Description
Book SynopsisAmong the radical sects which flourished during the tumultuous years of the English Revolution, the early Quakers were particularly aware of the power of the written word to promote their prophetic visions?and unorthodox beliefs.
This collection of new essays by literary scholars and historians looks at the diversity of seventeenth-century Quaker writing, examining its rhetoric, its polemical strategies, its purposeful use of the print medium, and the heroism and vehemence of its world vision.
Table of ContentsPatterns of Quaker authorship, 1652-56, Kate Peters; the war of the lamb - George Fox and the apocalyptic discourse of revolutionary Quakerism, David Loewenstein; Margaret Fell Fox and feminist literary history - a mother in Israel calls to the Jews, Judith Kegan Gardiner; hidden things brought to light - enthusiasm and Quaker discourse, Nigel Smith; from seeker to finder - the singular experience of Mary Penington, Norman T. Burns; handmaids of the Lord and mothers in Israel - early vindications of Quaker women's prophecy, Elaine Hobby; no man's copy - the critical problem of Fox's Journal; the politic and the polite in Quaker prose - the case of William Penn, N.H. Keeble; Joseph Besse and the Quaker culture of suffering, John R. Knott; early Quakerism - a historian's afterword, Ann Hughes.
