George Fox was born in small English town. Before experiencing Holy Spirit, he was already humble but inner personality was complicated. While he was working as a cobbler’s apprentice, he saw strong illumination of Holy Spirit and realized about what he should do. After that event, George fox devoted his life to spread gospel. He declared the presence of Jesus as the “inner light” and “seed”, which were existed inside of us and make the people want to follow the true way (González, 252). Quakerism denied worship, tithes, and the most of sacraments such as baptism and communion because the people who believe Quakerism considered those as interruption. Also, according to their theology, they did not have priest or religious status because every people should be equally treated inside of Christ. In Quakerism, the priority was spiritual experience and the theology from scripture. Therefore, they constructed the quiet environment for their services.

In George Fox’s journal, most of his mystical experiences states about spiritual changes. According to his journal, he describes Jesus as light and strong power. Jesus presence is in everyone’s mind and he teaches his words in scripture. However, Fox’s explanation is more focusing on the characteristic of Holy Spirit among trinity. As following Jesus, he set regulations by himself. First, he had so much effort to listen God’s words inside of his mind. Second, whenever he called someone, he used “thee” and “thou” to everyone without respect. Here, ‘without respect’ means that he considered and treated people equally. Third, the ‘Friends’, Quaker community, never resist toward anti-Quakers because he believed that hurting other people with weapons is not what Jesus wants.

In letters, George Fox keeps empathizing individual spiritual training. It seems that the Friends thought hearing and telling to inner voice was more important than reading scripture. Some of letters were written when Fox was in jail because of religious (Quakerism) movement. However, he had a pity rather than anger for his enemies who trapped him into prison. His attitude seems like Paul in Acts, New Testament. Fox asked to the Friends not to rebel against Catholic and Protestant and bless them as Jesus did when he mocked by the Jews.

George Fox was a very spiritual man. Spirituality guided his life from the moment he quit his job to pursue a higher calling. He claimed to have been led by the Spirit of God, and started exploring religious meetings to search for “illumination from on high.” He studied scripture as well, so much so that people said he knew it all by heart. Eventually he came to the conclusion that every church in England was wrong. Fox challenged the notion of a church building, the paying of pastors, and the workings of a worship service. He thought that hymns, sermons, and even the sacraments were all human hindrances, and were removing the freedom of the Spirit to move and work within an individual. He even said that scripture wasn’t the ultimate authority, that since the Spirit wrote it, the Spirit had authority over scripture. Luther would have cringed at this suggestion. Fox disagreed with Calvinist doctrine, specifically the idea that all humans are totally depraved. Instead, he believed that all humans had an “inner light,” some dim and some bright. If someone follows that inner light, it will lead him or her to God.

Fox stayed quiet about his ideas for a while, before finally speaking out in churches as he felt led by the Spirit. The reaction from people of other Christian groups was rather unfriendly, and often resulted in him being kicked out, beaten, and even stoned on some occasions. However, he did gain a following, and his numbers grew swiftly. They became known as the Quakers and the Friends, and eventually had tens of thousands of members. Their services were silent, allowing people to speak whenever they felt the spirit leading them. The Quaker experience was a spiritual one, denying any human obstacles that would get in the way of the Spirits call on one’s life.

Fox had mystical experiences that he accredits to the Spirit within him. These experiences include a type of ascension to a state of perfection or Christlikeness. He claims to have been at a state like Adam before the fall, a state of innocence and purity that wasn’t condemned with sin. While he speaks of ascension, there is also an inward aspect to these mystical experiences. Fox says he “brought them all to the spirit of God in themselves.” If we all would go to the inner light within us, being led by the spirit toward the truth, that inward reaching into God will ascend us upward to a state of perfection and Christlikeness. It is all very spiritual, and Fox says over and over again that the spirit led him into these states and experiences.

Like stated above, these ideas were not met with open arms. Fox tells of being beaten, whipped, stoned, and hated by many. The people who claimed to be Christians were attacking them violently, proving to Fox that they were in fact not Christians at all. Instead of retaliation, the Quakers chose to endure the suffering and not fight back. They thought it was against the teachings of Christ to repay violence with violence, so instead they suffered and endured.

Fox’s epistles focus on the spiritual life of a Quaker. He talks very little about outward living outside of the context of an inward spiritual life. A common theme is that of a seed. This seed is referring to the “inner light” that all have within them. Focusing on that seed and growing in it and living by it is how to live a spiritual life. Fox’s epistles are very mystical in nature because they all encourage the reader to look within for spiritual growth and success. If God is inside everyone, then the outward actions and practices mean nothing without a focus on the inward relationship with God. Fox still mentions social justice briefly, saying that the Friends need to feed widows and orphans among them. Outside of this short epistle speaking to feeding the poor, the main message is to live life in the Spirit, almost rejecting the outward things of the world. George Fox was by all means a spiritual man, who took it to the extreme by allowing everything he did to be led by and point to the Spirit of God.

