Abstract

In this article Michael Mullet first sketches the well-advertised dissimilarities between Catholicism, the epitome, for many, of 'conservative' Christianity, and Quakerism, which brought to a high point of development the religious radicalism implicit in the Reformation. However, Mullett argues that, underlyingly, relatively superficial dissonances over such issues as church order and (more significantly) sacrament, Tridentine Catholicism and Quakerism shared, in opposition to the Reformation's key principles of justification by faith alone and its corollary predestination, an abiding, soteriological and anthropological acceptance (grounded in the Epistle of James) of the role of free will and of justification and sanctification by works as well as faith and grace. Comparisons of texts from Robert Barclay (1676) and the Canons of the Council of Trent (1545) sustain his argument.

Keywords

Catholicism, Quakerism, Reformation, Justification, Sanctification, Barclay

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