Anabaptists and Quakers: The Historic Peace Church Contribution – lecture by Stuart K. Masters
This year, the Anabaptist movement is celebrating its 500th anniversary, and last year Quakers (also known as ‘Friends’) marked the 400th birthday of George Fox, one of its key founding figures. Together, Anabaptists and Quakers have been called the Historic Peace Churches, sharing a notable family resemblance. This lecture will examine these two radical religious traditions and assess their contribution to the wider Christian Church. In seeking to do this, it will examine their tumultuous beginnings, outline key similarities and differences, review patterns of development and diversification over time, touch on shared relationships and collaborations, assess their potential weaknesses, and highlight what they might offer in a world after Christendom.
Stuart K. Masters is a teacher and writer with a focus on the Quaker faith, its history, theology, spirituality and relationship with other Christian traditions. For fifteen years, he worked for Woodbrooke, an international Quaker learning and research organization based in the UK, and following his retirement, continues to offer courses and events as an Associate Tutor. Stuart is a Regional Representative for the Anabaptist Mennonite Network, and a member of the Advisory Council for the American Journal, Quaker Religious Thought.
Stuart is the author of The Rule of Christ: Themes in the Theology of James Nayler (Brill, 2021) and The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth (T&T Clark, 2025).
This lecture will be live-streamed on Wednesday 19 November at 17:00 hrs. Please use this link to join: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MDZlN2EzN2UtNTJmZC00YTI5LTg2ZGEtMjFhZGFmY2IzNjIy%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2285e93b0b-cd11-4e48-ab05-e9d15a4d2e70%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2232f5882e-5d43-4818-b5db-71031eb4ce3f%22%7d
For further information about this lecture or any aspect of the Centre, please contact Stuart Murray Williams at [email protected]