How Do Friends Know What They Know?

By Charles E. Jackson

How do we know what we know? When we say "I know" or "I believe," what is the source of those pronouncements?

Knowledge and belief differ in the degree of subjectivity and objectivity that we assign to statements of each. The recipient of a statement of belief may infer subjectivity into a that statement, whereas the individual who "knows" or believes" something usually grants objectivity to that knowledge and belief.

For Friends, the source of our knowledge and belief is not a mere academic quandary. Without an authoritative statement of belief such as a creed, we are especially called upon to seek clarity for what we hold to be true and espouse to the world at large. We cannot be considered credible if we do not understand, to the extent that understanding is possible, the basis of the belief system of what we and society refer to as Quakerism.

What we know and what we believe arise from two fundamental sources: authority and experience. These sources are not exclusive of each other. Analogies are seldom right on point, but to confirm the preceding statement, consider a situation in which several children are running around a hot grill on which an adult is cooking. The adult says to the children: 'Don't touch the grill. It's hot, and it will hurt you."

Authority (the adult) has now transmitted knowledge and belief to the children. Most of the children will accept the authority of the adult, and they know and believe that a hot grill, if touched, will hurt. However, a couple of the children in the course of running about will fall and accidentally touch the grill, and through experience, they will now know and believe that hot grills hurt. And of course there will be at least one child who, upon hearing the adult authority warn that touching the grill will hurt, will reach his or her hand out and slap it on the grill. That child will certainly know and believe that hot grills hurt. (That child is also a prime prospect for becoming a member of the Society of Friends.)

The vast reservoir of what we call knowledge is based on authority. Virtually all of what we call our "education" and our "science" is authority-based. I have never met George Washington, have you? I will never experience a light year, but I know that a light year is a concept of measurement that is useful in scientific study.

However, there are aspects of our lives in which experience joins authority in transmitting knowledge and belief. These aspects are largely part of the processes of life itself. Growing older is one. I have read many articles and a few books, attended AARP seminars, and talked with elders about aging. While I have learned much about the difficulties and a few joys of growing older, I can truly declare as I enter the autumn years of my life, that my personal experience in aging has never been accurately and fully depicted by any written or verbal authority.

A common life experience that hopefully each of us encounters is that of "falling in love." Usually this significant event occurs in our teenage years and, if we are fortunate, more than once in our lives. Falling in love is undoubtedly the inspiration behind more books, songs, and poems than any other subject of human life. Yet, have you ever read a book, heard a song, or read a poem that exactly captures your personal experience with falling in love with someone whose very presence, touch, and even smell overwhelms your life in the time it is happening to you?  

These two examples of knowing from experience and authority bring us to one obvious conclusion. When our knowledge arises from both authority and experience, experience supersedes authority. We may know and believe what authority imparts to us, but when we have direct experience of that knowledge or belief, we are convinced of its truth. The child who touches the grill really knows what "hurt" means.

The supremacy of experience is at the very core of what it means to be a Quaker. A Quaker does not reject authority, but all authority-based belief, whether it is gleaned from a book or from the pronouncements of a human being granted authority, cannot equal the validity of belief that arises from our direct, personal experience. This is the seminal message of George Fox, and it remains today at the very core of what it means to be a Friend.

What we term as "religious belief' is to a very large degree based on authority. That authority is found in a writing or in the pronouncements of an individual or group of individuals who have been granted the power to make such authoritative statements. The writings in the Bible, the Torah, and the Koran provide the authority for Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and the pronouncements of Popes, Bishops, Rabbis, and Mullahs are taken as authoritative when made in certain religious contexts.

However, in each of the above cited religious traditions, there are elements of belief based on experience. The "mystical" experience in Christianity ranging from Catholic saints such as Theresa of Avila to certain Protestant and Catholic charismatics, the cabbalists of Judaism, as well as the sufis of Islam are all powerful examples of religious believers who will claim that they can "experience" their beliefs. But in each of these major religions, the authority of the writings and empowered individuals is dominant.

The Religious Society of Friends is one of the very few, if not only, organized religious belief communities in which experience is primary and authority is secondary. As Quakers, we seek direct leadings that arise from our experience of the Inner Light. If a statement in the Bible conflicts with our direct experience of its validity, and if that direct experience is tested or, as Quakers say, "seasoned" by the experience of others, then that Biblical statement is open to interpretation that brings it into closer alignment with experience.

Quaker is as Quaker does. The authenticity that we attribute to experience, when seasoned by the experience of others, calls us to at least attempt to base the behavior in our lives on that seasoned experience rather than obedience to a rule laid down by external authority.

This primacy of experience in Quakerism is both an asset and a detriment in the understanding of what it means to be a Friend and in our prospects for survival and growth in the world at large. It is obvious even to the most casual observer that we live in a time in which authority-based religions, particularly in the western world, are in a weakening state of being. There is growth in those areas of organized religion where there is at least the promise of the immediacy of personal experience. In current Protestantism, evangelicals are growing in numbers compared to the more "main line" ritual-laden and authority-based religious communities.

The Religious Society of Friends is in a prime position to benefit from this turning to experientially grounded faith communities. Yet we are not succeeding at either presenting our message or at capturing the commitment of those who by chance or circumstance come into contact with Friends and their meetings. We are called on to ask ourselves: "why?"

The answer to that question is both complex and elusive. However, the first step in seeking the answer is to be clear within ourselves about what we know and believe and the bases on which that knowledge and belief is based. A simple beginning to making Quakerism better understood and fulfilling to others might be that when you are asked about what it means to be a Friend, do not hand that person a copy of "Faith and Practice," but rather ask that person to sit down quietly with you, and wait upon the Light.

Charles E. Jackson is a member of Hockessin (Del.) Meeting.