In what is a well-rounded, impassioned, thoroughly engrossing and fully deserved, nay longly-awaited for book on the man himself, Rufus M. Jones, a highly influential American Quaker (1863-1948) - we learn from the off that he was one of the founders of the American Friends Service Committee and an instigator of the Quäkerspeisung feeding program after the First World War. His influence enabled the two divisions of American Quakerism, which split in the mid 19th Century, to reunite after his death. Often described as a Quaker mystic, he was able to reconcile science and modern, liberal thinking with his Quakerism. He delivered the first Swarthmore Lecture in London in 1908, and is the only person ever to have given two, the second being in 1920. Jones was born in Maine, USA, to an old Quaker family. His uncle and aunt, Eli and Sybil Jones, established Friends Schools in Lebanon (then part of Syria) and Palestine. He attended the Providence Friends School in Rhode Island and Haverford College in Pennsylvania and, having obtained an MA from Harvard, returned to Haverford as a professor of Psychology and Philosophy. Having learnt in the study of natural science that “the world was not made in six days and that man did not begin with Adam,” far from being troubled by the scientific evidence, he found, “his religious faith all the more secure when it marched with facts.” The essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson introduced Jones to the idea of George Fox as “one of a great historical succession of mystics.” This revelation changed Jones’s conception of his family’s religion. From the writings of the early Quakers, Jones crystallized the concept of the ‘inner light,’ an idea central in particular to modern liberal Quakerism. “The Inner Light is the doctrine that there is something Divine, ‘Something of God’ in the human soul,” he wrote. This inner light was something integral to the human condition, irrespective of a person’s religious conviction. But he didn’t become the man he grew to be overnight, or even easily. He told a story of how once when he was an awkward, tall young man, unused to public speaking, he rose in a Quaker meeting and broke the solemn silence with what many considered a most bizarre sermon; and when his halting periods came to an end and he sat down, an elderly woman Friend rose on the facing benches and acidly remarked, “Our Lord said, ‘Feed my lambs.’ He did not say, ‘Feed my giraffes.’” Quite how the giraffe became the lamb has some aspects of an American success story - a poor New England farm boy developing into a national and international figure. The success was a by-product. The ambition was to serve God. “While I was too young to have any religion of my own,” he wrote in Finding the Trail of Life, “I had come to a home where religion kept its fires always burning. I was not christened in a church [Quakers do not practice the sacraments], but I was sprinkled from morning to night with the dew of religion.” “At Meeting some of the Friends who prayed shouted loud and strong when they called upon God, but at home He always heard easily, and He seemed to be there with us in the living silence. My first steps in religion were thus acted. It was a religion which we did together. Almost nothing was said in the way of instructing me. We all joined together to listen for God and then one of us talked to Him for the others.” In 1947, Jones represented the AFSC in Stockholm when the Quakers were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Throughout his life, Jones sought to heal the divide between the two branches of American Quakerism that resulted from the split in the mid 19th Century. The founding of the AFSC was one of the first ventures in which both branches worked together. His patient efforts are credited with bringing about the reconciliation, which was finally achieved in the mid 1950s, a few years after his death. ~ Anne Carlini - Exclusive Magazine, https://annecarlini.com/ex_books.php?id=571

This is the book on Rufus Jones we’ve needed for a long time. Helen Holt has given us a beautifully written, compact yet impressively comprehensive introduction to one of the most influential Quakers of the twentieth century. Jones’ thinking is clearly articulated, and Holt does not shy away from critiquing Jones when he is less than clear or cogent. Holt also offers what Jones neglected to provide: a practical guide to the mystical path he extolled in his life and work. Highly recommended to anyone seeking to better understand the roots of the modern Quaker way. ~ Mark Russ, Quaker theologian, blogger and author of Quaker Shaped Christianity

Helen Holt’s Rufus Jones and the Presence of God is a superb book. It presents a wonderfully readable – and highly intelligent – survey of Jones’ life and thought. Holt’s explorations of Jones’ approach to mysticism, the inner light, and human beings’ relationship to the sacred are especially valuable. ~ David Harrington Watt, Douglas and Dorothy Steere Professor of Quaker Studies, Haverford College

Helen Holt has written an illuminating and engaging brief portrait of the life and spirituality of a towering figure in twentieth-century Quaker thought, Rufus M. Jones, one that suggests the continuing relevance of Jones’ thought for our own times. A most welcome addition to the literature on Quakerism and spirituality. ~ Stephen W. Angell, Leatherock Professor of Quaker Studies, Earlham School of Religion

Very little has been written about what Rufus Jones really thought and taught. Yet he was a serious thinker in his time and his thinking changed the whole course of the Quaker movement during the first part of the twentieth century. He was also widely admired by people of other faiths. So here is a welcome book from Helen Holt, who sets out to explain his ideas in the context of his own life and times, and does so with great clarity and sympathy. His message was timely then and it is so again today, as we sense a new need for some spiritual depth in our lives but can’t quite accept what religion generally now offers us. Holt’s book is a helpful guide in our own modern quest. ~ Rex Ambler, author of The Quaker Way