Recently I had the occasion to return to some readings that I did long ago. Because of an article I am writing, I needed to go back to my Quaker roots for some ideas and Quaker way of putting those ideas. I returned to one of my favorite Quakers of last century, Douglas Steere. I knew Douglas as an acquaintance, but not well enough to call a friend. He was a long-time professor of philosophy at Haverford College in the Philadelphia area. In some ways Douglas Steere became a role model for me. He was one of those seasoned veterans who come along early in one’s career. Douglas was an academic---a good academic. But he also was a man of the Spirit and a man of the world. Douglas was involved in the ecumenical movement long before most of us knew what the word meant. He read Catholic literature, much of which today we would talk about as the Catholic spiritual literature. He chose to spend a month in a ...