Abstract

In the conclusion, Thomas Cattoi offers a few considerations as to the nature and purpose of the collection, reflecting on the enduring relevance of the Quaker tradition in an increasingly multicultural and multireligious society. The first section of the chapter explores what scholars of mysticism and of Christian spirituality can learn from Quakerism’s syncretic roots and its more recent contacts with non-Christian religious traditions. The second section asks whether it is possible to talk of a specifically Quaker religious epistemology, and argues that the tensions within Quakerism reflect, but simultaneously challenge the Kantian shift away from classical epistemological realism. This chapter ultimately claims that Quakerism’s understanding of religious experience frees us from the Kantian epistemic impasse that views the divine as cognitively inaccessible.