The 'death of tragedy' in the modern era has been proposed and debated in recent years, largely in terms of literature and western culture in general. Today, any catastrophe or misadventure is likely to be labeled a 'tragedy', without any inference of a larger, transcendent horizon or providential design that the word once conveyed. This book offers new perspectives on the idea of the 'death of tragedy', taking England and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in particular as a case study. Chapters focus on the origins of tragedy in ancient Greece, gospel and tragedy, the beginnings of the Quaker movement in seventeenth-century England, apocalyptic versus secularized experiences of time, Edwardian Quaker triumphalism, the search for English identity in postcolonial Britain, liberal Quakerism at the end of the twentieth century, and the promise and dilemma of postmodernity. The different disciplinary perspectives of the contributing authors bring literature, history, theology and sociology into a creative and revealing conversation. A Foreword by Richard Fenn introduces the book with an original and provocative meditation on tragedy and time.

The 'death of tragedy' in the modern era has been proposed and debated in recent years, largely in terms of literature and western culture in general. Today, any catastrophe or misadventure is likely to be labeled a 'tragedy', without any inference of a larger, transcendent horizon or providential design that the word once conveyed. This book offers new perspectives on the idea of the 'death of tragedy', taking England and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in particular as a case study. Chapters focus on the origins of tragedy in ancient Greece, gospel and tragedy, the beginnings of the Quaker movement in seventeenth-century England, apocalyptic versus secularized experiences of time, Edwardian Quaker triumphalism, the search for English identity in postcolonial Britain, liberal Quakerism at the end of the twentieth century, and the promise and dilemma of postmodernity. The different disciplinary perspectives of the contributing authors bring literature, history, theology and sociology into a creative and revealing conversation. A Foreword by Richard Fenn introduces the book with an original and provocative meditation on tragedy and time.

Gwyn emphasizes the apocalyptic perspective behind George Fox's declaration that Christ has come to teach his people himself and describes how it affected Fox's view of preaching, worship, and Church order. This work helps explain the urgency of the message that sparked early Friends.

Doug Gwyn has researched and written extensively on early Quakers in 17th-century England. His other books include Apocalypse of the Word, and Seekers Found. He has taught at the Pendle Hill Quaker Study Center near Philadelphia, and at Woodbrooke in Birmingham, England. Doug has also worked with the American Friends Service Committee, and is Pastor of First Friends Church, Richmond, Indiana. The Covenant Crucified combines the scholarly and prophetic to compare "covenant," uniting people under the care of a transcendent God, and "contract," uniting them primarily through secular visions of self-interest. "This book, part of Doug Gwyn's trilogy on early Quaker history, is critical to our understanding of early Friends and how the movement changed in the first decades. Gwyn outlines the highly distinctive nature of the Quaker covenant of light, and how that was transformed within a generation into a more worldly contractual understanding. It is also a call to Quakers today to recover a sense of covenant for the journey ahead." - Ben Pink Dandelion, Quaker Studies tutor, University of Birmingham/Woodbrooke