Liberal Quaker anthropology, eschatology and racial justice

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This project considers the questions: What is a liberal Quaker understanding of the human person, and does this understanding help or hinder the Quaker hope for a racially just future? To answer this question, I bring liberal Quaker theological anthropology (e.g. Scully and Dandelion (eds.) 2007; Johns 2013) into critical dialogue with the future-oriented anthropology of Jurgen Moltmann and black theologies of liberation (e.g. Hopkins 2005, Jennings 2010). This allows me to articulate how the characteristics of liberal British Quaker anthropology are related to Quaker understandings of the future, and ask how white understandings of the human person are replicated or challenged by Quaker theology.Although there has been important work examining Quakers' racial justice failings (McDaniel and Julye 2009), as yet there is no extensive engagement with the 'whiteness' of Quaker theology (Daniels 2018), making this project a unique contribution to the field. This project also answers the recent call within Quaker Studies for a fuller articulation of liberal Quaker anthropology (Grant 2020). This research takes the form of discourse analysis centred on the extensive theological resources of the University of Nottingham, and the Quaker Library at Woodbrooke, a world-leading centre for research into Quakerism. This PhD sits between the 'internal-constructive' and 'external-constructive' approaches within Quaker theology (Kershner, 2018), drawing on Quaker and Christian thought for the benefit of both Quakers and the wider Christian theological community. As such its impact is two-fold. Looking 'inwardly', it articulates a liberal Quaker anthropology that, as one of the first extensive engagements with the 'whiteness' of Quaker theology, provides conceptual tools for Quakers to work towards a raciallyjust future. As an established Quaker educator and writer, I am well-placed to disseminate these tools. My first book for a general audience, "Quaker Shaped Christianity", will be published by Christian Alternative Books in 2022. Looking 'outwardly', the symbols and insights of the Quaker tradition provide fresh resources for wider Christian thought on eschatology, anthropology and racial justice. British Quakerism's debt to liberal Protestant thought means this PhD is of particular significance to other liberal Protestant traditions in their pursuit of a racially just future.I structure this project by examining Quaker anthropology from the period 1890-1920, the formative years of liberal Quakerism in Britain (Kennedy 2001). I critique this using the insights of black theology, suggesting that it is insufficiently materialistic (neglecting both the body and the reality of present suffering), and insufficiently historical (being unable to account for systemic evils such as white supremacy). I identify how these deficiencies are echoed or addressed in contemporary liberal Quaker thought (1994-2020). I conclude the PhD by drawing on Quaker and Christian theology from outside the liberal tradition to repair remaining deficiencies, offering an anthropology that is both identifiably Quaker and a firmer foundation for action towards a racially just future.