tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5757790087474609097.post5213206979704505239..comments2023-10-15T10:56:10.638+01:00Comments on Sheffield Quakers: A Testimony to Sustainability?Gordon Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06021696929176035226noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5757790087474609097.post-62972793150769962352013-11-10T09:14:56.053+00:002013-11-10T09:14:56.053+00:00Many apologies for inadvertently mis-representing ...Many apologies for inadvertently mis-representing Craig's post in my reference - I did not intend to give the impression Craig was in favour of a testimony to sustainability, but merely to refer to his comments - in fact it was Craig's post that inspired my own. I have now edited my post to make this clear, replacing 'This is the case' with 'Craig argues against this'.Gordon Fergusonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06021696929176035226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5757790087474609097.post-77343576931425090552013-11-07T19:29:47.909+00:002013-11-07T19:29:47.909+00:00Dear Gordon,
Thank you for this fascinating post. ...Dear Gordon,<br />Thank you for this fascinating post. I am entirely with you (and Margaret Fox) in finding the 'inward work of Almighty God in our hearts' the fundamental and essential aspect of Quaker testimonies.<br />I would like to point out that (as you will see in my post below) I am not arguing for the addition of the principle of 'Sustainability' as another testimony. On the contrary, I think we have at least four too many principles already. For Quakers throughout our history until the 1960s, our testimonies have never been the kind of eternal principles, divorced from specific circumstances, that you suggest here. Testimonies were precisely collective concerns in action, and all inherently 'specific to the circumstances of the day'.<br />It is not the case that the 'spiritual reason for plain dress... was a witness to our testimony of equality'. Margaret Fox had certainly never heard of such a thing as an abstract principle called the 'testimony to equality', which was not invented until 1964.<br />The spiritual basis of all Quaker testimonies (understood as actions, not beliefs or principles) is our personal insight into the spiritual basis of our existence, which you clearly describe in your discussion of a spiritually grounded view of the sacred earth. Personal spiritual insights ('openings' in the terminology of early Friends) are not the same thing as intellectual adherence to abstract eternal principles such as Simplicity, Equality etc. These are all idealist philosophical constructs with no basis in experience or reality.<br />In Friendship,<br />Craig<br />Craig Barnetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16201061939693242954noreply@blogger.com