Mystic Monday: Rufus Jones [1863-1948]
"There is no way to find yourself until you discover how utterly to lose yourself." - Jones
I had never heard of him. It turns out there was a rather large hole in my education.
When in my first parish in Pennsylvania, I served on a local committee made up of representatives of the town’s seven congregations; the usual gang of Prots, a couple of Romans, and one friend. That is, Friend.1
It was from him that I learned of the sublime art of taking mystical inspiration and using “spiritual alchemy” to turn it into work that is practical and useful, as it was he who was in charge of the committee’s ecumenical community programs and introduced me to the mystical theology of Rufus Jones.
True mysticism is rarely flamboyant or attention-getting. It’s often as ordinary as a scholar in a tweed suit sitting in a library [see above photo, please].
Members of the Religious Society of Friends, usually known as The Quakers, have been quietly active in the religious life of the Northeast since before the Revolution, especially in the Keystone State, named as it is for the prominent Quaker, William Penn.
What I learned while serving alongside my Friend was how Quaker theology, which is never boisterously evangelical, permitted his congregation to penetrate the elusive membrane that separates the mystical from the practical. This was done by pursuing the communal responsibility that has always been a part of American mysticism.2
The Inner Light is the doctrine that there is something Divine, "something of God," in the human soul.3
With the Quakers, this begins in their gathering for worship, known as a meeting. Quakers gather without an order of service, do not have clergy, do not offer a sermon, nor sing hymns, nor make use of any sort of prayer book.
They rely with great deliberation on the movement and inspiration of The Holy Spirit, that which calls them to speak, witness, sit in silence, or pray with genuine spontaneity, rather than according to a planned liturgy framed with rote creeds and belief statements.
Among American denominations, there are none more mystical than The Society of Friends.
Rather than remain in the meeting house or in the gathered circle of Friends, Quaker testimonies are designed to link the purity of mystical experience with the common and mundane needs of secular life.
This theology was refined and popularized by Rufus Jones, theologian, philosopher, psychologist, mystic, and professor at Haverford College [Pennsylvania], who became the strongest modern apologist for The Society of Friends, creating a medium for Gospel proclamation that was recognized by a world traumatized by the World Wars.
Jones’ collected works4 speak particularly of a need to cultivate a “universal mystical experience” that transcends specific traditions. In his writings he sought to make comparative studies of mysticism across cultures and religions, not limited to Christianity, in seeking shared insight into spiritual reality.
No person can ever hope to gain an adequate idea of the religious movement which has been called by the name of Quakerism until he has discovered what is meant by the "Inner Light."5
Jones emphasized mystical experience as a direct encounter with divinity. As in most American mysticism since Emerson, he encouraged personal experience and inner reflection rather than ritual or doctrinal teaching.
Through this combination, and as encouraged by the spontaneous, Spirit-fueled urging of his congregation, he organized the American Friends Service Committee in 1917, originally to serve civilians who had been affected by World War I. It is generously estimated that Jones’ organization saved millions from starvation at the end of that decade.
The AFSC, which is still a viable organization, began as a Quaker relief agency and has continued to transform its mission through openness to the Holy Spirit in pure mystic regard. In the 21st century, they prioritize peace-building, just economics, and organizing humane responses to global migration.
Whether in times of war or times of peace the Quaker is under peculiar obligation to assist and to forward movements and forces which make for peace in the world and which bind men together in ties of unity and fellowship.6
The work of his organization brought Jones onto the world stage, as between the world wars he shared noted on peace with Gandhi, visited Buddha’s birthplace, and after the Kristallnacht in 1938, personally met with the leadership of the Gestapo in Germany to dissuade them from their brutal agenda.7
His mission attracted the participation and wherewithal of prominent Quakers fully prepared to underwrite his missionary efforts, thus enabling it to continue to expand and persuade.
In what was perhaps the most radical departure from common missionary activity, Jones and his organization aided those in need without expecting them to convert to Christianity or otherwise confess to aspects of faith that were alien to them. The AFSC, in its Quaker simplicity, just helped anyone in need of help.
To paraphrase, Jones believed that people are placed in our path so that we might love them, and no further conditions were necessary.8
During World Wars I and II, as Quakers are conscientious objectors in any military conflict, Jones sought to create useful non-combat roles so that the Friends would share in the burden of warfare without violating their call to peace.
After World War II, the AFSC’s mission continued to expand, especially when called to address the worldwide refugee crisis. So successful were their efforts that, in 1947, The Quakers were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, with Rufus Jones dispatched to represent The Society of Friends in accepting the award in Stockholm.
Not bad for a tweedy professor from a small college.
He would cease to be mortal the next year, granting a considerable legacy to the Quakers and a great volume of literature on the nature of mysticism.
We shall not be able to rebuild our shattered world until we recover our faith in eternal realities, and we shall not do that until we discover spirit within ourselves.9
When working with my Friend in Pennsylvania, I was invited to a meeting with members of his congregation. Er, assembly. Given my lack of familiarity with the process, I sat quietly and let others be inspired to speak.
After an hour of no one speaking at all, my Friend asked the meeting if they were prepared to design an ambitious and elaborate food pantry for the community in its own building, something the committee of local churches had deemed too expensive.
They all nodded “yes”.
I have been in prayer and focused gatherings with congregations rich, poor, large, small, high, low, and middle of the road. I have spent time as a monk in the company of the last true mystics of Anglicanism, and I have never experienced anything as non-verbal, yet mystically compelling, as that moment. We were, without vocalization, of one accord.
Oh, and the food pantry, after a year and a half of organization and construction, was completed. It is currently in its thirty-eighth year.
For those curious, there is an entire shelving fixture of Quaker Oatmeal.
Rather than being an inward, inert meditation, Christian mysticism can be bold, active, present, tangible, muscular, and of great utility.
Friends come back from their worship with a new sense of ordination, but not the ordination of human hands. Something has happened in the stillness that makes the heart more tender, more sensitive, more shocked by evil, more dedicated to ideals of life, and more eager to push back the skirts of darkness and to widen the area of light and love.10
Quakers refer to themselves as Friends, as taken from John 15:14.
Communal responsibility and engagement, what many Protestant churches now call “social action”, is mystically understood as the expression of Gospel teaching through practical activities that benefit the greater community.
Social Law in the Spiritual World [1904]
A good place to start would be Rufus Jones: Essential Writings, which is part of the Modern Spiritual Masters Series.
Social Law in the Spiritual World [1904]
From his Nobel acceptance speech [1947]
As far as I know, he was the only religious leader to try.
I would note that Mother Theresa’s ministry in India, even into the late 20th century, expected those who were aided by her order be baptized or otherwise converted. That would make Jones seem all the more radical.
from A Survey of Christian Mystics [1999]
From Jones introductory speech on the mission of the AFSC [1917]
Beautiful! I love this quote/concept, in particular: “Friends come back from their worship with a new sense of ordination, but not the ordination of human hands. Something has happened in the stillness that makes the heart more tender, more sensitive, more shocked by evil, more dedicated to ideals of life, and more eager to push back the skirts of darkness and to widen the area of light and love.”
Peace and love. ✌🏻🤟🏻