The Nature of Mysticism

As a definitive work of the Society of Friends, the Journal of George Fox has set the tone and tenor for the Society\u27s understanding of one\u27s experience of God or the ultimately Real. Various interpretations of Fox have been offered, but a consistent theme in all interpretations has been Fox\u27s emphasis on the necessity of an experimental or experiential understanding of one\u27s encounter with God. A result of this consistent emphasis has been a trend Fox started himself: since one\u27s experience of God is the touchstone of religious faith, the role or importance of religious texts, religious communities and religious doctrines must play a secondary role in one\u27s apprehension of the ultimately Real. Because Fox emphasized the primacy of the Spirit, or the light of Christ within, over any other religious authority the interpretive tendency has often treated his work as a call for radical individualism in religious experience. But this is simply not the case