Overview: These reflections within Quaker Quicks: The Promise of Right Relationship address the challenge of reaching for right relationship in all aspects of our lives. They invite us to consider how we show up - with ourselves, our communities and the world around us - in the light of Quaker values and practice.

Verdict: Does this choice of a way of being nourish community, for myself and others? Is a commitment to equality embedded in my position and clear in my intent? Does it have the essence of simplicity, cutting through the layers of complexity and clutter in modern life, and resting in that which is good and true?

Is it life-affirming, tending to minimize violence and enhance the possibility of peaceful cooperation? Is it rooted in an understanding of my place in the larger community of life in all its forms, and my role in sustaining that web? Is it honorable: Does it have the ring of truth?

An intention to keep reaching for right relationship holds the promise of finding solid ground in these tumultuous times and discerning paths that light a way ahead.

“Within the Judeo-Christian-Humanist tradition, Quakerism has uniquely centered the ethics of right relationship. Combined with the ethics of reverence for life, it lifts the veil on a flowering landscape of readaptation in which a social economy of adequate access to the means of life under the governance of no more than needed provides a bountiful and satisfying way of life.” -- Paradigm Explorer David Lorimer.

In a most remarkably impassioned book that not only deepens ones awareness of how they live their lives, but at the same time expertly aids in increasing ones confidence, sense of power and choice, and ultimately their very own love for themselves and others, Quaker Quicks - The Promise of Right Relationship by author Pamela Haines is a calming voice in a sea of vocal turbulence.

A subject matter that I myself have embraced for many decades, my take on the Judeo-Christian-Humanist traditions are that since the fall of the Iron Curtain there has been a steady rise in the use of the term ‘Judeo-Christian’ by European theologians, politicians, historians and philosophers. Is it also possible that such divergent public figures as Geert Wilders, aright-wing populist politician in The Netherlands, Jacques Derrida, a left-leaning French philosopher, and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, use the term ‘Judeo-Christian tradition’ in the same manner?

Is there any means to pin down the meaning of this term as it is now being used in Europe? Or is this term, which ‘has achieved considerable currency’ throughout Europe – both popular and scholarly, a shibboleth as was claimed by Mark Silk in his 1984 ‘Notes on the Judeo-Christian Tradition in America’ (Silk 1984, 65).

Before trying to disentangle the many diverse uses of the term ‘Judeo-Christian’ in contemporary European discourse, let us briefly consider the possible origins of the concept or signification of Judeo-Christianity. To help navigate this complex concept, we begin by sifting through the theological, philosophical, and political literature on the notion of Judeo-Christianity. Three possible historical origins emerge: the early Church period prior to the ‘parting of the ways’ between Judaism and Christianity (200–400 ce) (Dunn 1999; Boyarin 2006; Becker and Reed 2007), 17th century Enlightenment thought, and 19th century theology (greatly inspired by German Idealism).

Heller’s 1951 piece, ‘The Judeo-Christian tradition concept: air or deterrent to goodwill?’, published in the journal Judaism, ambitiously claims that this tradition has “a long and cherished history” (Heller 1951, 133). This history has four phases: its origin in the period directly following the birth of Jesus, 19th century German theological supersessionism, 20th century racial anti-Semitism (which he connects to Nietzsche), and most recently political Orientalism. Explicitly demarcated by the horrors of the Shoah, Heller’s frame leads him to narrate the transformations of the notion of Judeo-Christianity in terms of shifting anti-Semitism e.g. from theological to political via racial anti-Semitism.

Framed in a similar vein to Marshall Grossman’s 1989 deconstructive analysis of the ‘violence of the hyphen in Judeo-Christian’, Heller’s ideological motivation to prove that anti-Semitism is as old as Christianity prevents him from appreciating the Foucauldian inspired concern in Grossman’s analysis – the role of power, and its relation to discourse. Concretely, Heller wants to paint a picture of 2000 years of uninterrupted anti-Semitism from the birth of Christianity to the Shoah.

One of the most significant contributions to the discussion about the origins of the term ‘Judeo-Christian’ that does consider the political motives is that by Joël Sebban (Sebban 2012). With an explicitly French focus, Sebban locates the roots of this term in the emancipation of the Jews in the year 1791. The French context is clearly influenced by events on the European continent and the role of the Catholic Church (as the writings of Jacques Maritain demonstrate, see (Maritain 2012; Andras and Hubert 1996)).

In this vein, ‘la morale judéo-chrétienne’ has several ideologically different manifestations. Sebban develops several of these political responses to the idea of a Judeo-Christian tradition such as: a liberal Christian ideology (at the turn of the 20th century), a last attempt to save the life of the spirit by religious philosophers in the 19th century, and most recently in the form of a discourse of civilisations.

I could go on, and for days about all this, but I fear I have already wildly diverged from the path of where the author originally intends us to follow along on.

So, and with all said, and even though the history of what drives this book is something that I have notably been at-one with for years, I myself even found it to be extremely helpful - in that it resolutely deepens ones awareness of how they live their own lives, increasing their confidence, sense of power and confidence of choice, and deepens a love for not just themselves, but for all others.

About the Author - A student of economics since childhood, Pamela Haines has spent a lifetime gathering experience, knowledge and perspective to speak with authority on how economic theories and structures shape our lives and challenge our values. She has written pamphlets and magazine articles and lead workshops based on demystifying connections between economics and daily life, while challenging people to claim their power and act on their values. Pamela lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

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