‘Friends have no cause to be ashamed of being by others thought non-evangelical’: Unity and Diversity of Belief among early Nineteenth-Century British Quakers

Abstract

One of the most remarkable features in the history of British Quakerism is its ability rapidly to change its theological orientation — changing in succession from an outward looking mass movement, to an inward-looking sect, to an evangelical ecumenically-minded denomination, to a theologically liberal association of like-minded individuals. This paper considers the third of these transitions, the move from sectarianism to evangelicalism. This period of transition provides a useful case study of how the beliefs of a pan-denominational movement (in this case evangelicalism) interact with the existing beliefs of a sect (in this case the corpus of traditional Quaker beliefs known as Quietism). In this case study, particular attention will be focused on Joseph John Gurney (1788-1847), the individual most closely associated with the rise of evangelicalism within British Quakerism.