Where did Quakers come from? What do they believe? And how did they get associated with oats? These are the sorts of questions Friends get asked on a regular basis. So we sat down with Steve Angell, a professor of Quaker studies at Earlham School of Religion, and got some solid answers on what distinguishes our faith from other religious communities.
In a free-ranging conversation, he tells us about the Quaker view of sacrament as “a life well lived,” a model of simplicity and loving action toward others. “For Quakers, doctrine is not just what you believe, but what you actually do,” Steve explains. “Quakers are constantly thinking about the practical effects of how God is not only working within them, but working within the world.”
“We’re all on this path of peace and truth and service together,” Steve says, “and therefore we really need to do what we can to make the world a better place.” Different Friends might have different ideas about how that works, he continues, but they all strive to conduct themselves with the honesty and integrity that so deeply impressed the owners of an oatmeal company in nineteenth-century Ohio they decided to associate themselves with Quakers in the public’s imagination.
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