Deontology of Quakers

DEONTOLOGY OF QUAKERS
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Deontology of Quakers
The Quakers was a movement influenced by religious ideologies, and it was founded in the late 17th century in Britain. The religious concept projected by this society is based on emphasizing that the inward and equal access to the Lord is free for anyone. Today, It is estimated that there are 340000 people who are still worshiping the Quakers movement globally. It is also speculated that popular public figures such as previous American presidents like Richard Nixon and Herbert Hoover were active members of the Quakers movement. The paramount context of Quakerism is founded on the basis that everyone has the potential to reach God personally and inwardly. In short, this means that every individual has a direct encounter to access divine revelation. The doctrine of inner light forms the foundation of Quakers worshiping system. For instance, they believe that religious sacraments like Holy Communion and baptism should be performed at a personal level inwardly.
According to Peter Collins, it is a huge challenge to be able to define Quakers and exactly define their identity. This is because, to be able to define their identity, one has to look into Quakers faith and practice of individual Quakers. This is, due to the fact that, Quakers acknowledge individuality as a way of practicing their Meetings. Quakerism definition challenges can be viewed from two different angles; from the practical angle where the Quakers can be considered as heterogeneous as they avow to individuality in their practice.

Secondly, there is also homogeneity in their practice. The homogeneity and heterogeneity can be seen in the approaches Quakers use in order to be able to define their identity and stick to it for more than 350 years.
In order to try and understand how Quakers have learned and maintain their identities, Peter Collin uses three different perspectives. One of these perspectives is are narratives where they use certain terms to describe tensions such as inward/ outward, faith/ practice, inclusive/ exclusive, sacred/ profane, unity/ diversity, individuality / corporate, tradition/ change, equality/hierarchy, unity/diversity. From the narrative perspective, these are the tensions that define Quakers identity, and they are determined on exploring them instead of solving them. These narratives are told from their meetings at the highest levels to lowest individual level with each individual using some creativity in order to ensure the narrative is effective. The other perspective of exploring tensions is through understanding. The Quakers are urged to live life simple and only to spend for what they require and not for luxury.
From this perspective, a Quaker defines needs as simply plain or not plain. However, they don’t have a standard measure of plain and every individual is left to measure for him/her what they deem as plain in their lifestyle most like according to social class. The third perspective is that Quakers identity is learned through meetings or habitus. Through this perspective, it is important to acknowledge that some individuals are more eager to learn than others. Through the Meetings of Worship, the Quakers observe and learn from each other with the newcomers being left to learn the basics. Having looked at all the three perspectives, it, therefore, noticeable that it is quite a challenge to have a particular definition of the Quakers identity and how they can survive without any written doctrine.
In learning about their identities and responsibilities towards the society, Quakers ascribe more to the moral theory of deontology. Just like any other social theory acknowledges that human beings are animals that developed a habit of living in groups. In order to coexist with each other, there have to rule that have to be followed to ensure there is harmony in the society. These rules are called morality. Deontology theory defines that the actions of a person matter a lot and outcomes are measured according to the actions followed. It states that even the outcomes are good but have arrived as a result of wrongful deeds, there is a need to condemn the actions. The theory also states that human beings should be treated as objects of moral ethics. Quakers are more inclined to this part of theory as it requires the person to believe that he/ she represents an image of God. Therefore, has the responsibility to do what is morally upright to benefit the society. Similar to this part of the theory, Quakers believe that every human being should be a living testimony of God since God lives inside everyone. This is the reason why Quakers ensure they are always active as they believe that God requires them to be active in improving the community.
Unlike deontology theory, utilitarianism theory dwells more on the outcome. It states that no moral action is right or wrong and that the rightness or wrongness of the moral action can only be defined by non-moral consequences in the society. In other words, morality can only be defined as a result of the goodness produced by the action. This theory can even be used to justify slavery as long as there is maximum production which benefits the society or an individual. Quakers are much opposed to this theory because as seen earlier, they believe that good outcomes are only acceptable of the actions that led to the results are a morally upright failure to which the outcomes are not acceptable. Through the consequentialist reasoning, the Quakers define the actions as moral or immoral, and if good results have been reached as a result of wrong actions, then they reject the results. This can be associated with their strong belief that every individual human being in the society has the obligation do justice in the society, and that actions can be defined as either right or wrong regardless of the outcomes.
In as much as Quakers are always accused of making corporate decisions in a person’s life, they arguably deny these accusations this is because an individual Quakers through individualism is given their rights to make their personal decision and they only present their ideas to the Meeting of Worship to seek for corporate God’s acceptance. This can be said to be similar to secularism where the individuals despite having right to proceed with their own decisions still present them to groups such as family members and others in an attempt to get different opinions or acceptance from the group. However, there is a main difference between the secular primary tools for corporate discernment as speech in for a particular process of an argument for moral for justification purposes contrary to the Quaker’s primary tool which is receptiveness to the inward light. It is important to acknowledge the rationale argument is not enough in the corporate discerning but also the receptiveness as in the concept of Quakers is important as well and this bridges the difference between the two ethics.
Consequently, the Quakers are more likely to take on a deontological duty that requires them to take on and obey rules. Their desire to place their moral obligation is either viewed good or bad because it can surely lead to rejection and the relationship to secular ethics. Then by applying the Hedonistic formula or “calculus” that is developed by Jeremy Bentham this theory emphasizes maximizing the greatest number of happiness and benefits will never allow people to feel rejected in a group. Secular ethics and moral codes are no different than other practices according to the Western-Judeo Christian.
In conclusion, Quakers ascribe more to the moral theory of deontology. Just like any other social theory acknowledges that human beings are animals that developed a habit of living in groups. In order to coexist with each other, there have to rule that have to be followed to ensure there is harmony in the society. Deontology theory defines that the actions of a person matter a lot and outcomes are measured according to the actions followed. However, the paramount context of Quakerism is founded on the basis that everyone has the potential to reach God personally and inwardly. In short, this means that every individual has a direct encounter to access divine revelation. Quakers believe that every human being should be a living testimony of God since God lives inside everyone. This is the reason why Quakers ensure they are always active as they believe that God requires them to be active in improving the community.
Bibliography
Angell, Stephen W., and Pink Dandelion, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies. OUP Oxford, 2013.
“An Introduction to Quaker Testimonies.” Accessed November 20, 2016. https://www.afsc.org/sites/afsc.civicactions.net/files/documents/AFSC_Testimonies_Booklet.pdf
Collins, Peter. “The problem of Quaker identity.” Quaker Studies 13, no. 2 (2009): 205.
Dower, Nigel. “Scully’s” Quaker Approaches to Moral Issues in Genetics”-Book Review.” Quaker Studies 8, no. 2 (2014): 18.
Scully, Jackie Leach. “Virtuous Friends: Morality and Quaker Identity.” Quaker Studies 14, no. 1(2009): 108.