Elias Hicks
Encyclopedia
Elias Hicks was an itinerant Quaker preacher from Long Island
, New York
. He promoted doctrines that embroiled him in controversy that led to the first major schism within the Religious Society of Friends
. Elias Hicks was the older cousin of the painter Edward Hicks
, also known then as a Quaker preacher.
Hicks married Jemima Seaman January 2, 1771. They moved to her family farm, which Hicks eventually took over when his parents-in-law died. The Hickses had eleven children: Martha, David, Elias, Phebe, Abigail, Jonothan, John, Elizabeth, Sarah, and one who died at birth. Only four of his children married.
Hicks was one of the early abolitionists
among the Friends. He spoke about slavery often and worked hard to persuade others to oppose it. His 'Observations on the Slavery of the Africans' (1811), which argued for a boycott of slavery-produced goods, represented one of the earliest social reform boycott efforts in the United States. The state of New York, due in part to Hicks's efforts, abolished slavery within its borders on July 4, 1827.
, the complete divinity of Christ and the need for salvation through the death of Christ. He also was reported to have taught that the leading of the Inner light
was more authoritative than the text of the Bible. His detractors considered these views heretical because they contradicted the traditional teachings of Christianity. He insisted at times that he believed in Christ's divinity and quoted the Bible from memory in spoken ministry. He may be seen as within the quietist
tradition of John Woolman
and Job Scott, whereas his followers view the Orthodox as taking on evangelistic notions which were alien to original Quaker faith.
These views were consistent with a Freethought
tradition already prevailing in America, particularly among Deists
of Quaker heritage such as Thomas Paine
. The most original aspect of Hicks's theology was his rejection of Satan
as the source of human "passions" or "propensities." Hicks stressed that basic urges, including all sexual passions, were neither implanted by an external Devil
nor the product of personal choice, but were aspects of human nature created by God. "He gave us passions—if we may call them passions—in order that we might seek after those things which we need, and which we had a right to experience and know," he claimed in his 1824 sermon, "Let Brotherly Love Continue." Hicks taught that evil and suffering occurred not because human nature harbored these "propensities," but rather resulted from "an excess in the indulgence of propensities."
In 1858, Walt Whitman
, one of Hicks's most famous exponents, astutely assessed Hicks as "a wonderful compound of the mystic with the logical reasoner," and explained that Hicks was "destined to make a radical revolution in a numerous and devout Society, and his influence to be largely felt outside of that Society..." The Quaker theology of "God within" (another name for the Inner Light
) appeared subsequently in the theory of the Free Love movement
, where it was deemed compatible with the religious sociology of Charles Fourier
.
had tried to prevent Hicks from propounding his views in the city's meeting houses, producing sharp differences within that yearly meeting
; these differences came to a head in April 1827 when there was a division. By 1828 there were two independent groups both claiming to be the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Other yearly meetings split along similar lines during subsequent years, including those in New York, Baltimore, Ohio, and Indiana. Those who agreed with Hicks were generally called Hicksites, and his detractors were called Orthodox Friends. Each side considered itself the legitimate heir to the legacy of earlier Friends, such as George Fox
, Margaret Fell
and Robert Barclay
.
The split was not purely doctrinal. It reflected tensions that had been growing between the elders—who were mostly from the cities—and Friends who lived farther away from major communities and Meetings. Hicksite Friends were mostly country Friends who perceived urban Friends as worldly. Many of the Philadelphia Friends were wealthy businessmen, and many of the country Friends kept less peculiar in matters of "plain speech" and "plain dress", which by this point in time had become a sort of jargon and a sort of uniform, respectively.
Many scholars have written about various aspects of these controversies. A good short summary is Larry Kuenning's Quaker Theologies in the 19th Century Separations, but for more depth see H. Larry Ingle, Quakers in Conflict: The Hicksite Reformation (Philadelphia: Pendle Hill, 1998).
. People say that when he was on his deathbed, someone put a cotton blanket on him. He tried to remove it with his unparalyzed left hand, as it was a product of slavery. When they replaced the cotton blanket with a woolen one, Hicks relaxed and nodded in approval.
Hicks remained a controversial figure long after his death, with his name a pejorative label used by opponents to tarnish his memory. In the final analysis he was one of the last of the 18th century's quietist Quakers, although his combative personality marked him as quite different from most others who bore that title. Despite the fact that he was certainly not a modern "liberal," that title has stuck to him.
