Robert Barclay
Quotes of: Robert Barclay
Robert Barclay (1648-1690) was the greatest systematic expositor of Quaker theology which the Society or Friends has ever produced and his monumental work, The Apology. has been the classic In this field for nearly three centuries.
Barclay joined the Quaker movement at the age of eighteen, bringing with him a brilliant background in Calvinism and Catholicism, having studied under some of the leading theologians of those movements in his native Scotland and in Paris. His contacts with Friends impressed him with their rare combination of inwardness and outwardness In religion and he determined to devote his abilities to the furtherance of this way of life.
The first few years after he allied himself with Friends were spent in travel in the ministry in England and on the Continent and in the legal defense of Quakers. His later years were devoted more and more to the written word, chiefly in brief tracts and booklets challenging the prevailing Calvinism of seventeenth century England. From 1682 to 1688 he served as governor of East Jersey, acting through a resident deputy. In this post one of his chief concerns was to make this New World colony a refuge for the Calvinists whose theology he abhorred but whose right to religious freedom he staunchly defended.