Synopsis

In Shattered by the Light, parallel conflicts over sexuality, the Bible, and church governance erupt in – and tear apart – two Quaker associations half a continent apart. Their stories, in the Pacific Northwest and southern Midwest, are part of a larger wave of divisions that echo and illumine recent struggles in numerous other churches, and in American culture at large. This book is Volume Three of The Separation Generation, a series which brings together reports and related documents about five such conflicts, all distinct but related, in American Quaker circles since the beginning of this century.

This book and the series itself offer both a unique historical record and a singular resource for those concerned with the course of contemporary religious evolution and controversy, which continues and reverberates far beyond the bounds of one small denomination.