In Brief: Thirty-Three Ways Seven Faiths Agree with the Quakers
Reviewed by Sharlee DiMenichi
June 1, 2025
By Thomas Wolfe R.H. and Companions. Be Friendly Ministries, 2024. 260 pages. $25/paperback.
In this book, Thomas Wolfe, a member of Annapolis (Md.) Meeting, writes to Friends of various persuasions about how the holy writings of several world religions harmonize with Quaker thought. Wolfe has long had an interest in comparative religion and interfaith work. Nearly 30 years ago he read a comprehensive collection of the writings of William Penn and found inspiration in Penn’s method of finding commonalities in different scriptures. He started Be Friendly Ministries as a way to provide information and resources to all who are interested in connecting with people of other faiths. This is the project’s second publication.
The book is divided into five sections with the headings Peace, Equality, Simplicity, Truth, and Order. Each section contains six or seven reflections about principles that various faiths affirm. The religions represented include Quakerism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and the teachings of Meher Baba. Meher Baba was a twentieth-century spiritual figure from India who believed he was an incarnation of God, but he did not establish a formal religion.
The peace testimony section on the principle of peace of mind quotes Margaret Fell, one of the founders of Quakerism, who wrote, “[W]hen troubles and trials and afflictions come, thou may know a sure habitation, and portion, and living strength in the Lord and a pure peace which cannot be taken from thee.”
In the same subsection, Wolfe quotes the Bhagavad Gita, a holy book of Hinduism, which says:
The man whom desires enter
As rivers flow into the sea,
filled yet always unmoving—
that man finds perfect peace.
The other sections of the book similarly present parallel readings from the various faiths’ sacred writings. Friends looking for a well-organized introduction to commonalities among world religions that will prepare them for dialogue with believers in other traditions will find this book valuable.
Sharlee DiMenichi is a staff writer for Friends Journal.
5 thoughts on “In Brief: Thirty-Three Ways Seven Faiths Agree with the Quakers”
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Friend Sharlee:
Blessing and Thank you so much for the positive reviewing of “33 Ways 7 Faiths Agree with the Quakers”.
Unity of the Eternal Light is sooooo needed in this moment in time. The next book is “33 Ways 7 Faiths Agree with the Jewish Bible”.
Again my appreciation to all of you at Friends Journal for getting the Quaker testimonies published.
In The Light ever present,
Tom Wolfe
According to this review, the authors of “Thirty-Three Ways Seven Faiths Agree with the Quakers” are saying that the Bhagavad Gita agrees with the Quaker peace testimony. To say that the Bhagavad Gita agrees with Quakerism when it comes to peace is a gross distortion of the Gita. In the Gita, Krishna, an incarnation of God, gives advice to Arjuna, a warrior prince who “trembles at the thought of going to war with his ‘own people’.” Krishna tells Arjuna that it is his duty to fight in an upcoming battle and that since he is a warrior, there is no greater purpose than fighting in a righteous war. He tells Arjuna:
‘If you are killed,
you shall reach heaven;
or if you triumph,
you shall enjoy the earth;
so stand up
Son of Kunti,
firm in your resolve,
To fight!’
Verse 37, Chapter 2
I do not see how this agrees with the Quaker peace testimony.
Don:
InterFaith Unity can be tricky for sure … Our Peace Testimony with Buddha is easy as the following poem John Greenleaf Whittier (Quaker 1843) clearly shows: The Abrahamic Faiths (The ones making all the war these days) are trickier. There is Unity there as well, and Don … you are correct even though Jesus was clear about not picking up weapons ever Islam and the Jewish Bible hold violence in self defense as “moral”. The Bhagavad Gita is somewhere in between.
Once, on the errands of his mercy bent,
Buddha, the holy and benevolent, Met a fell monster, huge and fierce of look,
Whose awful voice the hills and forests shook.
“O son of peace!” the giant cried, “thy fate
Is sealed at last, and love shall yield to hate.”
The unarmed Buddha looking, with no trace
Of fear or anger, in the monster’s face,
In pity said : “Poor fiend, even thee I love.”
Lo! as he spake the sky-tall terror sank
To hand-breadth size ; the huge abhorrence shrank
Into the form and fashion of a dove; And where the thunder of its rage was heard, Circling above him sweetly sang the bird:
“Hate hath no harm for love,” so ran the song;
“And peace unweaponed conquers every wrong!”
John Greenleaf Whittier, “Disarmament,” in The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, p 374.
Regina St Clare
[email protected]
100.35.130.103
Thank you for the generosity of this study and the journey of unifying the global consciousness. I am an interfaith/cultural junkie with decades focus on Eastern–both Hindu and East Asian–Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, including the Middle Eastern Baha’i faith. I would love to connect with Thomas and invite him to a chat with the Great Harmony Continues Project, which has conducted a deep dive into the Confucian Ethos that certainly aligns with our shared values. This conversation would explore not only what we have in common, but more importantly, why we have not yet experienced it.
I am working on my book, Confused??… Ask Confucius!
Here is my Info … Tom Wolfe