In The Story of Christianity, Gonzalez describes George Fox as a man of humble origin who came to believe that all of the various religious sects in England were wrong.  Believing that the human “inner light” allows men and women to recognize God and believe scripture, he started a new religious group who would come to be known as the Quakers.

Revelation and religious experiences drove Fox towards paths he felt compelled by God to pursue.  After founding the Quakers, his conviction to do only what God wanted him to do meant that he was often silent during his worship services if he didn’t feel prompted by God to speak.  He felt his calling was to be steadfast in his religious conviction and to lead others to this pure knowledge of God.

The Quakers differed from the Catholics and Protestants in several ways.  They believed women had the same right to speak as men, and this allowed women a place of spiritual authority within the church.  They didn’t practice baptism or communion because they felt that such practices would distract from scripture.  Within church meetings, all votes had to be unanimous.  The Quakers had no regard for class or station and didn’t apologize for breaking social norms, and they refused to pick up weapons to defend themselves.  The reaction from Fox’s contemporaries was often violent.  Quakers were often beaten and imprisoned, including Fox himself and his wife.  Even these events did not shake their faith.

In his journal letters, Fox describes his mystical experiences in an almost arrogant way, claiming that he became like Adam before he fell (27).  This lofty claim in addition to the visions of seeing the purpose in creation led Fox to believe it was his role to “direct people to the Spirit” (34) in order to come to God.  He further claims his authority by being crowned with glory that allowed him to speak Truth (47-48).  Fox believed his sense of power came from God and this motivated him in his church leadership role.  Not all appreciated the Quaker beliefs and, again, there was often violence.  Fox and his followers didn’t believe that one man was superior to another, so they often broke social norms by refusing to remove their hats in front of men of class or station.  These breaches brought physical abuse, robbery, and imprisonment upon the Quakers.  Yet again, in reaction to these abuses the Quakers did not lift a hand in return but merely turned the other cheek.

These steadfast beliefs are reflected in The Epistles where Fox urges the Quakers to quietly “wait to hear the voice of the Lord” (5, 162).  He reminds his followers to be faithful and remember that actions speak louder than words (13).  He further reminds worshipers to meet together often in order to keep the spiritual light burning to stay close to God (149).  By doing so, “prisons, fetters, dungeons, and sufferings [mean nothing since you are] gathered into the fold of Christ Jesus” (206).  In the face of such persecutions Fox comforts them, “I say the Lord can sanctify such places” (398).  He reminds the Quakers to stay close to God and He will provide sanctuary from the oppressors (398).

From very early on in his life, George Fox was driven and compelled to act by the Spirit of God. At just nineteen years of age, he quit his apprenticeship as a cobbler and began to seek out religious meetings in order to gain revelation and wisdom from God. As the nudges he received from the Spirit increased, he came to realize his calling to announce to various religious groups what God had revealed to him regarding Christianity. The most prominent principle through which Fox was guided in his thoughts about Christianity was that of the “inner light” which is inherent in everyone, pagan and Christian alike. This “inner light” reveals to each human the true way to finding God and allows them to accept and be in the presence of God. This is essentially the foundation of faith, as it is the means to which the Christian life is possible. Fox differed from mainstream Catholic and Protestant teachings in that he believed that orderly forms of worship, pastors who work for salary, and meeting in church buildings to experience the presence of God are all hindrances to the work of the Spirit. He was often thrown out of meetings and sometimes beaten for his declarations.

In Fox’s Journal, he describes mystical experiences such as being brought up into paradise with God and being in such a state of perfection and righteousness that matched Adam’s before he fell into sin. He also describes a time when he was led into a steeple house to tell the people there about the Seed of Christ which was planted within all of them to teach them the wisdom of God. It was through these experiences that Fox determined his role as a Christian was to lead people to the Spirit of God which would give them further enlightenment of the Scriptures. Also, Fox believed that showing another human any type of special respect, whether rich or poor, was showing disrespect to God because God was the only one who was worthy to be addressed with such a manner of respect. Thus, when he did not remove his hat in the presence of his contemporaries, as was custom at the time, he and his followers often experienced beatings and imprisonment. Through this, the Quaker movement became known as highly pacifist, its members refusing to take up arms against their enemies, even in the face of persecution.

In his Epistles, Fox encourages his audience to look within and to wait to hear the voice of the Lord through his Spirit while also working to not become too involved in business and to not wrong the world in bargaining. He emphasizes the power of sitting in quiet and seeking to feel the presence of God after a day of doing business in the world almost to center oneself again on what matters most. Fox also said that when facing punishment, one should pray for the enemies that have punished them and to bless them even when they curse you. He comforts his followers by pointing them to the Spirit of God within them when they face trials so that they would find full comfort and joy in God, reinforcing his strong belief in the power of the Spirit. In terms of social justice, Fox reminds his followers to remember the poor when they have plenty, and to refresh the poor by giving to them without expecting anything in return.