by Marshall Massey
When Orange County Friends Meeting established three memorial book collections in 2004 — one each for Quaker History, Quaker Faith and Practice, and Peace and Social Concerns — Allan Abrahamse posted to soc.religion.quaker seeking recommendations. Marshall Massey, a historian and Quaker theologian, responded with the most comprehensive reading list the group had seen: nearly a hundred titles organized into four categories, each entry carefully chosen, and the most essential marked with a double asterisk. This document records that list in full.
The list draws on Massey's decades of engagement with Quaker primary sources and secondary scholarship. His Peace and Social Concerns section is remarkable for its range: it moves from the deep roots of prophetic nonviolence in Heschel and the New Testament, through the Quaker peace testimony and Gandhi, to the American civil rights movement, the Catholic Worker tradition, and contemporary nonviolence theory. Taken together, the four categories form a reading curriculum for anyone who wants to understand Quakerism from the inside — its history, its spiritual practice, and its testimony in the world.
Titles marked with two asterisks (**) are especially recommended by Massey.
Quaker History
Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution (Penguin, 1972, 1975)
Christopher Hill, The English Bible and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution (Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1993)
Elbert Russell, The History of Quakerism (Friends United Press, 1979) **
John Punshon, Portrait in Grey: A short history of the Quakers (Quaker Home Service, 1984) **
Hugh Barbour, The Quakers in Puritan England (Yale Univ. Press, 1964; repr. Friends United Press, 1985) **
Hugh Barbour and J. William Frost, The Quakers (Friends United Press, 1988, 1994)
Douglas Gwyn, Apocalypse of the Word: The Life and Message of George Fox (Friends United Press, 1986) **
H. Larry Ingle, First Among Friends: George Fox and the creation of Quakerism (Oxford Univ. Press, 1994)
William Charles Braithwaite, The Beginnings of Quakerism (1919; York, England: William Sessions Ltd, 1981)
Douglas Gwyn, The Covenant Crucified: Quakers and the Rise of Capitalism (Wallingford PA: Pendle Hill Publications, 1995) **
Rosemary Moore, The Light in Their Consciences: the early Quakers in Britain, 1646–1666 (University Park PA: The Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 2000)
William Charles Braithwaite, The Second Period of Quakerism (1919; York, England: William Sessions Ltd, 1979)
Arnold Lloyd, Quaker Social History 1669–1738 (Longmans, Green and Co., 1950) **
Rufus M. Jones, The Quakers in the American Colonies (1911)
Frederick B. Tolles, Meeting House and Counting House: The Quaker Merchants of Colonial Philadelphia 1682–1763 (Univ. of No. Carolina Press, 1948) **
Jack D. Marietta, The Reformation of American Quakerism, 1748–1783 (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1984) **
George S. Brookes, Friend Anthony Benezet (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1937) **
John Wilbur, A Narrative and Exposition of the Late Proceedings of New England Yearly Meeting... (1845)
Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, ed., Memoirs of Joseph John Gurney, with Selections from his Journal and Correspondence (1854)
Rufus M. Jones, Finding the Trail of Life (Macmillan Publishing Co., 1926, 1954)
Quaker Faith and Practice
Isaac Penington, The Works of Isaac Penington: A Minister of the Gospel in the Society of Friends, 4 vols. (Quaker Heritage Press, 1995) **
Robert Barclay, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity: being an Explanation and Vindication of the Principles and Doctrines of the People called Quakers (1676–78; Quaker Heritage Press edn., 2002) **
William Penn, No Cross, No Crown: A Discourse Shewing the Nature and Discipline of the Holy Cross of Christ (1682, frequently reprinted)
Thomas Clarkson, A Portraiture of Quakerism..., 3 vols. (1806–1807)
William Backhouse and James Janson, A Guide to True Peace, or The Excellency of Inward and Spiritual Prayer, compiled chiefly from the writings of Fénelon, Mme. Guyon, and Molinos (1813; Pendle Hill, 1979)
The Old Discipline: Nineteenth-Century Friends' Disciplines in America (Glenside PA: Quaker Heritage Press, 1999)
London Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Christian faith and practice in the experience of the Society of Friends (1959, 1966) **
Faith and Practice of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends (Book of Discipline) (1985) **
