The goodness of the world

The most important gift of the Quaker way is the promise of meaning

Over the last couple of years I’ve spoken to many people in their 20s who have started coming to Quakers for the first time, and I’ve asked what has brought them.

Many have told me they are looking for an inclusive community; one that welcomes different gender and sexual identities and neurodiversity.

Some are activists who have been burned out by the absence of visible results and growing State repression. They are searching for the possibility of hope in the shadow of the climate crisis, and in the expectation of what some of them refer to as ‘system collapse’. They want to connect with older generations who can offer practical support and guidance.

Most of all, for a generation that has grown up in a culture that is distorted by the attention economy, and in the absence of any stable and reliable structure of values, they are seeking a faith community that can ground their search for meaning.

The Quaker way has important gifts to offer this generation.

Older generations of Quakers are veterans of countless social justice campaigns. These seasoned campaigners have camped at Greenham Common, marched against Section 28, boycotted South Africa, blockaded Faslane, and created Cities of Sanctuary. They have weathered disappointment and failure, and have sometimes celebrated victories. They have also seen previous achievements overturned, without losing hope in the possibilities of faithful witness.

Older Quakers can be the mentors for a new generation of young activists, who are often let down by movements that focus purely on results. We all need the inspiration and example of people of faith who have stood firm in the past, even in the face of violent repression.

But perhaps the most important gift of the Quaker way is a practice of faith that can be trusted to reveal the goodness of the world.

Young adults today have grown up in a ‘post-truth’ culture, where all communication is manipulation, and every claim about reality is an exercise in the contest for power. Most of them have only ever known the world as an absence of meaning; an indifferent screen for the projection of arbitrary values. This is the picture of the world described by Bruno Latour;

“We picture ourselves thrust into a cold soulless cosmos, wandering on an inert planet in a world devoid of meaning… subject to the absolute domination of a mechanised capitalism and a kafkaesque bureaucracy.”

(Latour, We have never been modern)

We all need to find a way to be able to affirm that the world is good. It is not indifferent, meaningless or illusory, but valuable and meaningful independently of our own aims and interests. It is there even when our own lives and those of others are going very badly. Despite war, ecological crisis and xenophobia, the goodness of the world is revealed by the practice of Quaker worship.

In Quaker worship and discernment we encounter something real, that pre-exists our intentions and values, that confronts us with the truth about ourselves and the world. This is the ‘living stream of worship’ that flows beneath the surface of our conscious awareness, and that we can enter in privileged moments of stillness and connection. It is the same reality that mystics and prophets in many traditions have recognised as the presence of God:

“God is a great underground river that no one can dam up and no one can stop.”

(Meister Eckhart)

We sell these young newcomers short by presenting the Quaker way as if it is a secular club for people who like sitting in silence on a Sunday morning. Young adults are not impressed by the self-sufficient rationalism of their parents’ generation. They can see for themselves how inadequate it is to the challenges they are facing.

Rationalism is a defence against the mystery of the world. But we are made for something more than self-sufficiency. We are participants in the beauty and goodness of the world, and co-creators with God of the divine potential within all things.