Ben from Open Switch has posted a family tree which covers the majority of Christian traditions, though unfortunately it leaves out the Quakers? It’s a great visual aid that can help you understand the flow between the various groups, and important dates to know. I can see why Ben would have a poster of this on his wall, very helpful.
About the Quakers, it’s interesting to think about where they would be placed on the map due to the layout of the tree. Quakers are most inline with Anabaptist theology and practice, and are certainly considered part of the Radical Reformation tradition but George Fox and other early leaders broke off from the Anglican church to get the movement going. So on the one hand Anglicanism is where many came from but we certainly would think of it as an influence on the movement at all, but with Anabaptism there is no known direct link between Quakers and the Mennonites but the ‘influence’ and similarities are vast.
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7 responses to “Christian Traditions Tree – Missing Quakers”
It is very interesting that they were left off. Maybe I should get a magic marker and write them in :).
Isn’t Congregationalist what the Puritans ended up as? Some would say Quakers were more an offshoot of the Puritans than of the Anglicans.
Yes Robin, you’re absolutely correct, but as I understand (I could be wrong here), the puritans were a group of reformers within the Anglican church who broke away. But either way the puritans aren’t on the list. I am going to have to look into this a bit more I see.
Robin, I wasn’t quite sure about the Puritan thing so I wanted to do a little check and Wikipedia was helpful in shedding light of Puritanism — it was more a reformist movement than an actual denomination and it’s main focus was upon calvinistic sensibilities. See especially sections “1625 to 1660” and “From 1660 to present day.”
I’ve read that George Fox’s uncle was a ‘baptist’ and had influence on his thinking. I was told that that in that time and context (1630/40s?) this meant German-influence anabaptism, so there’s a direct link between Fox and the anabaptist movement.
Thanks for the comment Alice. DO you remember where you read that?
I think the original reference to the baptist uncle may be in Fox’s Journal? And maybe Doug Gwyn, Tim Peat/Ashworth or ben Pink Dandelion provided the interpretation, because I got most of my Quaker studies with them. Apologies for not having a precise recollection.