Discipline: The codification of Quakerism as orthopraxy, 1650-1738

Abstract

Quakerism emerged from the religious, social and political turmoil of the Interregnum when sects multiplied and many diverse individuals were joined in their criticism of the state church. What began as a loose network of Seekers, united largely in their opposition to Anglicanism, was organised and given a distinctive shape by several energetic visionaries and most notably George Fox, a Leicestershire artisan. From 1650, this pioneering group preached the Quaker gospel first across northern England and soon throughout the country and in Europe and America. They are interesting to us for a number of reasons but particularly because they manifest a unique paradox: whilst eschewing all creeds, Seventeenth-Century Quakers wrote voluminously in an attempt to shape their faith and, in particular, their practice. In this paper I will argue that early Friends circumvented the need to distinguish between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, through their emphasis on orthopraxy. Drawing on Bourdieu's work on codification and the habitus I will examine the complex development of Quaker Discipline precipitated as it was in and through Meetings for Church Affairs and the various writings of "public Friends"--a process of textualisation culminating in the first Book of Discipline of 1738.