In' This Issue

A Quaker Weekly VOLUME 4 MARCH 29, 1958 NUMBER 13 IN' THIS ISSUE #r ;, not half so ;mp"' tant that we send Sputniks cir Job: The Problem of Evil cling around the globe as that we should send more loaves of by Carl F. Wise bread around the world. If we would concentrate on economic aid, the reduction of armaments, the honest ex Quakers Confer on Disarmament change of news as well as the by George C. Hardin exchange of visiting delega tions across all international lines, regardless of either iron curtains or star-spangled cur Letter from Japan tains, we would go far towards by Jackson H. Bailey the reduction of those fears and tensions which now goad whole nations into a suicidal leap into the abyss of death. Disarmament-An Old Concem and -EDWIN T . DAHLBERG a New Urgency The Quaker Historian- Verse FlmEN CENTS A COPY $4.50 A YEAI 194 FRIENDS JOURNAL March 29, 1958 The Quaker Historian FRIENDS JOURNAL I RIENDS have always read, taught, and written history. FToday a good many of them are professional historians. Do they have any peculiar contribution to make? A common answer is that they can make no special con tribution, but can seek only to be as honest, penetrating. stimulating, and impartial as is humanly possible. Anything else is evil indoctrination and bias. I agree that Friends should strive for this excellence in history. Nevertheless, if it means anything particular to be a Friend, then it means something Published weekly, except during July and August when particular to be a Quaker historian. For example, if Friends published biweekly, at 1616 Cherry Street, Philadel believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, then the story of the phia 2, Pennsylvania (Rittenhouse 6-7669) By Friends Publishin~r Corporation exercise of the Holy Spirit among men, their blindness to it WILLIAM HUBBEN JEANNE CAVIN Editor and Manager Advertisements or their disobedience, is central to history for them. Problems LOIS L. COMINGS MARTHA TURNER then arise: How does the historian detect the past actions of Assistant Editor Subscriptions the Holy Spirit, or can he at all? CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENTS I invite correspondence from Friends interested in history, RICHARD R. WOOD, Philadelphia Africa ............................. Maurice Webb, Durban dealing with such questions as I propose below. I will under England ...................... Horace B. Pointing, London take from time to time to edit, reproduce, or summarize letters Joan Hewitt, London Germany .......................... Lottelore Roloff, Berlin received and distribute them to all correspondents. India ............................ Benjamin Polk, Calcutta Japan .......................... Jackson H. Bailey, Tokyo 1. Is there any religious reason for trying to stimulate in Lebanon . ....... Calvin W. and Gwendolyn Schwabe, Beirut Scandinavia ................. Ole Olden, Stavanger, Norway terest in history? Switzerland . .. ............ ....... Robert J . Leach, Geneva Turkey ... , , , ... , , , , .. , , , , .. William L. Nute, Jr., Ankara 2. Should a historical lecture or an essay prepared for a Lake Erie Association ......Winthrop M. Leeds, Pittsburgh popular audience be any different because the author is a Midwest (Five Years) ........... Russell E. Rees, Richmond New England ......... ........ Thomas R. Bodine, Hartford Friend? West Coast ........ ....... Ferner Nubn, Claremont, Calif. 3. Are there parts of the past which are peculiarly appro BOARD OF MANAGERS priate for Friends to study? 1966-1968: Carol P. Brainerd, Willis H. Satterthwaite, Lydia F. Taylor, Daniel D. Test, Jr., Anne Wood. 1966-1969: 4. Are there Quaker methods of studying history or are Howard H. Brinton, Sarah P. Brock, Ruth 0. Maris, Margaret L. Matthews, Lawrence McK. Miller, Jr. 1967- current practices, and methods taught in the universities, suf. 1960: Mary R. Calhoun, Eleanor S. Clarke, Barbara L. ficient? Curtis, Arthur M. Dewees, Irving Hollingshead, Emily C. Johnson, Elizabeth H. Kirk. 5. What texts have Quaker teachers of history found most THE JOURNAL ASSOCIATES are friends who add live dollars or more to their subscriptions annually to help satisfactory? Why? Barnabas Hobbs, superintendent of Earl meet the over-all cost of publication. ham College and principal of Bloomingdale 'Friends Academy, SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States, possessions, Can ada, and Mexico: $4.60 a year, $2.50 for six months. once prepared a set. of Friends' texts. Is there any need of Foreign countries: $5.00 a year. Single copies: fifteen cents. Cheeks should be made payable to Friends Journal. texts by Friends today? Sample copies sent on request. T. D. SEYMOUR BASSETT, Re-entered as second-class matter July 7, 1966, at the post Division of Humanities office at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under the Act of March S, 1879. University of California Riverside, Calif. Grape Hyacinths Contents By ANNE YouNG Page No beauty in the telling: black-purple hood The Quaker Historian-T. D. Seymour Bassett 194 Top-heavy on a lean and leafless stalk inclined As to the wind- there was no wind. Grape Hyacinths (verse)- Anne Young ............ 