Working alongside two internationally recognized Quaker scholars, Douglas Gwyn and Ben Pink Dandelion, this was my first opportunity to set out my research on Paul and early Christian experience. Aimed at a wide Quaker readership around the world, I sought to present the first Christians in a way that made clear their sense of ‘the word of God’ as not something written but about being guided by the Spirit as prophets had been before them. This offered a direct link to the early Quaker claim set out by Douglas Gwyn that ‘Christ has come to teach his people himself’, his presence in meetings without ritual or priest interpreted by them as Christ returning as promised, bringing the God’s reign of God of justice alive among ordinary folk. Ben Pink Dandelion then charts the different ways Quakers have managed that heritage over the past 350 years as a way of sharpening the understanding of the Quaker tradition for today.
The first edition was published by Curlew Press and Woodbrooke in 1998. A second edition was published by Plain Press in 2018 and is readily available at £10.00 in the UK and $15.00 in the US.