One of the delights I have when I teach a class called, Modern Spiritual Paths, is to re-read my favorite Quaker book, namely, Thomas Kelly’s A Testament of Devotion. First published in 1941, the book was one of two Quaker books in the twentieth century which sold a million copies. I never had the pleasure of meeting Thomas Kelly, since he died right before I was born. I was, however, friends with many folks who had known Kelly, one of whom was T. Canby Jones. Canby had a long association with Wilmington College and was instrumental in naming one of the buildings there the Kelly Center.
Kelly taught at Earlham College in Indiana, where I spent many good years on the faculty. And then he went on to teach at Hawaii and, finally, at Haverford College in suburban Philadelphia. He was involved in working with Quakers in Germany in the 1930s and witnessed firsthand the rise to power of the Nazis.
If he had lived at the end of the twentieth century, I can imagine Kelly would have been an ardent supporter of what we now call spirituality. As we read Kelly’s words, it is clear he sought a personal experience of the Presence, as he so often calls God. Kelly was interested in the academic pursuit of philosophy and theology, but finally he was more interested in the personal story of the human encounter with the divinity. That is one of my chief attractions to his work.
The chapter I am fond of is called “The Blessed Community.” This was written and delivered to a gathering of Quakers at Germantown Friends Meeting in 1939. I have read this many times and am always reminded why the theme of community has been central in my own life and work. I am grateful to Kelly for his formative ideas and encouragement.
That chapter begins with these powerful words. “When we are drowned in the overwhelming seas of the love of God, we find ourselves in a new and particular relation to a few of our fellows.” Many things jump out of this sentence. Initially, I am struck by the plural word, seas. I could have imagined Kelly might describe the love of God as one great sea. I recall the operating metaphor by Quaker founder, George Fox, when he talks about the “ocean of light and love” of God. But I actually like Kelly’s plural, seas.
While God’s love is easy enough to imagine as one---or unitive, perhaps each of us in our own way experience that love of God uniquely. Together our experiences can be talked about as the “seas of the love of God.” From the human perspective, God’s love does seem plural. From the divine perspective, however, all those seas are but manifestations of the one sea of the love of God.
The next thing to be observed in this sentence from Kelly is the stark realization that the seas of God’s love will overwhelm us. I take this to mean in the face of this amazing love, we cannot be in control. Indeed, we probably don’t even want finally to be in control. But I also know there is a significant resistance in most of us to losing control. And so there is likely early resistance to this love of God. We usually prefer being in control and being loved, too. But they are mutually exclusive!
And the last point from that sentence is to recognize that this overwhelming love of God brings us into a new relationship with some of our friends. This is the birth of the blessed community, as Kelly wants to talk about it. He continues to comment, “The relation is so surprising and so rich that we despair of finding a word glorious enough and weighty enough to name it.” He goes even further, noting “…a new kind of life-sharing and of love has arisen…”
It is this dream that fuels my own quest for the blessed community. I know the power of this is so much more than mere groups. I know this quest for community takes work on my part and the part of others. But it is also finally a gift, as Kelly states. It has to be a work of grace; otherwise, we are the fabricators of community, which would again point to the control aspect.
This blessed community is unlike any others because it is rooted and grounded in the Center, as Kelly names it. This Quaker language has been part of my fabric my entire life. As a Quaker, I know the Center is that place---not literally a place---where the human and the divine encounter, connect and inhabit. The cool thing is we can join others in that Center. It is a communal experience, as well as an individual one. When we have been graced, Kelly assures us, “now we know that, at bottom, we have never been together in the deep silences of the Center” until we have joined the blessed community.
The bottom line of this for me is the conviction that the blessed community is the best hint I have what the kingdom of God might actually be. I doubt that it is only an individual personal story of salvation. The kingdom is a community---a blessed community. It is found in the seas of God’s love.
And if you want to be there, you will find it overwhelming. And that will be good…very good.
Kelly taught at Earlham College in Indiana, where I spent many good years on the faculty. And then he went on to teach at Hawaii and, finally, at Haverford College in suburban Philadelphia. He was involved in working with Quakers in Germany in the 1930s and witnessed firsthand the rise to power of the Nazis.
If he had lived at the end of the twentieth century, I can imagine Kelly would have been an ardent supporter of what we now call spirituality. As we read Kelly’s words, it is clear he sought a personal experience of the Presence, as he so often calls God. Kelly was interested in the academic pursuit of philosophy and theology, but finally he was more interested in the personal story of the human encounter with the divinity. That is one of my chief attractions to his work.
The chapter I am fond of is called “The Blessed Community.” This was written and delivered to a gathering of Quakers at Germantown Friends Meeting in 1939. I have read this many times and am always reminded why the theme of community has been central in my own life and work. I am grateful to Kelly for his formative ideas and encouragement.
That chapter begins with these powerful words. “When we are drowned in the overwhelming seas of the love of God, we find ourselves in a new and particular relation to a few of our fellows.” Many things jump out of this sentence. Initially, I am struck by the plural word, seas. I could have imagined Kelly might describe the love of God as one great sea. I recall the operating metaphor by Quaker founder, George Fox, when he talks about the “ocean of light and love” of God. But I actually like Kelly’s plural, seas.
While God’s love is easy enough to imagine as one---or unitive, perhaps each of us in our own way experience that love of God uniquely. Together our experiences can be talked about as the “seas of the love of God.” From the human perspective, God’s love does seem plural. From the divine perspective, however, all those seas are but manifestations of the one sea of the love of God.
The next thing to be observed in this sentence from Kelly is the stark realization that the seas of God’s love will overwhelm us. I take this to mean in the face of this amazing love, we cannot be in control. Indeed, we probably don’t even want finally to be in control. But I also know there is a significant resistance in most of us to losing control. And so there is likely early resistance to this love of God. We usually prefer being in control and being loved, too. But they are mutually exclusive!
And the last point from that sentence is to recognize that this overwhelming love of God brings us into a new relationship with some of our friends. This is the birth of the blessed community, as Kelly wants to talk about it. He continues to comment, “The relation is so surprising and so rich that we despair of finding a word glorious enough and weighty enough to name it.” He goes even further, noting “…a new kind of life-sharing and of love has arisen…”
It is this dream that fuels my own quest for the blessed community. I know the power of this is so much more than mere groups. I know this quest for community takes work on my part and the part of others. But it is also finally a gift, as Kelly states. It has to be a work of grace; otherwise, we are the fabricators of community, which would again point to the control aspect.
This blessed community is unlike any others because it is rooted and grounded in the Center, as Kelly names it. This Quaker language has been part of my fabric my entire life. As a Quaker, I know the Center is that place---not literally a place---where the human and the divine encounter, connect and inhabit. The cool thing is we can join others in that Center. It is a communal experience, as well as an individual one. When we have been graced, Kelly assures us, “now we know that, at bottom, we have never been together in the deep silences of the Center” until we have joined the blessed community.
The bottom line of this for me is the conviction that the blessed community is the best hint I have what the kingdom of God might actually be. I doubt that it is only an individual personal story of salvation. The kingdom is a community---a blessed community. It is found in the seas of God’s love.
And if you want to be there, you will find it overwhelming. And that will be good…very good.
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