Quakers and the Interfaith Movement: A Handbook for Peacemakers - Paperback

by Anthony Manousos (Author)

A guide to interfaith peacemaking from a Quaker perspective, edited by Anthony Manousos.This handbook consists of writings by Quakers who have played significant roles in the interfaith movement and have helpful advice and insights to offer. While this book is mainly intended for Quakers, we hope it will be useful for all who are concerned about interfaith peacemaking and dialogue. Contributors include Alexander Kern, Gene Hoffman, Kay Lindahl, Michael Birkel, Stephanie Crumley-Effinger, Rhoda Gilman, Michael Sells, Sallie King, Rachel Stacy, Jim Cason, Richard Bellin, Pablo Stanfield, Max Carter, David Rush, and Tim Sallinger. "With its numerous advices, spiritual queries, and clear examples, this book is a wonderful, engaging guide to the challenging yet essential work of interreligious dialogue for those of us living in a world all too frequently disrupted by religious violence. It is filled with an eminently practical wisdom that can stimulate Friends and others to consider how we, too, may become involved in working toward interreligious understanding and harmony. Highly recommended reading for aspiring peacemakers in the 21st century!" -Stephen W. Angell, Leatherock Professor of Quaker Studies at the Earlham School of Religion. "The 18C Quaker sage, John Woolman, spoke about 'the language of the pure Spirit, which inwardly moves upon the heart.' In the 21 C, Anthony Manousos and others in this marvellous volume have wisely discerned that the Spirit is leading us to interfaith dialogue and understanding. The distinctive way of being religious in our time is to be interreligious. I am grateful that the contributors to this volume are leading the way in that urgently needed and transformative endeavor."-Joseph Prabhu, Professor of Philosophy, Cal State Los Angeles. Ex-president, Society of Asian and Comparative Philosophy. Member, Executive Committee, Parliament of the World's Religions.

Author Biography

Anthony Manousous is a full-time Quaker interfaith peace activist who has served on the executive board of several interfaith organizations: the Parliament of the World's Religions, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, Quaker Universalist Fellowship, the Christian and Interfaith Relations Committee of FGC, the Friends World Committe for Consultation, and the South Coast Interfaith Council. He has published numerous articles and poems, edited several books including "A Western Quaker Reader," "Earthlight: Spiritual Wisdom for an Ecological Age," "Compassionate Listening and Other Writings" by Gene Knudsen Hoffman, and a science fiction novel entitled "The Relics of America". He has given many workshops on a variety of topics relating to peace, Quakerism and the environment. He received his B.A. in Classics from Boston University (where he studied with the poet Anne Sexton) and Ph.D. in British Literature from Rutgers University (where he studied with the 18th c. scholar Paul Fussell). He taught college for many years, and has been an active Quaker for over 25 years. In the 1980s, he helped edit a Quaker-inspired anthology of stories and poems by Soviet and American writers called "The Human Experience" that was jointly edited and published in both countries. In 1989, he married a Methodist minister who was his partner and soul mate for 20 years, until she died of cancer in 2009. He joined Princeton Friends Meeting in 2004 when he was editor of an interfaith publication called Fellowship in Prayer, now called Sacred Journeys. He loves animals, gardens, children, and homeless people as well as art, music, and nature.