The Testimony of Integrity in the Religious Society of Friends

by Wilmer A. Cooper

Overview

It occurred to me that perhaps the word "integrity" comes as close as any singleword answer to, "What is Quakerism?" I claim that "integrity" is the essential Quaker testimony and undergirds all other testimonies of Friends in relationship to Quaker faith and practice. If integrity is to serve as a shorthand way of describing the essence of Quakerism, it must find its root in the context of Quaker history. I want to unearth that root in the remainder of this essay.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940151440585
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	04/27/2015
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #296
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	966,781
File size:	71 KB

About the Author

Wilmer Cooper grew up among Conservative (Wilburite) Friends in eastern Ohio. He is a graduate of Olney Friends School and Wilmington College. His education includes graduate degrees from Haverford College, Yale Divinity School and Vanderbilt University. During World War II, he did alternative Civilian Public Service under the American Friends Service Committee. In the 1950s he was Associate Secretary of Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, D.C. He joined the faculty of Earlham College in 1959 and was the founding Dean of the Earlham School of Religion. Following eighteen years as Dean he became Professor of Quaker Studies until his retirement in 1985. He has continued teaching part time and writing on Quaker subjects. He is the author of two books, The ESR Story: A Quaker Dream Come True, 1985, and a new book, A Living Faith: A Historical Study of Quaker Beliefs, published by Friends United Press, 1990. He and Emily Cooper live in Richmond, Indiana and part of the year in Florida. They are members of West Richmond Friends Meeting, Indiana Yearly Meeting, and are the parents of four children and five grandchildren. This essay on “The Quaker Testimony of Integrity” is an expansion of addresses given on the subject before several Friends groups, including two yearly meetings. It has been published in abbreviated form by Friends Bulletin of Pacific, North Pacific and Intermountain Yearly Meetings, a flyer by Northwest Yearly Meeting (Evangelical), and a June, 1988 article in Friends Journal in Philadelphia.