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Stuart Masters

@stuartkmasters.bsky.social

590 followers 560 following 370 posts

Teacher and writer on Quaker and Christian history, theology and spirituality. Author of 'The Rule of Christ: Themes in the Theology of James Nayler’ (Brill, 2021) and forthcoming 'The Quaker Faith: Friends of Love and Truth' (T&T Clark, 2025).

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · Jul 31

This website contains information and resources relating to my writing, teaching, and speaking activities.

www.stuartkmasters.com

Explore the Quaker faith with Stuart Masters | Stuart Masters: Author and Teacher

Explore the Quaker faith with Stuart Masters, who offers learning opportunities that cover the history, theology, and spirituality of Friends, through accessible and engaging teaching, speaking, and w...

www.stuartkmasters.com

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 11h

Thank you for sharing this. Very interesting!

Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 17h

A prophet is one who is able to hold God and humanity in one thought, at one time, at all times.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

The image includes the following quotation in white on a background of a dark sky, with the silhouette of trees at the bottom of the picture:

A prophet is one who is able to hold God and humanity in one thought, at one time, at all times.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 1d

Be honest with yourself. What unpalatable truths might you be evading? When you recognise your shortcomings, do not let that discourage you. In worship together we can find the assurance of God’s love and the strength to go on with renewed courage.

Advices & Queries 11 (Britain Yearly Meeting)

The image includes the text below, plus a picture of two copies of Quaker Faith & Practice (red books on a black background):

Be honest with yourself. What unpalatable truths might you be evading? When you recognise your shortcomings, do not let that discourage you. In worship together we can find the assurance of God’s love and the strength to go on with renewed courage.

Advices & Queries 11 (Britain Yearly Meeting)

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 2d

Think how often injustice is related to inconsistency. Inconsistency has too often been the cradle of injustice and sociopathic behavior. So to speak of consistent compassion is to affirm the importance of a reliable and steady love for others, regardless of their station in life.

Philip Gulley

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 3d

That which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God has shown it to them.

Romans 1:19 (AMPC)

Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 4d

Peace is not just about the absence of conflict; it’s also about the presence of justice.

Shane Claiborne - Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

The image just shows the quotation below on a cream background.

“Peace is not just about the absence of conflict; it’s also about the presence of justice. Martin Luther King Jr. even distinguished between “the devil’s peace” and God’s true peace. A counterfeit peace exists when people are pacified or distracted or so beat up and tired of fighting that all seems calm. But true peace does not exist until there is justice, restoration, forgiveness. Peacemaking doesn’t mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight but the careful, arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice. It is about a revolution of love that is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free.”

Shane Claiborne - Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 5d

Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which has turned everything upside down...

St. Oscar Romero

The image includes the quotation below, along with a drawing of Oscar Romero (an older white man with gray hair and glasses, wearing priests robes):

Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which has turned everything upside down...

St. Oscar Romero

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 6d

The poor tell us who we are. The prophets tell us who we can be. So we hide the poor and kill the prophets.

Philip Berrigan

the image includes the quotation below and an image of an alleyway with a figure walking a dog.

The poor tell us who we are. The prophets tell us who we can be. So we hide the poor and kill the prophets.

Philip Berrigan

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 7d

We pray for peace that isn't just the absence of gunfire but the presence of dignity, and for justice that doesn't wait for the next election cycle.

Nadia Bolz-Weber

The image has the following quotation in white against a red background:

We pray for peace that isn't just the absence of gunfire but the presence of dignity, and for justice that doesn't wait for the next election cycle.

Nadia Bolz-Weber

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 8d

I'm never surprised by evil, never paralyzed by despair. I am a follower of Jesus.

Cornel West

The image includes the quotation below, along with a picture of Cornel West (an older African-American man in a dark jacket and tie, gesticulating):

I'm never surprised by evil, never paralyzed by despair. I am a follower of Jesus.

Cornel West

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 9d

Love is not a weak, spineless emotion; it is a powerful moral force on the side of justice.

Bernice King

The image includes the quotation below on a light brown background, with a further image of dry leaves behind that:

Love is not a weak, spineless emotion; it is a powerful moral force on the side of justice.

Bernice King

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 10d

I suppose it depends on what one means by 'revival'. I think Brad is cautioning about the dangers of mass excitement when this does not result in Christ-like conduct.

Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 10d

A crowd doth not constitute a "revival."

I suspect that revival - if there is such a thing - would look more like the recovery of self-giving love than an exuberant crowd.

