George Fox University Books

This book is incredible! From the first page onwards I was hooked! I would reccomend this for anyone who is interested in the life and times of good ol' George Fox. This book will grip you and suck you in and you will not be able to stop reading until the very VERY end! A fine choice for Fox fans both new and old. To sum it up in one word: magnificent! This Journal will forever remain my ALL TIME favourite book. Get it today, before you miss out!

George Fox, 1624-91, is sometimes called the "founder" of the Religious Society of Friends, a group that established itself in the 1650s. Early on, they called themselves Children of the Light and Friends of the Truth. As the group spread from the North of England into the south, they became known as Quakers, a name which stuck and is still used today. In the early years, Fox was one of several strong personalities most closely identified with the movement. Later, facing severe persecution and with the death of other early leaders, the Friends accepted Fox's institutional guidance, and he helped the movement to consolidate and survive through to an era of somewhat greater tolerance toward the end of his century.

Certainly Fox never set out to start another "religion." He hoped simply to open the hearts of everyone to the leading of the divine Spirit, without allowing the existing distinction of clergy and laity. His journal, composed years after most of the events covered, retains Fox's direct, down-to-earth form of ministry. The language is not flowery, yet it brings up deep and powerful spiritual ideas, with strong imagery that still sparkles in Quaker language.

"Now the Lord God opened to me by His invisible power that every man was enlightened by the divine Light of Christ, and I saw it shine through all; and that they that believed in it came out of condemnation to the Light of life, and became the children of it; but they that hated it, and did not believe in it, were condemned by it, though they made a profession of Christ. This I saw in the pure openings of the Light without the help of any man; neither did I then know where to find it in the Scriptures; though afterwards, searching the Scriptures, I found it."

This edition of Fox's Journal was abridged and edited by Rufus Jones in the early part of the last century, thus making it more accessible to a wider audience. However, some who dwell on the theological nuances and regard Fox as authoritative find this edition disappointing. (The John L. Nickalls edition of Fox's Journal is regarded as definitive.) Rufus Jones provides a helpful introduction, presenting briefly his own idea that Fox raised to a new level an already widespread movement of grassroots mysticism.

Friends today often disregard the historical setting into which the Quaker movement first erupted -- a period of civil war and religious upheaval, when the King of England had been executed on orders of Parliament and the established Church of England was crumbling. And yet this was the formative period of Quakerism, and many characteristics of today's Religious Society of Friends can be traced to positions taken in the early days. Larry Ingle is a Friend and professional historian who enjoys sharing his story of George Fox in the broader historical context.

The title itself, First Among Friends, refers to a lively controversy about whether Fox may be regarded as the "founder" of Quakerism, or as "first among equals" in a movement that rejected religious hierarchy. By focussing on Fox as the central figure, Larry Ingle brings to light several tensions relevant to Friends today. For example, Fox in his early years had preached the freedom of each person to follow his or her own divine leading. Later, when the movement faced heavy persecution and Fox himself faced open dissent, Fox condemned others for expressing leadings other than what he himself had determined. Another example: the movement had begun at the grassroots in the North of England, but as it consolidated it was increasingly dominated by a group of wealthy and relatively privileged men based in London, with Fox as figurehead -- active, insightful and articulate as always but hardly in control.

From our own modern perspective, there is another ironic twist: Fox strongly enunciated the rights of women to have a say within the organization, as ministers and in business deliberations at the local level. Men who sought to marginalize women then found themselves marginalized and silenced, largely at Fox's behest. Friends in the centuries since -- men and women -- have benefitted from the proceeds of that unseemly struggle, and Ingle examines with evident relish the traces of the fight.

Each of these and other aspects are considered in the course of this biography of Fox. It's a useful companion work for anyone reading Fox's Journal, or studying the early Quaker movement (or the broader nonconformist movement, for that matter). Readers should be aware that in some circles of Friends, there are some who scoff at Ingle's work. It is not finely woven, and Ingle's pleasure at disentagling the threads of long-ago controversies is sometimes plain. One Friend the reviewer knows, on a trip to England looked at an old loom to find the place where a candle might have stood, and not finding it now challenges the book as shoddy because it describes a young Fox as reading by candlelight while working at his loom! (This detail apparently was drawn from another biography written decades earlier.) Such quibbling aside, Ingle's work pulls together a wide range of relevant history, and adds to it a biographical narrative, giving a composite picture of early Friends and of Friend Fox in particular.