In Brief: Thirty-Three Ways Seven Faiths Agree with the Quakers

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.

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Sharlee DiMenichi is staff writer for Friends Journal.