Quaker-Buddhist Blendings

From their beginning, Friends have benefited from the religious ideas and spiritual practices of other communities.1 Such influences and confluences have always been a sign of spiritual openness and vitality among religious communities across history. Where, for example, would Augustine of Hippo, the most influential theologian in the history of Western Christianity, be without the insights of the pagan Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus? This essay considers two persons who identify as both Buddhist and Quaker yet define that relationship in complementary ways. Like other Christians, such as Ruben Habito and Paul Knitter,2 some Friends have explored the gifts of other-than-Christian communities. For some, this has led to a respectful borrowing of practices. For others, it has resulted in dual membership in Quakerism and another religion. Each of these poses challenges. Borrowers must consider the ethics of their actions, perhaps especially borrowers whose cultural histories include oppression and colonization of others. Dual belongers have to face the competing demands of two religious systems with their different concepts of self, reality, divinity, worship, meditation, and ethics

Review of T. Vail Palmer, Face to Face: Early Quaker Encounters with the Bible. (Newberg, OR: Barclay Press, 2016)

Excerpt: At the present moment, when—as with early Friends when the monarchy was restored and a vengefully conservative Parliament set out to undo all the good work of Friends and other religious radicals during the Commonwealth—political forces are at play to reverse all the efforts of the past half century to further social justice, a book like Face to Face can revive hope in the mighty acts of God. This is good news

Modelling landscape controls on dissolved organic carbon sources and fluxes to streams

Acknowledgments We thank the Natural Environment Research Council NERC (project NE/K000268/1) for funding. Iain Malcolm and staff at Marine Scotland (Pitlochry) are also thanked for the provision of data from the AWS as are the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and British Atmospheric Data Centre for the provision of meteorological data.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Storage dynamics in hydropedological units control hillslope connectivity, runoff generation, and the evolution of catchment transit time distributions

Acknowledgments We thank the European Research Council (ERC; project GA 335910 VEWA) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; project NE/K000268/1) for funding. We would like to thank Konrad Piegat for invaluable help with the fieldwork. Iain Malcolm and staff at Marine Scotland (Pitlochry) are also thanked for the provision of data from the AWS. We also thank three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Conceptual modelling to assess how the interplay of hydrological connectivity, catchment storage and tracer dynamics controls nonstationary water age estimates

Acknowledgements We would like to gratefully acknowledge the data provided by SEPA, Iain Malcolm. Mark Speed, Susan Waldron and many MSS staff helped with sample collection and lab analysis. We thank the European Research Council (project GA 335910 VEWA) for funding and are grateful for the constructive comments provided by three anonymous reviewers.Peer reviewedPostprin