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Durham E-Theses Durham E-Theses The eschatology of Margaret Fell (1614-1702) and its place in her theology and ministry Padgett, Sally Bruyneel How to cite: Padgett, Sally Bruyneel (2003) The eschatology of Margaret Fell (1614-1702) and its place in her theology and ministry, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1253/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 THE ESCHATOLOGY OF MARGARET FELL (1614-1702) AND ITS PLACE IN HER THEOLOGY AND MINISTRY. A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Theology, University of Durham, in partial fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. By Sally Bruyneel Padgett 2003 A copyright of this thesis r~sts with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written conse~t and information derived from It should be acknowledged. Copyright © Sally Bruyneel Padgett, 2003. All rights reserved. 1 2 MAR 2004 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 3 Abbreviations 4 l. Introduction 5 2. Margaret Fell: A Brief Overview of her Life and Work 34 3. A Measure of the Times 100 4. The Kingdom of Light: 140 Margaret Fell's Theology and Eschatology 5. A Salutation to the Seed of Abraham: 221 Margaret Fell, Quaker Evangelism and the Jews 6. Living in the Last Days: 263 Women's Equality and Peace Testimony 7. Conclusion 308 Bibliography 315 2 ABSTRACT Sally Bruyneel Padgett The Eschatology of Margaret Fell (1614-1702) and its Place in her Theology and Ministry. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Durham, 2003. This thesis examines the theology of Margaret Askew Fell Fox (1614-1702). While Fell has been the subject of some historical research, especially by Quaker scholars, she has not been studied as a religious author in her own right. This thesis undertakes a careful study of her theology, taking her seriously as a prophetic and practical theologian. It demonstrates that, like other early Quakers and like many English religious authors during the Civil War and Interregnum, Fell was deeply influenced by Biblical apocalyptic literature and the strong eschatological expectations of her time. After a brief overview of her life, ministry and theological writings, this work places Fell's thought in the context of English apocalyptic and millenarian movements, including the peculiarly Quaker understanding of an over-realized eschatology of the Light within. We then move on to a larger consideration of her theology as a whole, with an emphasis upon her eschatology. In the final chapters of the work, we demonstrate the centrality of Fell's eschatology for her work with the Jews, for her defense of the spiritual equality of women, and for her promotion of the Quaker peace testimony. Like the other Quakers of her day, she held that Christ had come fully in the Light, shining in the conscience of all people. Although her views on the character of the Second Coming changed somewhat after the return of the King in 1660, they retained an obvious and consistent realized eschatology. This eschatological center gives shape to the whole of her life and thought 3 ABBREVIATIONS Spence MSS Spence Manuscripts. Wallace Margaret Fell, A Sincere and Constant Love, Terry S. Wallace, ed. Works Margaret Fell, A Collection of Remarkable Passages, etc. (1710). Full citations for these and all works cited herein are found in the Bibliography. 4 Bruyneel Padgett Margaret Fell 5 One Introduction The Religious Society of Friends has been unusually blessed in the quality of its historians. In the last hundred years alone Quakerism has been fortunate to be the subject of dedicated intellectual attention by scholars such as William Braithwaite, Hugh Barbour, Dean Freiday, Douglas Gwyn and Leo Damrosch-to name but a few. The volume of Friends' correspondence and publications available in colleges, study centers and universities is quite remarkable, and at present a renaissance in Quaker Studies seems well underway. This given, there is an as yet unresolved dissonance in the scholarship by and about the women of Quakerism. On the one hand, there is a vast quantity of material written by women in the Society of Friends whose ranks have long included energetic women preachers and social reformers. Although the popular conception of Quakers as historically egalitarian with regard to gender is incorrect, this is offset by the wealth of evidence that Quaker women have often functioned beyond the social and religious boundaries of their time. On the other hand, the weighty standard works of Quaker history have traditionally focused their narratives on the contributions and activities of men within the Society of Friends. Women appear in their pages as minor players momentarily elevated in status for the purposes of the author, and then just as quickly consigned to the footnotes of Friends' history. Chapter One Bruyneel Padgett Margaret Fell 6 This dissonance between the historical evidence and the historical record is nowhere more obvious than when considering the life of Margaret Askew Fell Fox (1614-1702). Margaret is currently the subject of widening interest among historians and scholars of religion, particularly in those areas influenced by, or interested in, feminism and women's history. This has not always been the case, and given the vicissitudes of history her contributions have not enjoyed the attention or respect they merit. Until recent times, Margaret Fell was largely ignored in scholarly material written by or about Quakers. This has been the case even among the Society of Friends, known more commonly as Quakers, whose religious traditions and teachings she helped form and nurture. Where she was represented in print, the image that emerged was generally that of the comforting matron who offered encouragement and support to the much put-upon fIrst generation of Friends. Even in this, her significance was predicated upon the fact that she was the wife of the lionized founding Quaker leader, George Fox. Fortunately for us, a truer measure of her importance as a religious reformer and theologian is now being recovered by the current generation of scholars. The particular piece of scholarly inquiry now before you takes place at a time when older hagiographic and one-dimensional portraits of Margaret Fell have fallen by the way. The older thumbnail sketch of Margaret as protecting mother of the Quaker hearth and wife to founder George Fox has been replaced by a newer, more socially and historically conscious model. She is no longer just an historical Chapter One Bruyneel Padgett Margaret Fell 7 footnote to the halcyon days of early Quakerism, but an increasingly valued part of the Friends' religious heritage. She is also of significance for contemporary work in areas such as Women's Studies, where her ample catalogue of extant writings provides a wealth of information-as well as a sense of historical solidity-that must come as a relief to scholars charged with integrating 'herstory' and history. At the same time, the current scholarly efforts that study her life and work present their own uneven picture of Margaret Fell. This is a natural and transitory state of affairs most appropriately addressed by continued study and the attendant depth and texture this will bring to the subject overall. The effort I have set before you is intended to make just such a contribution to the field. As the situation surrounding Margaret Fell as a subject of study has changed in the past fifteen years, so has the nature of the work before you. At the time of my initial research there was little in print on Margaret and, in contrast with her contemporaries and co-workers George Fox and James Naylor, little awareness of her except in the most general sense. Thus, early on in this research into Margaret Fell it became clear that this was an unplowed field in scholarship. The task at that time was to attempt a more accurate and nuanced portrait of the so­ called "nursing mother of Quakerism," in what was largely a biographical undertaking. In terms of the older secondary resources she received only the occasional mention, and in newer works her contribution was noted and generally remarked upon, but the task of producing more concentrated scholarship was left to later writers. With regard to primary sources, beyond the work of Isabel Ross and earlier undernourished discussions of Mother Fell, there was little available. It was Chapter One Bruyneel Padgett Margaret Fell 8 thus necessary in a real sense to spend a great deal of time in her own writings, many of which were unpublished or in rare-book collections scattered across the United Kingdom and the United States. Thus my conception of her sprang largely from reading her own communications, both public and private. By the time that publications of scholars such as Christine Trevett, Bonnelyn Kunze, Kate Peters and Phyllis Mack began appearing, much of my initial effort in biography was unnecessary. At the same time there were areas of Margaret's life and thought that-even in these fme efforts­ had not received the attention they merited, with the result that the research now before you was undertaken in earnest.
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