Quaker Universalist Conversations

An Exposition of Laozi’s “Essence of Dao”

From a monotheistic culture without direct revelation, Laozi was trying to make sense of what was going on in his time in China, when the country was divided and fighting one another. Is it the will of heaven, or it is just the corruption of humankind?

His ideas are very interesting when compared with those of a monotheistic culture which does describe direct revelations: law given by the God without a name; spiritual communities developed by the law of the Spirit; and a new commandment to love one another according to the love of Christ.

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“Love Thy Neighbor as Yourself:”
Discourse on the Nature of Christ

Today’s “Christianity,” and the Gospels, do not focus on the true beliefs of the message of Jesus, but instead on his “Resurrection,” his supposed divinity, salvation, and other divine aspects. This focus tends to make the true ethical and moral message of Jesus secondary to an attempt to fulfill the Jewish messianic prophecy. It is not that divine aspects are wrong or bad, but that the message and true values of Jesus are lost to the divine message.

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Quaker Universalist Friendly Studies
& Bible Translations

6 sets of Friendly study resources (free PDF downloads)

The Quaker Universalist Friendlies are practical procedures for productive Bible study, Faith and Practice Study, and universal scripture study in a manner consistent with Friends’ testimonies. Their purpose and that of the spiritual life inventory is to provide practical assistance to Quakers in their spiritual journeys.

The Bible translations are coupled with downloadable commentaries to assist readers and the participants in discussion. The commentaries emphasize the significant, distinguishing elements of these accurate translations, and should be particularly helpful to children.

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Myths are truths

The perspective of Rabbi Neil Gillman

Rabbi Neil Gillman used the term “myth” to mean an organizing principle into which we fit certain facts and experiences, a narrative structure that communicates a community’s master-narrative.

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The Universalist Core of Christianity

Jesus and After: The First Eighty Years, by E. Bruce Brooks – A review

Jesus and After: The First Eighty Years, by E. Bruce Brooks – A review. Is the Christian scripture a moving text which changes with time? The author witnesses to such changes through an episodic philological analysis of Christian scriptures.

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Rescuing Romans 13:1-7

How do we answer authoritarian use of these words?

Amid the wide global turmoil stirred by America’s current flexing of authoritarian nationalism, a deeper spiritual turmoil has been brought to light by the current administration’s use of the apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

There is a willful blindness at work in this government and its supporters, a steadfast unwillingness to acknowledge—or care—that the families fleeing to the United States from Central America are refugees seeking asylum from violence in their homelands.

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Page 575 and the Quaker Bible

Reading The New Cambridge History of the Bible

The New Cambridge History of the Bible is a four-volume scholarly project on the history of the use and abuse of the Bible. Volume 3 of this project primarily covers the western Christian Church during the period of 1450 to 1750, from the end of the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment.

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The Canaanite woman: Recognizing kinship

“Jesus’ own vision of his ministry was more universal than you say. This is one of our key stories which illustrate the movement within Jesus during his lifetime enabling him to see his mission as one including us. This woman…is indeed for us the foremother of the mission which includes us as Gentiles. Just as she won healing and wholeness for her daughter, so too she won it for us, her daughters and sons today.”

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