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He promoted doctrines that embroiled him in controversy that led to the first major schism within the Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
. Elias Hicks was the older cousin of the painter Edward Hicks
Edward Hicks
Edward Hicks was an American folk painter, a distinguished minister of the Society of Friends, and he also became a Quaker icon because of his paintings.-Early life:...
, also known then as a Quaker preacher.
Early life
Elias Hicks was born at Rockaway, Long Island, New York. Hicks's parents were not Friends themselves. He came to the Society at about the age of twenty, after being convinced by its beliefs and practices.Hicks married Jemima Seaman January 2, 1771. They moved to her family farm, which Hicks eventually took over when his parents-in-law died. The Hickses had eleven children: Martha, David, Elias, Phebe, Abigail, Jonothan, John, Elizabeth, Sarah, and one who died at birth. Only four of his children married.
Ministry
At about the age of twenty-seven, Hicks was recognized as a preacher by the Friends in his meeting. He was regarded as a very gifted speaker, with a strong voice, great poise, and dramatic flair.Hicks was one of the early abolitionists
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
among the Friends. He spoke about slavery often and worked hard to persuade others to oppose it. His 'Observations on the Slavery of the Africans' (1811), which argued for a boycott of slavery-produced goods, represented one of the earliest social reform boycott efforts in the United States. The state of New York, due in part to Hicks's efforts, abolished slavery within its borders on July 4, 1827.
Hicks's reported views
Hicks considered “obedience to the light within” the primary tenet and the foundational principle of the Religious Society of Friends. He downplayed and reputedly denied the virgin birth of ChristJesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, the complete divinity of Christ and the need for salvation through the death of Christ. He also was reported to have taught that the leading of the Inner light
Inner light
Inner Light is a concept which many Quakers, members of the Religious Society of Friends, use to express their conscience, faith and beliefs. Each Quaker has a different idea of what they mean by "inner light", and this also varies internationally between Yearly Meetings, but the idea is often...
was more authoritative than the text of the Bible. His detractors considered these views heretical because they contradicted the traditional teachings of Christianity. He insisted at times that he believed in Christ's divinity and quoted the Bible from memory in spoken ministry. He may be seen as within the quietist
Quietism (Christian philosophy)
Quietism is a Christian philosophy that swept through France, Italy and Spain during the 17th century, but it had much earlier origins. The mystics known as Quietists insist, with more or less emphasis, on intellectual stillness and interior passivity as essential conditions of perfection...
tradition of John Woolman
John Woolman
John Woolman was an American itinerant Quaker preacher who traveled throughout the American colonies and in England, advocating against cruelty to animals, economic injustices and oppression, conscription, military taxation, and particularly slavery and the slave trade.- Origins and early life...
and Job Scott, whereas his followers view the Orthodox as taking on evangelistic notions which were alien to original Quaker faith.
These views were consistent with a Freethought
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
tradition already prevailing in America, particularly among Deists
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
of Quaker heritage such as Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
. The most original aspect of Hicks's theology was his rejection of Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
as the source of human "passions" or "propensities." Hicks stressed that basic urges, including all sexual passions, were neither implanted by an external Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
nor the product of personal choice, but were aspects of human nature created by God. "He gave us passions—if we may call them passions—in order that we might seek after those things which we need, and which we had a right to experience and know," he claimed in his 1824 sermon, "Let Brotherly Love Continue." Hicks taught that evil and suffering occurred not because human nature harbored these "propensities," but rather resulted from "an excess in the indulgence of propensities."
In 1858, Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
, one of Hicks's most famous exponents, astutely assessed Hicks as "a wonderful compound of the mystic with the logical reasoner," and explained that Hicks was "destined to make a radical revolution in a numerous and devout Society, and his influence to be largely felt outside of that Society..." The Quaker theology of "God within" (another name for the Inner Light
Inner light
Inner Light is a concept which many Quakers, members of the Religious Society of Friends, use to express their conscience, faith and beliefs. Each Quaker has a different idea of what they mean by "inner light", and this also varies internationally between Yearly Meetings, but the idea is often...
) appeared subsequently in the theory of the Free Love movement
Free love
The term free love has been used to describe a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage. The Free Love movement’s initial goal was to separate the state from sexual matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery...
