Overview

Open to New Light is not only for readers interested in exploring Quaker history and principles but also for anyone interested in different faiths and the relationships between them. The topics covered include Quakers' historic interfaith encounters, as well as more recent engagements with Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Jains, Sikhs, Baha'is, followers of Indigenous religions and Humanists.

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9781803413235

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A Quaker by convincement who has herself been involved in interfaith explorations, Eleanor Nesbitt has given us a well-researched and highly accessible account of liberal Quaker (Society of Friends) encounters with other faith traditions over the past 350 years. As a follow up to her Interfaith Pilgrims (2003), Nesbitt explores how liberal Friends from Britain and North America, pursuing a Quaker approach of discerning openness, have interacted with peoples of non-Christian religions (Baha'i, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Pagan, and humanist) -- in their travels, commonly exhibiting a readiness to learn from others and to work with other communities of faith and, at home, following an imperative of being a good neighbour to newcomers from different faith backgrounds. Nesbitt also provides us with accounts of how Friends have themselves come to be viewed by members of these other religious traditions, discusses cases of individuals who have taken on merged identities (as, for example, Muslim Quaker or Buddhist Quaker or Hindu Quaker ), and explores various Quaker interfaith initiatives. Open to a New Light exhibits Nesbitt's personal and scholarly familiarity with Quakerism as well as her personal and scholarly familiarity with other religious traditions. (She is married to a Hindu man and is herself a leading Sikh studies scholar.) This background makes for a book both heartfelt and knowledgeable and one that should be of interest to Quakers and non-Quakers alike.

Author Information

Eleanor Nesbitt is a member of Central England Area Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and a Professor Emerita (Religions and Education), University of Warwick. In 2003 she gave the Swarthmore (annual Quaker) Lecture 'Interfaith Pilgrims'. She lives in Coventry, UK.

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