The three pathfinders of early Quakerism were George Fox, Robert Barclay, and William Penn. All three based their theology on the gospel of John. George Fox was the powerful personality who held together a group without human leadership and with the minimum of organization. This Fox was able to do in spite of a savage persecution during which hundreds of Quakers died in filthy dungeons. Robert Barclay furnished the Quaker movement with a profound theology based on John�s gospel. William Penn, in addition to founding a colony with a very advanced form of government, led an active lobby to rescue Quakers from prison, the first active lobby in history. Penn was a theologian as well as a politician, as is indicated in his theological works: The Sandy Foundation Shaken, Innocency with her Open Face, and Quakerism a New Name for Old Christianity, and others. All three of these leaders were much dependent on John�s gospel for their doctrines.
My recent Pendle Hill pamphlet, Evolution and the Inward Light, contains many references to John�s gospel. I feel that three additional subjects should be considered. First, what does John mean by �eternal life,� mentioned many times in his gospel? Secondly, how is this greatest religious writing in our Christian religion related to other religious classics; that is, the Lotus Scripture of Buddhism, and the Bhagavad Gita of Hinduism? And, thirdly, what kind of Christianity can save our modern world, as the Benedictine monasteries saved our Western culture in its early years?
