The Living Witness of John Woolman

by Phillips P. Moulton

Overview

John Woolman deserves to be ranked among the great spiritual leaders of mankind. Exemplifying the highest quality of ethical thought and action, he is comparable to such better known figures as Albert Schweitzer and Mahatma Gandhi.

This pamphlet is one result of an abiding interest in Woolman, which culminated in editing The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, published by Oxford University Press in A Library of Protestant Thought. Only this edition reproduces accurately Woolman’s complete treatment of such topics as tax refusal and reparations to the Blacks.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940148270720
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	02/19/2014
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #187
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	30
File size:	110 KB

About the Author

Phillips Moulton’s scholarly work on Woolman exemplifies his vocation to apply intellectual endeavors to the service of religion. He was valedictorian in college, studied at several universities in the U.S. and abroad, and was named University Scholar at Yale with a doctorate in philosophical theology. He served as director of university work for the Federal Council of Churches and as coordinator of religious activities at the University of Chicago.

He has taught at Union Theological Seminary, summer sessions at Boston University and Garrett Theological Seminary, and is currently at Adrian College. His special interest is ethics, the subject in which he read a paper at the International Congress of Philosophy at Vienna in 1968.

The author has long been a member of the Wider Quaker Fellowship. His wife Mary belongs to the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, and his children, Kathy and Larry, attended Friends’ boarding schools.

This pamphlet is one result of an abiding interest in Woolman, which culminated in editing The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, published by Oxford University Press in A Library of Protestant Thought. Only this edition reproduces accurately Woolman’s complete treatment of such topics as tax refusal and reparations to the Blacks. The necessary research was aided by grants from Haverford College, the American Philosophical Society, and Adrian College. Quaker materials in the Haverford and Swarthmore College Libraries were examined, as well as those in other repositories in the United States and England.

A semester as Visiting Scholar at Union Theological Seminary enabled the author to study background material and produce the present pamphlet.

The author gratefully acknowledges the insights gained from participants in his courses at Powell House, Haverford Meeting, and New York Theological Seminary.