In Brief: Meditation, Prayer, God In All: Quaker Mysticism, Panentheism
Reviewed by John Bond
April 1, 2022
By John Macort. Self-published, 2021. 48 pages. $5.50/paperback.
The contents of this book were taken from a previous publication by John Macort entitled A Seeker’s Theology: Christianity Reinterpreted as Mysticism. Having been raised an Episcopalian with strong Quaker influences from family and a Quaker school and college, the author served as an Episcopal priest for four decades. After his retirement, he returned to his Liberal Quaker roots. He renounced Trinitarian doctrines, creeds and beliefs. Now a panentheist, he bases his faith on mystical experiences. He calls himself a rebellious Episcopalian, Unitarian, Universalist, Liberal Quaker, seeker. As a non-theist, he contends that God is not a divine person or supreme being off in the heavens. The author experiences God as the impersonal energy that makes everything that exists what it is. God is the source of all energy and love. How then, does one pray to impersonal, divine Spirit or Energy? Through mystical meditation, everyone can receive inspiration and direct revelations from God. When we transmit or send our divine energy from within ourselves directly to other persons, that is prayer.