ABSTRACT
John Woolman uses the term 'evil', but he does not define what he means by evil. He is more concerned with how he and others in his Quaker community needed to respond to evil, and for him that evil was visible in actions that created injustice, oppression and violence. In fact, the purpose of Quaker journals, and the reason they were published by yearly meetings, was to strengthen the community's life of faith. His understanding of one's relation to the inward spirit was also the foundation for his ideas of prophetic speaking and of Quaker ministry. Interestingly, the Quaker community was not in unity about objecting to the war tax. Woolman found strength by working with others to oppose what they perceived to be wrongs carried out by institutional and governmental bodies. Like Gandhi in the mid-twentieth century and the Dalai Lama in the time, Woolman's approach to peacemaking arises primarily from his spiritual experience.
