This book* by George Fox** is easily the most inspirational autobiographical work I've ever read. The title is somewhat misleading, as it isn't exactly a journal, being recorded day-to-day over his lifetime, but a dictated & transcribed recount of several decades of his life towards the end of it - but it's just as comprehensively thorough as you might expect of a daily journal nonetheless. It's also remarkable as a historical account of the origins of Quakerism direct from the mouth of the man most responsible for it*** which is cool; and the events described herein overlapping with the ongoing radical Reformation, the English civil war, the reign of Oliver Cromwell coming into being then giving way back to Charles II, it's just a fascinating collection of snapshots of views from the foothills in that outrageously turbulent period in English (even Western, as America was still a devoted colony of the motherland at that time) history. Of course, it's also an incredibly spiritually & religiously charged book, testifying with no hesitation that George Fox was a man of deep, astute & indefatigable faith, conscience & honesty, whose life & perspective & deeds & sufferings bear great witness to modern Christian challenges that still reverberate today.
If you just want a solid picture of his biography, Wikipedia is probably a better bet than this book (as I say, having not read the Wikipedia page) but if you want a raw, throbbing self-portrait of the man's outlook & how it shaped his activity, this book is indispensably the answer to that itch. The "journal" includes full transcripts of many of Fox's letters, both personal & more general epistles to the communities of Friends, which add a great deal of colour & texture to the account.
George Fox was born in 1624 & the earliest chapter of this account records his most sorrowful experiences of being a youth in love with God amongst a generation of wanton drunken sinners. His spiritual isolation was driven home by the reality of living within the radical age of the Protestant Reformation - while the Church of England was hegemonic, there were constant interruptions from the Independents, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, even the odd Papist who hadn't been burnt at the stake yet. Fox wandered lonely for his adolescence until he heard the word of God comfort him thus; "there is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to your condition." And despite being uneducated (except for a familial devotion to the Bible) Fox came to see the true meaning of the outpourings of the Holy Spirit - accessible to all men, regardless of mediation by any church. As he puts it, "Christ has come himself to teach his people."
Then proceeds the itinerant lifestyle as a preacher (all over Great Britain, then briefly Ireland, then either as an afterthought or a climax, even America via the Caribbean**** & finally Europe): for most of its runtime, the Journal reads much like the gospel of Mark - i.e. starting most sentences with "And" because so much is happening one thing after another - having meetings & making Friends***** -we get phrases like "the power of God came over all" or "many came into the Truth" (or variations thereupon) repeated dozens if not hundreds of times throughout. It actually gets quite repetitive. Fox would go to a new county/town - speak the word of the Light - be encouraged by newcomers under the Truth - be threatened by "rude" people who wanted to beat him up & escaped (remember Jesus' saying, to "turn the other cheek"? Fox took this quite literally, and when threatened with violence would do so, often simply scaring away his attackers in confoundment) - get charged with something by the legal authorities - get tried & acquitted, or jailed & later released - repeat. I mean it, this goes on for like 400 pages at least. The bulk of the reasons for his persecution (and it was a persecution for all the Quakers - many thousands were imprisoned and/or martyred for similar reasons) lay with issues around hats (aye, it was an Obligatory Protocol thing in the 17th century), pronouns****** & oaths (which, following Christ's teaching, he refused to swear, even in court). I actually learnt a couple of new words from all this back-and-forth persecution & propheticism - mittimus (which Fox's religious eloquence often helped him avoid outright) & praemunire (which he was often tried with & at least twice badly jailed for - the "foreign authority" to whom he appealed being the Kingdom of Christ). Fox was as prolific a preacher as he was predictable a victim of persecution. Make of that what you will.
George Fox died in January 1691 of unknown, but natural, causes; his last words were "I am clear. I am fully clear." Paul wrote "imitate me, as I imitate Christ" (1st Corinthians 11: 1) - and I think not necessarily singularly but certainly notably George Fox took this to heart more than the vast majority of any Christian since the original apostles & followed it to its ultimate logical conclusion, living a persecuted, troubled, practically homeless & demonstrably jobless (it is not properly explained in the text but I would be intrigued to know where he kept getting enough money from*******) life, to the glory of God. What a man to learn from - which is saying something, given that he was so prolific a writer of tracts & pamphlets & entire books that are tragically lost to history, but we still get so much of his essence from this rough journal. So, this book. Fundamental reading for Quakers; recommended reading for Christians of any other stripe; interesting & challenging reading for all others.
* Not sure about the version I've linked here, but the edition I read includes an introduction by Geoffrey Nuttall, extracts from William Penn's preface, and for the latter years of Fox's life not covered in this autobiographical account the original summary by Thomas Ellwood as well as a more in-depth coverage by Henry Cadbury. All good stuff - but not as meaty as the main text, so you're not missing too much by getting the copy linked.
** Okay, he technically dictated it to a fellow Quaker toward the latter end of his eyesight & life, which is fair enough, but it's his words on the page.
*** Admittedly a number of others, most notably Margaret Fell (who was the financial & organisational backbone, and being widowed, later in 1669 became Fox's wife) & James Nayler (who provided much of the more radical inspiration for action, occasionally to Fox's admonishments) were instrumental in the origination of Quakerism, and both recur as side-characters throughout this journal; but Fox was the spiritual & ideological foundation for the impetus of the movement that became the Quaker interpretation of Christianity, I hope nobody would disagree.
**** The passage recounting their voyage across the Atlantic (recorded by one John Hull; Fox himself was extremely ill during this) is fascinating. Though far from the first thing I would ask him in the New Jerusalem, I would like to query of ol' George exactly what dolphin tastes like. During the journey there was apparently also a shipboard Friend who fasted & stayed awake for a full week, which is impressively unhealthy. Modern readers may also be interested to learn the difference between a sloop & a ketch. The references to the black slave population in these parts, while minimal, are also interesting seeds of Quakerism's later commitment to abolition. Also, in Fox's limited but generous interactions with Native Americans, it is noted that the Indian chief thinks Quakerism to be the best religion of the colonists that he has yet met, which is cool.
***** "Quakers" originated as an external derogatory term for people who called themselves & each other simply "Friends" - as Fox does throughout this account.
****** Of course, this being the 17th century, not the same pronouns issue which is ravaging Christendom today - Fox & his followers simply chose to refer to everyone using the informal "thee" & "thou", which was interpreted (not culturally wrongly, but spiritually hypocritically) as disrespectful to people in any degree of authority. It's fun to speculate how Fox would respond to today's pronouns debacle; I'm not confident I could predict which side of the aisle he would land in, but no doubt he would have a strongly-worded, powerfully-reasoned scriptural basis for wherever that was.
******* Henry Cadbury notes in the section covering Fox's latter years: "The sources of his capital are not known. Not only his wife's money, but that inherited from his parents, he seems to have left untouched." The Lord provides, I guess?
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