| The earliest Quakers confronted the people and rulers of mid-seventeenth century England with a millenarian message of Christ's imminent rule on earth and an accompanying social transformation. In hope of assisting the establishment of Christ's earthly reign, Quakers challenged the hierarchical nature of English society, confronted society's governors regarding practices which Quakers considered unjust, expressed concern for the poor, and nonviolently defied England's government through the adoption of a pacifist position. Nevertheless, some historians point to the Quakers, theology as evidence that they retreated from practical efforts for social reform. Some argue that Quaker religious beliefs fostered withdrawal from social revolution and offered a consoling “Kingdom of God within” for those whose revolutionary hopes had been obstructed. However, this dissertation will argue that the theological beliefs of the prominent early Quaker leaders George Fox, James Nayler, and George Fox the Younger fostered their outspoken activism, their adversarial relationship with the English government and society, and their political and social radicalism. The Spiritualist, perfectionist, and millenarian beliefs which these men shared encouraged and inspired their political and social beliefs and protest. These Quakers challenged their society and its governments with full confidence that God had assigned them a prophetic role to warn England's rulers and people of the judgments that awaited all who opposed God's will, and that God spoke and acted through them to establish his Kingdom on earth. Although a gradual withdrawal from confrontational political activity began by the conclusion of the Interregnum and continued after the Restoration, the Quaker movement had not originated as an inwardly oriented retreat from the world and social struggle. The earliest Quakers' theology had inspired their social protest as they struggled to build Christ's Kingdom on earth through prophetic confrontation of England's society and government. |
