Mission with Prophetic Power: The Journal of John Woolman (SRSC 12)

Introduction

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responded with a deep sense of his own personal weakness (“I am a man of unclean lips”) and his solidarity with a weak people (“and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips”). Like Isaiah—and Woolman quotes frequently from Isaiah—John Woolman responded to the events of his day not merely with shallow “news reactions,” but with a depth that came from meeting with the Lord and from a solidarity both with his own Friends and with those who suffered. Woolman dreamed of a new way of life, modeled first of all by the people of God. This was what he called “the government of Christ.” It was a vision that increasingly shaped his heart, mind, and words. He spoke of it repeatedly in the last year of his life. By reading The Journal of John Woolman , along with the prophecies of Isaiah, we might have something to learn about mission with prophetic power. Woolman’s Language and the Language of This Edition As I have mentioned, John Woolman lived as a Quaker in the eighteenth century. Consequently, he uses words— especially about Quaker meetings and the inner life of attention to the Holy Spirit—that were familiar in his circles at his time but are unfamiliar to, or inappropriate for, us today. So, in this abridged and updated edition of Woolman’s Journal , I have made a few changes. I have changed Woolman’s British spellings to American spellings: for example, “colour” to color. I have employed the English Standard Version, rather than the King James Version Woolman used, unless Woolman’s comments were dependent on the wording in the King James Version. I have reworded several passages that would, because of their outdated use of English, be difficult to understand. Sometimes Woolman uses words (like “exercise”) which