The word "Quaker" has several meanings in Russian. Most often, this is what representatives of one of the Protestantism trends are called . Who are the Quakers, and what other meanings of this word have, will be described in the article.
Who are they?
This trend of Protestantism arose in 1652 in England and Wales. The founder of the teachings is George Fox, an English artisan. Quakers themselves prefer to call themselves the Religious Society of Friends.
Modern Quakerism unites various religious trends: liberal Protestantism, evangelism, neteism, and universalism. In the world there are approximately 377 thousand representatives. The teaching is mainly distributed in the USA, Great Britain, Kenya (Africa), Bolivia, and Guatemala. The symbol of organization is an eight-pointed black and red star.
There are also Quakers in Russia, but very few. It is known about their representatives in the cities of St. Petersburg, Kazan, Barnaul.
Name history
Quaker is a word of English origin. The verb quake means "tremble, tremble, shake." There are various hypotheses for the origin of the name.
- The founder of the movement - Fox - at the meeting called on the judge to tremble before the name of God, for which he called him a "quiver" (quaker).
- According to another hypothesis, representatives of the doctrine claimed that they constantly feel "spiritual awe" before the Lord.
- A less common version is that when entering into religious ecstasy, the Quakers were shaking with excitement in the physical sense.
It is impossible to say for certain which of the hypotheses is true, but it is known that the name was initially considered by them to be offensive, and the Quakers themselves called themselves the "Christian Society of Friends of the Inner Light".
The essence of Quaker teaching
Like most representatives of Protestantism, the Friends Society rejects the need for a church, ceremonies, rituals, icons, and other religious symbols.
The doctrine is based on the idea of a "divine spark" and "inner light." According to the Quakers, the Lord addresses people directly, without intermediaries in the form of clergy.
Therefore, the rituals and sacraments characteristic of Catholicism, for example, communion, are absent in their religious practices.
Prayer meetings are held as follows: Quakers gather in a prayer house, sit down and are silent, trying to hear the voice of God within themselves. This is called silent prayer. Sometimes someone alone can give a short sermon if he feels an inner desire to do so.
For Quaker Evangelists, meetings are held like most Protestants.
General principles of the teaching of the Friendship Society:
- All people are equal before God, regardless of gender, nationality, origin, religion, etc.
- Honesty is the main virtue, so you must always tell people the truth, regardless of the consequences.
- One cannot strive for material wealth in life; one must be content with the simplest.
- Violence is unacceptable, it is necessary to strive for peace, the rejection of militarism.
Photos of Quakers during a religious meeting can be seen in the article.
Other meanings of the word Quaker
The presented word has several more meanings. Here they are:
- Quaker is an unripe coffee bean that, when roasted, has a lighter shade than other beans.
- In computer slang, Quakers are called Quake players.
- Quaker is an unidentified source of underwater sound waves. The sound resembles a frog croaking, for which it got its name. It was first discovered in the 70s. Opinions about the origin are still divided. The main hypotheses: animals; US underwater military equipment; An NGO is an unidentified floating entity.
So, in the most frequent sense, the Quaker is a representative of the religious-Protestant movement, which appeared in the UK in the middle of the 17th century and has survived to this day.