Following his recent (2018) MA in ‘Quakerism in The Modern World’ from Lancaster University, Hugh is currently undertaking research for a Ph.D in Quaker Studies at Birmingham University with the working title ‘An Analysis of the Role and Significance of the Annual Swarthmore Lectures’. This research is focussing on how the Swarthmore Lectures (key events at Quaker Yearly Meetings since 1908) reflect and influence diverse and developing British Quaker beliefs and their effect on Quaker ‘lived’ Testimonies.

Topics

Swarthmore; Lectures; Quaker; Beliefs; Ph.D.

About Hugh Jones

(United Kingdom)

The research is focussing initially on the context and content of the 40 most recent Lectures since Janet Scott’s influential ‘universalist’ 1980 Lecture What Canst Thou Say: Towards a Quaker Theology, with reference to earlier Lectures as time permits.

The primary sources are the 112 Lectures to date, particularly the most recent 40, but also contextual literature such as reviews and discussion in Quaker publications. Conditional access has been granted to the minutes and other records of the Swarthmore Lecture Committee (currently under lockdown conditions at Woodbrooke Library). However the methodology is likely to be mixed: recent statistical surveys of both British and Quaker patterns of religious belief will be analysed and compared, and it is possible semi-formal interviews with past Lecturers may be feasible if appropriate.

Find out more

Forthcoming: Case Note for anthology The Quaker World (eds Wess Daniels and Rhiannon Grant; publisher Routledge) into ‘How far the theological ‘message’ of liberal British Quakers has changed over the last 50 years: an analysis of key introductory texts for enquirers’. Publication originally scheduled for Autumn 2021.