fact that several of these writers focus on a Christian interpretation in the twentieth century, without questioning its exclusivity, is indicative of the continuing prevalence of the Christian influence in many, if not most, Quaker academic contexts.

This continues even following the development of Liberal Quakerism and includes the incorporation and westernisation of eastern themes in present day religious and theological thinking.