George Fox and the Quakers

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2012

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins of Quakerism. In the mid-seventeenth century an itinerant preacher, George Fox, became the central figure of a group known as the Religious Society of Friends, whose members believed it was possible to obtain contact with Christ without priestly intercession. The Quakers, as they became known, rejected the established Church and what they saw as the artificial pomp and artifice of its worship. They argued for religious toleration and for the equality of men and women. Persecuted for many years, particularly after the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, the Quakers survived to become an influential religious group, known for their pacifism and philanthropy. With:Justin ChampionProfessor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of LondonJohn CoffeyProfessor of Early Modern History at the University of LeicesterKate PetersFellow in History at Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
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0:39.0	For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy
0:46.5	the program. Hello England in the 1650s was a land recovering from the turmoil of civil war. The execution of Charles I in 1649
0:56.8	and the dismantling of the Church of England created a fertile ground for new and radical approaches
1:01.6	towards Christianity in the state.
1:03.9	It was from this background of a revolution and church reform that the Quaker movement
1:07.4	emerged the biggest force in Puritanism.
1:10.2	The name Quaker was originally a term of derision, intended to insult the members of this radical Protestant sect,
1:15.6	the Religious Society of Friends, for the spiritual intensity of their worshipping.
1:20.1	The quest for religious toleration, equality for all men and women,
1:24.0	and the emphasis on the direct communication with God through one's inner light
1:28.0	ensured both the Quaker's popularity and their savage persecution by Charles II and subsequently.
1:34.0	Today the Quakers are a thriving and global religious community
1:37.0	well known for their pacifism and philanthropy,
1:40.0	but how did this group of friends acquire such a large and devoted following,
1:43.8	who were their early leaders, and how were they able to survive and even flourish
	...

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