What does Universalism mean to a Pretheist?
The early Quakers were without any doubt “Christian” in their orientation. But that was in seventeenth century England, when people of that time and place knew very little about the bible itself, let alone about other religions, other cultures, and other ways of thinking and acting in the world.
We now know much more about the world than the early Quakers did, and it is not sufficient to pretend we still live in seventeenth century England if we are to be Pretheist Quakers in the 21st century. The basic understanding of “universalism” is that there is much more to the world, to religion, to spirituality than is narrowly understood as Christianity.
Christians cannot legitimately claim to be uniquely good or uniquely acceptable to God in a world that is rich with different religions and philosophies and understandings of what is good or acceptable, or indeed of what we mean by God.
Pretheist Quakerism is about recognising that there is that of God in all of us, no matter what we think or believe, no matter what religion we adhere to, no matter what culture or ethnicity we come from. And a Pretheist Quaker has no truck with any interpretation of Christianity that denies the humanity and godliness of non-Christians.