Apocalypse: Revelation and revolution in the life and message of George Fox

None of these figures is more challenging to our understanding than George Fox. In 1694 William Penn wrote of his late spiritual mentor, Many sons have done virtuously in this day, but dear George thou excellest them all (Preface to Fox\u27s Journal). Fox and the Quaker movement he spearheaded were the major nexus of English radicalism between the time of Puritanism\u27s self-destruction in the 1650s and the liberal settlement of English society in the 1680s. Fox and early Friends thus stand at the cusp between the late Reformation and the early Enlightenment, posing an enduring enigma to our understanding. To reduce them to last-gasp Protestants or to first-blush liberals does certain violence to their historical and theological integrity -- though modern Friends of liberal and evangelical persuasions still play tug-of-war over this disputed legacy