Understanding Quaker Religious Language in its Community Context

Abstract

This article examines a trend in British Quaker use of religious language towards using lists of names for ‘that which we worship’, especially lists which include terms from other religions as well as traditionally Quaker terminology. It offers some tools for understanding language, drawn from the work of Wittgenstein and Lindbeck, and some key contexts, including a discussion of Quaker universalism about truth and the role this plays in the way that Quakers now speak about God. It finishes with a worked example which enables us to see how all these factors play into the construction of Quaker multi-theǝlogy remarks.