This abbreviation of his greatest work, the Apology, is timely for two reasons. In the first place it offers to modern Quakers an opportunity to become acquainted with a book of great historical importance which, for more than two centuries, was considered the best and most authoritative exposition of Quaker belief and practice. In the second place, Barclay's conception of the nature and function of the Christian religion is again coming to the fore. His interpretation is in closer accord with religious thinking today than with that of a generation ago.
The Apology holds a place unique in the history of the Society of Friends. It is the supreme declaration of Quaker belief, organized and set forth by a man who, up to the nineteenth century, remained Quakerism's only theologian. First written in Latin and published in Amsterdam, 1676, it has been translated and published in English, Low Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Danish, and part of it in Arabic, passing into many editions and easily outselling any other book dealing with Quaker thought.