Bradley Jersak

The quotation below is set against a simple white background:

A crowd doth not constitute a "revival."

I suspect that revival - if there is such a thing - would look more like the recovery of self-giving love than an exuberant crowd.

Bradley Jersak

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 11d

The creator of the heavens obeys the carpenter; the God of eternal glory listens to a poor virgin. Has anyone ever witnessed anything comparable to this? Let the philosopher no longer disdain from listening to the simple, the educated, to the illiterate, a child of a prince, to a peasant.

The image includes the following quotation with a black and white photo background showing a child living in poor circumstances):

The creator of the heavens obeys the carpenter; the God of eternal glory listens to a poor virgin. Has anyone ever witnessed anything comparable to this? Let the philosopher no longer disdain from listening to the simple, the educated, to the illiterate, a child of a prince, to a peasant.

Anthony of Padua

Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 12d

Know where you stand, and stand there.

Fr. Daniel J Berrigan, S. J.

The image includes the quotation below along with a picture of Daniel Berrigan, an older white man in gray shirt and trousers with dog collar, being handcuffed by police:

Know where you stand, and stand there.

Fr. Daniel J Berrigan, S. J.

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 13d

Here's a modest proposal - and modesty is absolutely key: Be and become who and what you want humanity to be and look like, one seedling at a time.

Bradley Jersak

The quotation below is set in white on a black background with a small green shoot in the bottom right corner:

Here's a modest proposal - and modesty is absolutely key: Be and become who and what you want humanity to be and look like, one seedling at a time.

Bradley Jersak

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 14d

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.

G. K. Chesterton

The image includes the quotation below on a black and white picture of people walking along a city street):

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.

G. K. Chesterton

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 15d

The regenerated do not go to war, nor engage in strife. They are children of peace who have beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning forks, and know no war.

Menno Simons

The image includes the quotation below along with a picture of Menno Simons (an older white man with a long white beard):

The regenerated do not go to war, nor engage in strife. They are children of peace who have beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning forks, and know no war.

Menno Simons

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 16d

Christian nationalism is impoverished as it seeks a kingdom without a cross. It pursues a victory without mercy. It acclaims God's love of power rather than the power of God's love.

N. T. Wright

The image has the following quotation in white on a black background:

Christian nationalism is impoverished as it seeks a kingdom without a cross. It pursues a victory without mercy. It acclaims God's love of power rather than the power of God's love. We must remember that Jesus refuses those who wanted to make him king by force just as much as he refused to become king by calling upon twelve legions of angels.

N. T. Wright

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 17d

The Christian, like God, must love all men, not only the friends but also the enemies, not only the faithful but also the unbelieving. For all are God's creation, and to despise any is to despise the creator.

St. Clement of Alexandria

The image includes the quotation below, along with a picture of Clement of Alexandria (an older man with a long brown beard):

The Christian, like God, must love all men, not only the friends but also the enemies, not only the faithful but also the unbelieving. For all are God's creation, and to despise any is to despise the creator.

St. Clement of Alexandria

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 18d

I'm now using this - www.biblestudytools.com

The Bible - Search & Read the Bible Online with Study Tools

Read and study the Bible online with over 100 translations and languages. Read verses by topic, study Scripture with commentary, and apply the Word of God with articles for Biblical living today.

www.biblestudytools.com

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 18d

Inner silence, calming the agitations of our hearts and minds...is essentially an expression of the love of truth. To be dispassionate, not to let one's own needs or prejudices or emotions color one's actions, is essentially to put truth before everything else.

Dan Seeger

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 19d

Thanks! 😜 It's a pity Blue-sky doesn't enable posts to be edited.

Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 19d

"The might will be cast from their thrones, and the lowly will be lifted up. The hungry will be filled with good things, and the rich will be sent away empty."

That's not Karl Marx. That's the Gospel of Luke.

Shane Claiborne

The image includes a Madonna and child picture, along with the following quotation:

"The might will be cast from their thrones, and the lowly will be lifted up. The hungry will be filled with good things, and the rich will be sent away empty."

That's not Karl Marx. That's the Gospel of Luke.

Shane Claiborne

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Stuart Masters @stuartkmasters.bsky.social · 20d

Wealth is attended with power, by which bargains and proceedings, contrary to universal righteousness, are supported; and hence oppression, carried on with worldly policy and order, clothes itself with the name of justice and becomes like a seed of discord in the soul.

John Woolman (1720-1772)

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