The Quietist era of Quakerism in the eighteenth century is characterized, in the work of many scholars, as a separation of the Quakers from worldly engagements and, at the same time, an attempt within the Religious Society of Friends to preserve purity through the "disownment" of unfitting behavior. 1 Some Quakers of this period, however, were involved in social reform outside their immediate communities, and many relied on trade with "the world" for their business success. Carole Spencer has recently challenged this strict dualism -between Quakerism and worldly involvements -in her treatment of the antislavery campaigner Anthony Benezet, whose spirituality she describes as a contemplative mysticism operating within the world. 2 It might be more accurate, though, to say that a pair of dualisms functioned in tandem during this period. The dualism between worldly and nonworldly functioned alongside one between natural and super-Common Knowledge 16:1
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