Introduction

The last forty years and particularly the last ten have seen a huge growth in the number of Quakers working within the academy on Quaker topics. Major conferences on William Penn in 1981, and George Fox in 1991 and 2002, have been part of this groundswell of scholarship and publication. This chapter takes a selection of these recent Quaker Quaker-Studies scholars, in particular those who have expounded a theory about Quakerism, and sets their work out side by side, allowing the reader an accessible overview of competing and contrasting perspectives on the history of Quakerism. It focuses on the nature of Quaker Studies, ‘Theories of Early Quakerism’, comprises theories relating to seventeenth-century Quakers; ‘Early Friends and Beyond’, comprises scholars whose theories reach or start beyond that period. More critical, currently, is the interface between researcher and researched, and the researcher’s ability to reflect critically on motives and biases.