Explore the Friends' progressive views, influencing peace, rights, and global history.
In Murder by Degrees, Dr. Harlan Stanley, a Quaker, defied late 19th-century societal norms by founding a Women’s Medical College. In real life, the Quakers, or Friends, have had progressive views on everything from women's rights, nonviolence, education and more that made them outliers in society, shaping world history despite their global population of fewer than half a million today. Hear Paul N. Anderson, PhD, explore the Friends' progressive views based on the SPICE testimony: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, and Equality.
As early Friends sought to recover "Primitive Christianity Revived" (William Penn's language), they sought to embody the biblical values of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, and Integrity ("SPICE"). Their labors in peacework, the abolition of slavery, women's rights, industry, business, and education have impacted world history in ways far beyond their number, and in 1947 Quakers received the Nobel Peace Prize. The first biblical defense of women in leadership was written by Margaret Fell (1666), who married George Fox three years later: "Women's Speaking Justified By Scripture."
Paul N. Anderson serves as Professor of Biblical and Quaker Studies at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon and as Extraordinary Professor of Religion at the North-West University of Potchefstroom, South Africa. His PhD is from the University of Glasgow, and he has also served as a visiting professor or researcher at Yale Divinity School, Princeton Theological Seminary, the University of Mainz, and the University of Nijmegen. Author or editor of some thirty books and over 400 published essays, his books include The Christology of the Fourth Gospel; From Crisis to Christ; and Following Jesus. He edits three book series: the Biblical Interpretation Series (Brill), the Johannine Monograph Series (Wipf & Stock), and the Quakers and the Disciplines Series (FAHE), for which he edited its eighth volume last summer: Quakers and the Future of Peacemaking. Learn more about Paul at https://www.georgefox.edu/academics/undergrad/departments/religion/faculty/anderson.html or see the books he has authored here.
Murder by Degrees is a thrillingly atmospheric tale of intrigue, featuring a brilliant female doctor who’s ahead of her time. Set in Philadelphia, 1875, the debut novel by Ritu Mukerji, Dr. Lydia Weston is preparing for the start of a new term at Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, when the body of a young woman is fished out of the Schuylkill River. The death is ruled a suicide, but Lydia is suspicious. As the investigation unfolds, Lydia puts to use all her diagnostic skills and autopsy table acumen to pursue the killer.
Ritu Mukerji was born in Kolkata, India, and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. From a young age, she has been an avid reader of mysteries, from Golden Age crime fiction to police procedurals and the novels of PD James and Ruth Rendell. She received a BA in history from Columbia University and a medical degree from Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. She completed residency training at the University of California, Davis and has been a practicing internist for fifteen years. She lives in Marin County, California, with her husband and three children.
Learn more about A Novel Idea here.
Questions? Contact laurelh@deschuteslibrary.org
AGE GROUP: | Adult |
EVENT TYPE: | Adult Program |
The Sisters Library features 8,300 square feet of space, all housed in an exterior design that includes a partial wraparound porch with the Western appearance for which Sisters is famous.
