Notes from Douglas Gwyn's Apocalypse of the Word

When reading books, I have a habit of scribbling brief notes on small slips of paper to indicate sections I'd like to remember or go back to. I sometimes use them to refer back to passages for blog posts. Other times, I return the book before I take time to do that.

Such is the case with Douglas Gwyn’s Apocalypse of the Word, his analysis of George Fox's original message. Here are my cryptic notes from the little slip of paper. Perhaps you'll find them intriguing enough to pick up a copy from QuakerBooks or your meeting's library. Or perhaps you'll ignore them and go pick up the book anyway.

p. 30: Fox’s message implied three assertions:

1. Christ had come
2. Christ supersedes existing Church orders, etc.
3. Christ himself had come, the creating and redeeming Word of God (vs. Scripture)

p. 36: Barbour: Testimonies as evangelical campaigns rather than a moral code

p. 37: Fox’s message a call and claim to both personal righteousness and social justice

p. 64: from imperative (“thou shalt”) to cohortative (“let us!”)

p. 96-7: the typology of the Bible (vs. allegory) – stories in the Bible as types for us to live out (Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Paul)

p. 106: purpose of scripture is not knowing Jesus but recognizing him

p. 107: first paragraph: mutually informing inward and outward

p. 111: Mission = personal and spiritual transformation

p. 125: Fox: seeing Cain within ourselves

p. 173: popular notion that Friends’ worship is limited in appeal is classist and racist (see my previous blog post)

p. 178: quite the opposite – Fox’s was not some proto-liberal view

p. 201: take possession of the Gospel

p. 210: opportunity to hear from God

p. 216: will Friends converge or be antiquarian?

p. 217: How does Fox’s message move beyond personal preference and privileged consumerism (today)?

PS Be sure to read Wess Daniels' Douglas Gwyn and the Convergent-Covenant, where Wess makes the apropo observation that the "X-covenant" Gwyn identifies in the book could be named as the "convergent-covenant."