Workshop 12 : Perfection Part 1 - 04/05/2026
Instructor : Karen Tibbals
Perfection , Our Life is Love, by Marcelle Martin
Quakerism was formed in the 1650s, against a backdrop of Calvinism, which held that humans are irredeemably corrupt.
Total Depravity (Theological Corruption)
In Calvinist theology, "Total Depravity" does not mean people are as evil as they possibly can be. Instead, it means every part of human nature is touched by the corruption of sin.
The Doctrine: Calvinists believe humans are born spiritually dead and cannot choose God on their own. Just as a dead body cannot choose to get up, a spiritually "dead" person cannot choose to be saved.
The Result: Because of this inherited corruption from the Fall of Adam, God must "wake up" the spirit first. This gives a person a new nature and causes them to believe.
In contrast, Quakers came to believe that people could choose, and they could change, overcome their sinful nature and achieve perfection.
Marcelle Martin has done a deep dive into Quaker writings, both early and recent and categorized the process of obtaining perfection into ten stages. They are:
1. Longing
2. Seeking
3. Turning within
4. Openings
5. Refiners Fire
6. Community
7. Leadings
8. The Cross
9. Abiding
10. Perfection
Marcelle has developed questions for reflection at the end of each stage
Longing
In what form have you experienced longing or a desire for deeper meaning and purpose?
Do you long for deeper knowledge or connection with God?
If you haven’t felt longing, have you experienced restlessness, cynicism, or despair about the way things are?
What have you done with your longing or your sense that something is wrong or missing?
Can you remember a recent time when you felt a desire for greater connection with God or longed to live a life with greater love and integrity?
Seeking
How have you sought for spiritual knowledge or meaning in life?
At what times and in what ways have you sought outside yourself for greater spiritual understanding or communion with God?
What kinds of thoughts, feelings, desires, fears, or intuitions motivate you to seek?
Does the tradition of your upbringing satisfy you or have you explored outside that tradition?
In what ways have you been a seeker?
Has your seeking borne fruit?
Turning within
What has moved you to look more deeply into your own awareness?
Were there particular moments when you first sensed something divine within you or received divine guidance?
Have you always been aware of the indwelling divine Presence?
At present, when or how do you turn inward?
What makes it difficult to be still and look within?
What helps you to be patient or to “wait expectantly” when turning your attention to the inner dimensions of life?
Additional material
Marcelle defines AWAKENING as” a time when the need to know about the life of the spirit takes central importance in a person’s life.”
That’s what begins the journey [the spiritual journey] .
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21st century people do not adhere to a particular faith. Even without a religious belief one can long for spiritual truth.
Longing for spiritual truth.
Longing for meaning.
Longing to seek spiritual relationship.
Longing to find happiness and well-being.
Longing for deeper spirituality.
Longing always remains it is continuing.
Longing to fill a gap, a void, emptiness. Is our longing self-centered?
Longing is a form of wanting- desire.
Long for something better than what is the present condition. Improve life.
Carl Jung uses the word desire. He hints that it is a trait necessary for development and what we desire changes as we grow old. As we grow things transform.
17th century people were all about their faith and were terrified of being predestined to hell and believed god is in a distant heaven.
Longing to know god
Longing to be accepted by god
Longing to be owned by god
Longing to know how to pray
Longing to serve god
Longing to overcome sinfulness
Longing for true worship and holy life
It looks like a lot of fear here, a longing driven by fear and rewards. Harm prevention. Want to be on God’s good side.
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Two kinds of 21st century seekers:
1. Leave their faith they were raised in to explore other religious practices.
2. Stay within their religious traditions and explore deeper truths. New ways to convey old thoughts.
SAMPLE
1. Tim was raised Anglican, learned eastern meditation, became a catholic priest, left the priesthood, got married, ended up in Quaker meeting.
2. Deb was an Episcopalian, joined a fundamentalist church, joined a Pentecostal church, ended up in Quaker meeting.
3. Alex , disliked Christianity and lived rationally, connected to plants and animals, involved in pagan ceremonies, became a Quaker because friends seem committed about suffering in this world as to a speculative heavenly realm to come.
“Many Quakers today find their spiritual seeking leads them beyond Christianity before bringing them to find their spiritual home among Friends.” Page 24
One kind of 17th century seekers:
· Seeking for the true, pure church
· Seeking knowledge/instructions by looking to scripture from the English bible of which every house hold in England could afford to own for the 1st time ever in human history.
· Seeking for a way to worship god.
· Seeking for others who have personal experiences with god.
I think humans haven’t evolved when it comes to seeking for spiritual growth. The first instinct is to go to the existing institutions that may have the answers and when that does not work looking outside to different ideas and thoughts would come naturally.
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Turning within is a result of failed outward ambitions.
In the 21st century people turn within for many reasons.
1. Deeping spiritual life.
2. A crisis or despair leaves no alternative.
3. When one is under great pressure dealing with deadlines.
4. Make space for contemplation.
5. Healing.
6. Emptying oneself to deal with the ego, to make room.
7. Mindfulness practice. Managing your busy mind.
8. To become less conformed to this world.
The seekers plan; be able to sit quietly, less reliant on words, have thoughts focusing on things where god is working, present yourself fully to god.
Being patient and repeating expectations eventually lead to convincement.
In the 17th century people felt painfully disconnected from god.
Churches at that time were not satisfying the need or longing. People were searching for a “living faith”. After not getting the results expected after years of political unrest and government takeover, many people felt distant from god and government was still corrupted. There was no hope for good alternatives so people looked inward and stopped seeking for scholarly knowledge. People wanted to hear stories about “direct experiences’ with god.
Bring attention to what is happening within.
Seeking in silence can take years before a reveal connection can take place.
Following prescribed practices and attending weekly services in churches was not working for the 17th century seeker calling them vain purity and false promise.
Can be taught directly from god in your silence anywhere, you don’t need the church to know god.
they wanted to wholly rely on god alone for insight and connection.
Christ is present within us so the seeking is inside not outside in buildings or government institutions.
Taught directly by the spirit and we need to pay attention and cultivate what is revealed to us inwardly.
Looks like this time period is a time of dissatisfied and disappointed people. They trusted failed promises of a society where a good and loving god is in control and showering people with a feeling of love and kinship.
They woke up to a reality of individual relationship with god and not a god with rules, policies and methods written by one for all to follow.
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