the campaigning committee or the local press behind them. What better reason for studying the stimulating albeit never simplistic topic of remembering the Reformation?

Abstract

conflicting directions, generating unruly charismatic experiences and eschatological protest alongside templates for spiritual authority and communal order. Indeed, “the development of seventeenth-century Quakerism cannot be characterized in terms of a straightforward, linear progression toward social respectability” (55). Given the wide-ranging implications of this task, where then might this work sit in the burgeoning discipline of Quaker studies? John Maynard Keynes once wisely observed: “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones” (cited in Mario Tronti, Workers and Capital [2019], 309). Herein lies the value of Pennington’s project for a new generation of scholars. In its abject refusal to contain early Friends within tiresome conceptual straitjackets (either as unknowing capitalist moderns or failed spiritual revolutionaries), new questions can be asked of the historical evidence. Instead of preempting what might be found, Pennington delights in the sheer complexity of her subject, finding in early Quakers “a dynamic faith in a constantly changing situation” (125). From this vantage point, one can forge a new case for the endurance and coherence of early Quaker theological culture, despite substantial transformations of presentation, emphasis, and strategy. With its invigorating irreverence toward stale polarities and tired debates, and its willingness to break new ground, this work will be invaluable not merely to scholars of Quakerism but to early modern historians, religious studies specialists, and theologians.