William Penn: a study in the Quaker doctrine of political authority, as exemplified particularly in his colonial experiment

Abstract

This work is a study in William Penn's "doctrine" of political authority. The word "doctrine" is used guardedly, because Penn's thought was that of a man on the move. Authority always assumes obedience. The progress of political freedom depends on the quality of that obedience, the same being inseparable from the source of the authority. To William Penn that source was ultimately a divine source. It has become the author's conviction that this divine context of political authority is increasingly lost sight of in our day and age, with the result that our modem world loses sight of its true meaning and significance to the point of setting itself up in revolt against God the Creator, as the rise of godless ideologies unmistakably indicates.It is hardly possible to exaggerate* the importance of the problems which this question of authority has for men and women of this generation. The question lies at the roots of much of our contemporary thought and practice, political and social as well as religious. Today, as in the seventeenth century, theology is deeply implicated in the social upheaval of the times. The enquiry with which the following pages are concerned is therefore far from being an academic discussion or unrelated to the practical problems of daily life