The Mistake People Make About Quaker Theology

[00:00:00]The main theological statement for Quakers is that there is that of the divine in all. One of the consequences is that [music] if I truly do believe that you are God, I can't kill you.

[00:00:13]So, I have to be a pacifist in a way. I can't cheat you, >> [music] >> so I have to be not seeking greed and doing more than I am. From these sort of two ideas that God's everywhere, [music] so act accordingly, the rest of it sort of expands.

[00:00:29]We don't actually understand our own tradition if we don't understand how deeply theological much of our work actually is.

[00:00:43]My name is Kristi Rendazzo. I go by they/them pronouns. My faith community is Woven Faith Community, and it's located in Camden.

[00:00:52]One of the main reasons why Quakers don't think we have a theology is because oftentimes imported definitions of what theology means. Any Quaker who has a sense [music] that there is some kind of experience known as the light that um is present within them and the meeting that [music] speaks to us and um you know, guides us.

[00:01:16]That's a fundamentally theological statement. They understand theology to be though is oftentimes dogmatic statements of other communities, other faith traditions, um where truth is defined and it might specifically be bound up in some kind of scripture. As a theologian, I'm I'm sometimes a little annoyed at that assumption, particularly because it's then bound up in the idea that um because theology can be abstract, because we are talking about something that we might not be able to experience in a way that is definable or scientifically understandable or what have you. They wind up thinking that uh theology is um something that is um you know, rigid. The metaphorical idea of light is inherently abstract. The idea that you are you can experience that of God within. How do I explain the feeling of love? How do I explain the feeling of anger or humiliation or what have you? Same thing with the idea that there is that of God everywhere. It's an experienced thing. Theology doesn't have to be something, you know, that is complicated and written about in books.

[00:02:21]What we're talking about is developing [music] theology from living.

[00:02:25]That life is a, you know, is developed in a theological frame. So, [music] we're actually incredibly deep theological thinkers.

[00:02:35]We just never use the language. I say that there's two core, sort of, intersecting points of Quaker theology. That there is that of the divine in all of creation. And that, as a result, we it must let our lives speak to that reality. There's this core idea in, um, in Christian theology that we there are specific sources from which theology can be drawn. [music] Many in the mainline Protestant tradition say it is, um, the scripture.

[00:03:05]The scripture says something, it is true. Um, others will say it is, um, the church traditions and it is the hierarchy of that church. When you [music] flip that around to say, "No, we're starting first from the individual human experience [music] of the divine." and moving from there, Quaker theology transforms how you look at, for example, scripture.

[00:03:27]The idea of scripture becomes so much broader.

[00:03:30]It becomes, [music] you know, not just the Jewish and Christian Bibles. Um, it could be moving to a Hindu idea of Brahma, where there is, >> [music] >> um, the the divine creative energy that is the entirety of all creation. And that's a beautiful theological statement that is entirely aligned with where Quakers are. If we rooted in this experience, [music] then that takes seriously both your own individual experience, but it also takes seriously the experience [music] of believers across time. That people in times past experienced [music] the divine in this way, wrote that down.

[00:04:11]I might find them challenging. I find the book of Joshua, for example, deeply challenging, particularly how it seems to praise the idea of cultural genocide.

[00:04:19]I don't have to say that Joshua [music] is as important to me as other texts, but I cannot ignore it because it is the experience of my family, my my my people over time.

[00:04:32]Quakers then have this narrative focus in their theology.

[00:04:38]Because we build so much of our work on the stories we tell, the journals we write about the experiences [music] we've had. It winds up meaning that our theology is story. It's embodied. Using Christian language, it's in incarnational theology. Because it is rooted in the way of life, who we are, what we're doing. When we think about Quaker theology, we tend to shrink it, fit it in a tiny little [music] space, which is it's open, it's free, it means whatever it means, which it's false. It is open and it means what it means >> [music] >> in that it is continuously evolving. If the divine, the spirit is continuously speaking to us, then it is inherently a theology emerging [music] from that experience of how I have changed over time. I am this river, but the river is always shifting. I'm growing, I'm changing.

[00:05:35]>> [music] >> Thus is the divine, growing, changing, shifting, adapting to us. When I think about what is the core of Quaker theology, um it is those ideas which build upon this fundamental structure that there is God everywhere and that we need to respond to it.

[00:05:53]I think that anyone who is inspired to be a member of a Quaker community is inspired by what is unique about us.

[00:06:05]I think if you have these other hybrid identities, you know, like I am I am a Christian and I'm a Quaker. They are aligned for me, but they needn't be.

[00:06:13]What is core in that sort of that that that that Quaker idea is the sense that it's not simply a statement about who we are, but a statement about how we should live. That intersection is um in my mind it's not unique to friends, but the way that it manifests itself in this way of life that stresses [music] that each of us have that role, each of us have that responsibility, and that each of us can be at any moment, in any way, led by the divine to act. If you choose to be a part of that community, [music] what you're choosing to be a part of is that way of life. Is that understanding [music] that there's something um that is beyond the chemicals and flesh and blood of of who we are. And see there's something greater than [music] ourselves, something bigger. What's different about uh Quaker theology and Quaker testimony is that again, there is no hierarchy. No one is is is closer to the divine than anyone [music] else.

[00:07:15]That means that all of us have a responsibility to live into it. Um we can't sit in our laurels and say I am good enough.

[00:07:22]There's never good enough because the divine is always speaking and you [music] always respond. And all of that all of that is my theology cuz that's all of my experience of the divine. And if you reflect in that experience, you're doing theology.

[00:07:40]>> Thank you for watching this episode of Quaker Speak. Subscribe and turn on notifications to never miss a [music] video. Quaker Speak is made possible by friends like you. Go to Quakerspeak.com/donate to help us keep [music] these videos free and accessible to all. For more Quaker content, go to the Friends Journal website [music] where you can read our monthly magazine, sign up for our newsletter, and find a meeting near you.