Joseph John Gurney, Observations on the Distinguishing Views and Practices of the Society of Friends, 7th edn. (1834)
Rufus M. Jones, The Faith and Practice of the Quakers (Friends United Press, 1927)
Thomas R. Kelly, The gathered meeting (1940)
Thomas R. Kelly, Reality of the Spiritual World (1940–41; Wallingford PA: Pendle Hill pamphlet 21, 1942) **
Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion (Harper and Row, 1941) **
Geoffrey Hubbard, Quaker by Convincement (London: Quaker Home Service, 1974, 1985) **
Michael J. Sheeran, Beyond Majority Rule: Voteless Decision Making in the Religious Society of Friends (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1983) **
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, rev. edn. (HarperSanFrancisco, 1978, 1988)
William Wistar Comfort, Just Among Friends: The Quaker Way of Life, fifth edn. (American Friends Service Committee, 1941, 1968) **
Thomas S. Brown, When Friends Attend to Business (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1963)
John Punshon, Testimony and Tradition (Swarthmore lecture, 1990; London: Quaker Home Service) **
Wilmer A. Cooper, A Living Faith: An Historical and Comparative Study of Quaker Beliefs (Richmond IN: Friends United Press, 1990)
Sandra L. Cronk, Gospel Order: A Quaker Understanding of Faithful Church Community (Pendle Hill pamphlet 297, 1991) **
Robert Halliday, Mind the Oneness: The foundation of good Quaker business method (London: Quaker Home Service, 1991)
Patricia Loring, Spiritual responsibility in the meeting for business (Mosher Book and Tract Committee of New England Yearly Meeting, 1993) **
Barry Morley, Beyond Consensus: Salvaging sense of the meeting (Pendle Hill pamphlet 307, 1993) **
Lloyd Lee Wilson, Essays on the Quaker Vision of Gospel Order (Burnsville NC: Celo Valley Books, 1993) **
History and Faith and Practice Both
John L. Nickalls, ed., The Journal of George Fox (London Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, 1975) **
T. H. S. Wallace, gen. ed., The Works of George Fox, 8 vols. (State College PA: New Foundation Publication, George Fox Fund, Inc., 1990) **
Hugh Barbour and Arthur O. Roberts, Early Quaker Writings 1650–1700 (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1973; Morehouse Publishing, 2004) **
Brian Drayton, Selections from the writings of James Nayler, 2nd edn. (Mosher Book and Tract, New England Yearly Meeting, 2001)
Mary Garman et al., eds., Hidden in Plain Sight: Quaker Women's Writings 1650–1700 (Pendle Hill Publications, 1996)
Howard H. Brinton, Quaker Journals: Varieties of religious experience among Friends (Pendle Hill Publications, 1972) **
Phillips P. Moulton, ed., The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman (Oxford Univ. Press, 1971) **
William Evans and Thomas Evans, eds., The Friends' Library: Comprising Journals, Doctrinal Treatises, and Other Writings of Members of the Religious Society of Friends, 14 vols. (Philadelphia: Joseph Bakestraw, 1837–1850) **
A. R. Barclay, ed., A Selection from the Letters and Papers of the Late John Barclay, 2nd edn. (1842)
Rufus M. Jones, An Interpretation of Quakerism (London: Home Service Committee, 1936)
Howard H. Brinton, Friends for 300 years (1952; Pendle Hill, 1965) **
Wilmer A. Cooper, Growing Up Plain Among Conservative Wilburite Quakers: The Journey of a Public Friend (Friends United Press and Pendle Hill Publications, 1999)
Thomas D. Hamm, The Quakers in America (Columbia Univ. Press, 2003) **
Peace and Social Concerns
Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets, vol. 1 (Harper Torchbooks, 1969) **
Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation; A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics (HarperSanFrancisco, 1996) **
John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991)
Leif E. Vaage, Galilean Upstarts: Jesus' First Followers According to Q (Trinity Press International, 1994)
Peter Brock, The Quaker Peace Testimony 1660 to 1914 (York, England: Sessions Book Trust, 1990)
Meredith Baldwin Weddle, Walking in the Way of Peace: Quaker Pacifism in the Seventeenth Century (Oxford Univ. Press, 2001)
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, trans. Valji Govindji Desai, rev. ed. (1924, 1928; Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1950) **
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, trans. Mahadev Desai (1927, 1929; Dover Publications, 1983)
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Schocken Books, 1963)
Raghavan Iyer, ed., The Essential Writings of Mahatma Gandhi (Oxford India/Oxford Univ., 1991)
Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (Harper and Row, 1950) **
Homer A. Jack, ed., The Gandhi Reader: A Sourcebook of His Life and Writings (Indiana Univ., 1956; Grove Press repr.) **
Richard B. Gregg, The Power of Nonviolence, 2nd rev. (Canton ME: Greenleaf Books, 1935, 1959) **
Krishnalal Shridharani, War Without Violence, rev. edn. (1939, 1962; repr. Greenleaf Books, 2003) **
A. J. Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World (Harper and Brothers, 1940) **
A. J. Muste, Of Holy Disobedience (Pendle Hill, 1952) **
Nat Hentoff, Peace Agitator: The Story of A. J. Muste (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1963)
Bayard Rustin, Down the Line (Quadrangle Books, 1971) **
James Melvin Washington, ed., A Testament of Hope: The essential writings and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. (HarperSanFrancisco, 1986)
Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Mentor / Penguin, 1982)
Howell Raines, My Soul Is Rested: Movement days in the deep south remembered (Penguin, 1977, 1983) **
Juan Williams, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965 (Penguin, 1987) **
Clayborne Carson et al., eds., The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader (Penguin, 1991) **
David Dellinger, Revolutionary Nonviolence: Essays (Bobbs-Merrill, 1970)
Clarence Jordan, The Substance of Faith and Other Cotton Patch Sermons, ed. Dallas Lee (Association Press, 1972)
Hendrik Berkhof, Christus en de Machten (1953), trans. John H. Yoder as Christ and the Powers (Scottdale PA: Mennonite Publishing House and Kitchener, Ont.: Herald Press, 1962, 1977)
William Stringfellow, Free in Obedience (The Seabury Press, 1964) **
William Stringfellow, An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land (Word Books, 1973) **
John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus: Vicit Agnus Noster, 2nd edn. (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1972, 1994) **
John Howard Yoder, The Christian Witness to the State (Wipf and Stock, 1997)
Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics (Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1983)
Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (Abingdon Press, 1989)
Stanley Hauerwas, After Christendom? How the Church Is to Behave If Freedom, Justice, and a Christian Nation are Bad Ideas (Abingdon Press, 1991)
Stanley Hauerwas, Dispatches From the Front: Theological Engagements with the Secular (Duke Univ. Press, 1994)
Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel in Western Culture (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986)
Dorothy T. Samuel, Safe Passage on City Streets, 2nd edn. (Richmond IN: Liberty Literary Works, 1975, 1991) **
John Howard Yoder, What Would You Do? A serious answer to a standard question, exp. edn. (Herald Press, 1983, 1992) **
Jim Forest, Making Friends of Enemies: Reflections on the teachings of Jesus (Crossroad, 1987)
Robert L. Holmes, ed., Nonviolence in Theory and Practice (Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1990) **
Angie O'Gorman, The Universe Bends Toward Justice: A Reader on Christian Nonviolence in the U.S. (New Society Publishers, 1990) **
Alternatives to Violence Project, Basic Manual (Syracuse NY: AVP-USA, 1988) **
Quaker Peace and Service (QPS), London Yearly Meeting, The Quaker peace testimony (1993)
Jim Wallis and Joyce Hollyday, eds., Cloud of Witnesses (Orbis Books, 1991)
Jim Wallis, The Soul of Politics: Beyond "Religious Right" and "Secular Left" (Harcourt Brace, 1994, 1995) **
Newton Garver and Eric Reitan, Nonviolence and Community: Reflections on the Alternatives to Violence Project (Pendle Hill pamphlet 322, 1995)
Robert Allenson, Living as Dual Citizens: The Conflict of Loyalties between Fortress America and the Beloved Community (Michener Lecture to Southeastern Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, January 1996; Robert D. Allenson, 1998)
Elizabeth Cave and Ros Morley, eds., Faith in action: Quaker social testimony (London, U.K.: Quaker Home Service, 2000)
Titles marked with ** are especially recommended.
Colophon
Assembled by Marshall Massey and posted to soc.religion.quaker on September 25, 2004, in response to Allan Abrahamse of Orange County Friends Meeting, who sought recommendations for three memorial book collections dedicated to recently departed members. The collections were organized around Quaker History, Quaker Faith and Practice, and Peace and Social Concerns.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected]
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