Quaker Eschatology in Britain through the Lens of Narrative

Abstract

To supplement Pink Dandelion’s eschatological framing of Quaker history, this study offers the theatrum mundi as a metaphor that makes explicit the narrative nature of eschatology. This metaphor is used to chart Quaker eschatology in Britain from its beginnings to the present, showing that, while Quaker ecclesiology has remained relatively consistent, the underlying eschatology has changed significantly. Successive generations of Quakers have continued to inhabit the liturgical ‘empty stage’ of the First Friends, while the shared theological ‘script’ has been altered and eventually abandoned. It is then suggested that this lack of a shared ‘script’ raises significant challenges to British Quakers being a community of hope.