October Updates:

William Penn Lectures:

• The Christian Demand For Social Reconstruction

By Dr. Harry F. Ward, 1918
A resounding indictment of capitalistic industrialism, Dr. Ward speaks urgently from a Christian standpoint about the conditions of society of the day. Christianity, he says, "calls men to be born again, and these new-born men to create a new social order. It proclaims a social ideal and points out a dynamic by which it may be achieved. It is neither content with the world nor bent upon escaping from it. It will neither flee the evil that is in the world nor compromise with it."
 
• Peace and Tranquility: The Quaker Witnesses

By Ira De A. Reid, 1958
Speaking to an era when the cold war was being fought with a vengeance, Dr. Reid, a social scientist has thoughtful words on the value of Quaker witness and testimony. "The Quaker inward peace is at once scientifically tenable and spiritually propitious. It will permit its holders to have a religion of healthy-mindedness rather than one of weary, sin-sick souls...

Pendle Hill Pamphlets:
The earliest of the series are now available.

• Cooperation and Coercion as Methods of Social Change

php001 by Vincent D. Nicholson, 1934
This paper is an introduction to a study of how our civilization addresses conflict resolution through either cooperation or coercion. Vincent Nicholson is careful to define these terms and to focus the discussion on the moral issues which are involved.
 
• A Religious Solution to the Social Problem

php002 by Howard H. Brinton, 1935
Howard Brinton, the Dean of Pendle Hill, defined the most significant social problem of his day as one of "excessive individualism." The remedy he seeks is one which counters that syndrome and, at the same time, "respects the hard-won rights of the individual...
 
• The Value of Voluntary Simplicity

php003 by Richard B. Gregg, 1936
"Is it not the duty of sensitive people to grasp power and direct its use as well as possible? Is this cry for simplicity only a camouflage for irresponsibility, for lack of courage or failure of energy?"
 
• To the Refreshing of the Children of Light

php101 by Geoffrey F. Nuttall, 1959
Written by a man who, while not a Quaker, had studied the Quaker traditions in depth, this pamplet investigates several themes which are fundamental to Quakerism.