, where it was deemed compatible with the religious sociology of Charles Fourier
Charles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier was a French philosopher. An influential thinker, some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become main currents in modern society...
.
Disputes among Friends
Controversy over Hicks's teachings interrupted the normal calm of Religious Society of Friends in Philadelphia. For more than five years, elders of Philadelphia Yearly MeetingPhiladelphia Yearly Meeting
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, or simply Philadelphia Yearly Meeting or PYM, is the central organizing body for Quaker meetings in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, area....
had tried to prevent Hicks from propounding his views in the city's meeting houses, producing sharp differences within that yearly meeting
Yearly Meeting
Yearly Meeting is a term used by members of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, to refer to an organization composed of a collection of smaller, more frequent constituent meetings within a geographical area. These constituent meetings go by various names such as Quarterly Meetings, which...
; these differences came to a head in April 1827 when there was a division. By 1828 there were two independent groups both claiming to be the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Other yearly meetings split along similar lines during subsequent years, including those in New York, Baltimore, Ohio, and Indiana. Those who agreed with Hicks were generally called Hicksites, and his detractors were called Orthodox Friends. Each side considered itself the legitimate heir to the legacy of earlier Friends, such as George Fox
George Fox
George Fox was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.The son of a Leicestershire weaver, Fox lived in a time of great social upheaval and war...
, Margaret Fell
Margaret Fell
Margaret Fell or Margaret Fox was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends. Known popularly as the "mother of Quakerism", she is considered one of the Valiant Sixty early Quaker preachers and missionaries.-Life:...
and Robert Barclay
Robert Barclay
Robert Barclay was a Scottish Quaker, one of the most eminent writers belonging to the Religious Society of Friends and a member of the Clan Barclay. He was also governor of the East Jersey colony in North America through most of the 1680s, although he himself never resided in the...
.
The split was not purely doctrinal. It reflected tensions that had been growing between the elders—who were mostly from the cities—and Friends who lived farther away from major communities and Meetings. Hicksite Friends were mostly country Friends who perceived urban Friends as worldly. Many of the Philadelphia Friends were wealthy businessmen, and many of the country Friends kept less peculiar in matters of "plain speech" and "plain dress", which by this point in time had become a sort of jargon and a sort of uniform, respectively.
Many scholars have written about various aspects of these controversies. A good short summary is Larry Kuenning's Quaker Theologies in the 19th Century Separations, but for more depth see H. Larry Ingle, Quakers in Conflict: The Hicksite Reformation (Philadelphia: Pendle Hill, 1998).
Later life
At age 80, Hicks went on his final ministry trip. He covered 2,400 miles and was harassed and shunned by Orthodox Friends along the way. He suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and died soon afterward in his home in Jericho, New YorkJericho, New York
Jericho is a hamlet in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the CDP population was 13,567. The area is served by the Jericho Union Free School District, the boundaries of which differ somewhat from those of the hamlet...
. People say that when he was on his deathbed, someone put a cotton blanket on him. He tried to remove it with his unparalyzed left hand, as it was a product of slavery. When they replaced the cotton blanket with a woolen one, Hicks relaxed and nodded in approval.
Hicks remained a controversial figure long after his death, with his name a pejorative label used by opponents to tarnish his memory. In the final analysis he was one of the last of the 18th century's quietist Quakers, although his combative personality marked him as quite different from most others who bore that title. Despite the fact that he was certainly not a modern "liberal," that title has stuck to him.
External links
- The Blood of Jesus: A Sermon by Elias Hicks
- Observations on the Slavery of Africans and Their Descendants and on the Use of the Produce of Their Labour, by Elias Hicks - from the Antislavery Literature Project
- Pacific Yearly Meeting 2001 Faith and Practice
- History of Jericho, NY
- Let Brotherly Love Continue/Strengthening the Hand of the Oppressor/Fallen Angels: Three sermons by Elias Hicks
- Let Love Be Without Dissimulation: A Sermon by Elias Hicks
- Peace, Be Still: A Sermon by Elias Hicks
- Long Island History
- Hicks's Observations on Slavery
- Anecdote by Walt Whitman
- Quaker Theologies in the 19th Century Separations (a paper by Larry Kuenning)
- The Life and Religious Experience of T. Townsend