194 That noon I found them darker than shadow, shadow Editorial Comments .................. .......... 195 less-the blind Job: The Problem of Evil-Carl F. Wise . 196 Perhaps discern such flowers-to the dark disciplined. The Shadow of Hiroshima ....................... 197 No light receiving, none reflecting, parting light Disarmament-An Old Concern and a New Urgency 198 they stood. Quakers Confer on Disarmament-George C. Hardin 199 I saw the Rood, Letter from Japan-jackson H. Bailey ............ 200 Perfect in darkness, the dark itself rescind, Friends and Their Friends . 202 In light defined- Letters to the Editor . 203 Glory to God! , FRIENDS JOURNAL Successor to THE FRIEND (1827-1955) and FRIENDS INTELLIGENCER (1844-1955) ESTABLISHED 1955 PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 29, 1958 VoL. 4 - No. 13 Editorial Comments The Christian and Atomic Warfare ness of the moment and advocate the daring Christian ABOUT a year ago Martin Buber replied with the quest of discontinuing unilaterally all preparations for fi following convincing deliberations to the question atomic warfare? why all appeals to stop preparations for atomic warfare Collector's Item had remained ineffectual: These appeals tell govern ments, politicians, and generals what to do or not to do. Our recent reference to Dostoievski's having men But they fail to express a clear commitment of those tioned a fictional change in heavenly bodies (FRIENDS who release or sign them. Missing in these manifestoes JouRNAL, March 1, p. 131) should be supplemented by a more substantial item concerning satellites that comes are the sentences in which the signers state in unmis close to prophecy. The film takable language that they will not cooperate with prep The Brothers Karamazov, now running in some cities, will arouse many a reader arations for atomic warfare. The courageous statements to turn to the book itself. The novel is infinitely richer by atomic scientists aroused our attention and hope be than the film and affords rare insights into the human cause they dared to express just this personal commitment. psyche. It was completed in 1880. Churches in many nations, international church as Book XI, chapter 9, tells the story of the devil's visit semblies, and the Pope have all released many such un to Ivan in lengthy and colorful detail. Ivan does not committed and therefore feeble statements. These do not at first recognize the visiting "gentleman" but feels rather go to the root of the problem, which is the immorality uncomfortable in his company, although the visitor fas and clearly anti-Christian nature of atomic warfare and cinates him. As both ramble over a wide field, Ivan falls other means of mass killing. The time is here for the under the spell of the stranger's versatility and the con churches to awaken to the irreconcilable conflict between fusing magic of his personality. Still, he strenuously their confessions of Christian faith and their sanction of attempts not to be hypnotized. Somehow the conversa warfare, often pronounced in one breath with appela tion turns to subfreezing temperature and suddenly an tions to the Holy Spirit. The theological arguments of ice-cold ax is mentioned. Ivan asks whether there can be Paul, Augustine, Luther, and the Popes sanctioning a an ax in low temperature and in space. The stranger "just war" should at long last be assigned to the junk himself appears surprised and lets his fancy run over this yard of history where they belong. Any apologies for new thought. An ax in space? He rambles along by atomic warfare for the sake of religion, justice, and de saying that such an ax would be flying around the earth, mocracy will prove illusory. In case of atomic warfare without knowing why, "like a satellite." Scholars would democracy would be the first victim and all other rights calculate its regular course and naturally put it on the and privileges would soon follow it to the realm of the calendar. Ivan is confused and begins to doubt even the forgotten past. visitor's existence. The scene moves along for quite a Fortunately the voices are increasing that denounce while in this borderland between reality and dream. the moral insensibility of official Christendom as an un An ax in space, a satellite, predicted as early as 1880! wanted neutralism, outright cowardice, and evasiveness It is the symbol of a threat, and we are fortunate that in the face of the ultimate decisions to which Christian neither Sputnik nor the Explorer resemble this weapon. faith calls us. Where is the Holy Spirit, asks C. Wright There is still time to remove the threat which they might Mills in the Nation (March 8) in this attempt to redeem assume. That it was the devil who thought of the first the day? Has the terrible dictum at long last become man-made satellite as a weapon is all the more reason to true that "God is dead"? The writer accuses the church get busy.

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