Jonathan Fryer (1950–2021)

George Fox was the founder of the Quaker movement and lived around middle of the seventeenth century. It is, therefore, difficult to access the man, as times and social mores have changed so much in the intervening years. Fox certainly comes across as an arrogant man; anybody that gain-says him is rude, but he thinks nothing of entering a church and shouting down its priest. On the positive side of his character, Fox was not afraid to take fearful beatings and long terms of imprisonment for his beliefs, which were ahead of their tome in two important areas; he believed that slaves should be well treated and allowed access to the knowledge of God and that women were entitled to attend Quaker meetings.

This book is an ideal introduction to the man and the creation of the religious movement. Jonathan Fryer takes the original text of Fox's biography and squeezes out the substance whilst disposing of long winded passages that would not be of value. This becomes a highly readable, warts and all, biography. Fox is not painted as a saint but neither is he dismissed as a crank. A highly thought provoking book.… (més)