JOHN WILLIAM GRAHAM (1859-1932): QUAKER APOSTLE OF PROGRESS Joanna Clare Dales A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Theology and Religion College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. i ABSTRACT This thesis explores the thought of John William Graham in the context of changes that took place in the Society of Friends in Britain during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries. It considers the ways in which some of the challenges to religious faith in general and to Quakerism in particular arising at that time were reflected in the sensibility of one highly intelligent Quaker who gave largely of his time and energy to grappling with the problems and grasping at the opportunities for renewed vision which opened out. As a young man Graham found his faith threatened by new ideas about the natural world and the place of humankind within it, about the status and authority of the Bible, about the real existence of a spiritual world. With other Quakers of his generation he sought to renew what they saw as the essence of the teachings of George Fox and other early Friends. This meant promotion of a faith free alike of dogma and of ritual, and relying on the ‘free ministry’ of immediate inspiration, a faith open to new scientific thinking, and new approaches to the Bible. Graham found among early Friends assurance that true Quakerism, and therefore true Christianity, was a religion of experience; that any teaching which did not accord with experience could be discarded. Experience meant primarily what the individual found within, but it included the empirical findings of science. Graham accepted the Darwinian theory of natural selection, understanding that it ‘acts only by death’. That meant that he was led into a practical dualism: for religious purposes God had to be found within the better impulses of the human heart, not in the processes of nature with their often cruel effects. Eventually, he believed, the two faces of God would be reconciled, but meanwhile it was necessary to live with duality. Along with the older kind of natural theology, much of the thought-world of the Bible, especially of the Old Testament, was now outgrown. The idea of progress could be invoked for assurance that what was acceptable in a previous age was now giving way to something better. Graham came to think that the evangelicalism of some Quakers of the previous generation who had been his mentors had distorted the original ii Quaker message. With other younger Quakers, he reacted particularly against the doctrine of salvation by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, finding it incredible and ethically unacceptable. In consequence he undertook a lifelong battle against such doctrines and against other forces which he saw as inimical to true Quakerism. These forces included tendencies seen particularly among American Quakers to dilute the time-honoured Quaker institution of the meeting for worship based on silence from which spontaneous inspired utterance might arise, through establishing a paid pastorate and set forms of worship. Graham found a ‘scientific’ justification for the old type of Quaker worship in the teachings of the Society for Psychical Research, and especially in those of Frederic Myers. Myers’ idea of the subliminal consciousness explained for Graham how the individual might receive intimations from a spirit world, denied to the conscious, waking self. This was the ground for ‘prophetic ministry’, and also for the consecrated life. Thus he developed a theology centred on the Inward Light, or Inward Voice, identified with a God active within the human personality, inspiring the individual to work for a better world. That meant unremitting pursuit of social justice and of peace, in which more ‘advanced’ nations would help and guide those at a lower stage, as Graham thought the British were called to do in India. Progress towards the better world was assured, but it would be achieved through the strenuous efforts of human beings, especially Quakers. iii DEDICATION: TO WOODBROOKE Rowntree and Cadbury planted here a school For Quakers conscious of the need to think As well as apprehend, to forge a link Between high spiritual fervour and the cool Dawn light, revealing many a sharp-edged tool Ready for use by those that will not blink. Woodbrooke is changed, but still we do not sink Into the easy comfort of the fool: Among these flowery groves a breeze yet stirs To wake and warn us; powerful ministers Urge us to seek Truth where she may be found, Not in obeisance to a slippery past Nor yet in shiny toys not made to last, But in strong plants, growing in well-tilled ground. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the first place I wish to thank my supervisors, Ben Pink Dandelion and Hugh McLeod, for sharing their wide knowledge, for keeping me up to the mark while never failing to give the assurance I needed that I could complete the course. I also thank Ian Jackson, the librarian at Woodbrooke, the staff of Friends’ House Library who helped me find essential material, and Chris Densmore, of Swarthmore College Library, who brought forth from his store evidence of Graham’s relations with the college. For more informal help I thank Ted Milligan, who generously befriended me in his joy that someone was choosing John William Graham as a subject, and also Tom Kennedy, who kindly supplied documents that he acquired while doing his own research. Other academics, Jerry Frost, Thomas Hamm, Jo Vellacott, have given me help and support. I have to give special thanks to Geoffrey Cantor, who first suggested that I study John William Graham, at a time when I had not even heard of him. I thank Greg Radick and other members of the Department of History and Philosophy at Leeds University for welcoming me into their reading group. I owe a debt of thanks, too, to my fellow students, for sharing their insights and giving me the sense of being part of a joint enterprise, and the ever-helpful staff and Friends in Residence at Woodbrooke. I thank my husband and sons, who have helped to make the work possible, and my grand-daughter, who did the proof-reading. Last but not least I thank several members of Graham’s family who have shared their reminiscences, and encouraged me in my work. v ABBREVIATIONS 1. Books by Graham Conscription and Conscience (1922) CC Divinity in Man (1927) DM Evolution and Empire (1912) EE Faith of a Quaker (1920) FQ Harvest of Ruskin (1920) HR Quaker Ministry (1925) QM William Penn (1916) WP 2. Other British Friend BF Council for International Service CIS Dictionary of Quaker Biography DQB Friends’ Foreign Missions Association FFMA Friend Friend Friends’ Ambulance Unit FAU Friends Intelligencer FI Friends Quarterly Examiner FQE John William Graham Papers JWGP Journal of the Friends’ Historical Society JFHS London Yearly Meeting LYM Northern Friends Peace Board NFPB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ODNB Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies OHQS Quaker Ministry (1925) QM Quaker Religious Thought QRT Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research PSPR vi Society for Psychical Research SPR Yearly Meeting YM vii The Life of John William Graham: Chronological Table1 1859 Born in Preston, July 29th, the eldest of six children. The others were Herbert (born in 1861), Agnes (1863), Anna Mary (1864), Lilian (1869), Helena (1871). 1871-73 Attends Ackworth School.2 1874-5 Attends Stramongate School in Kendal. 1875-6 Attends Flounders, a Quaker teacher training college. 1876-79 Teaches at Bootham School, the Quaker boys’ school in York (meeting Edward Vipont Brown, then a senior boy). 1878 Passes from private study the London University Intermediate B.A. Examination, in the First Division. 1879 Moves to Stramongate School. 1880 Travels in Scotland.3 1880 – 81 Attends University College, London, with tied scholarship from Flounders. Awarded BA, First Division. Wins prize for ‘Junior English’. 1881- 84 Attends King's College, Cambridge, working for the Mathematics Tripos. 1883 Teaches at Bootham School in vacation. 1884 Revives Quaker Meeting at Jesus Lane, Cambridge. 1884 Suffers from ill-health. Granted an ‘aegrotat’ degree (MA in Mathematics).4 1884 Gives tuition in mathematics at St. Stephen’s, Cheltenham, for 1 A sample only is included of Graham’s numerous offices in the Religious Society of Friends, and also of his walking and climbing holidays in Britain and Europe. 2 For Ackworth School (founded in 1779 by the Quaker doctor John Fothergill, 1712-1780) see Elfrida Vipont, Ackworth School: from its Foundation in 1779 to the Introduction of Co-Education in 1946, Ackworth: Williams Brown/Pritchard, 1991 (first published, 1959) and Between the Cupolas: a “Light and Airy” Record, by ‘W’ [i.e., Wilfrid Whitten]: London: Headley, 1905.