First Among Friends: George Fox and the Creation of Quakerism

Rating:
Summary: A provocative look at a controversial character
Review: 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.