Let Your Words Be Few: Symbolism of Speaking and Silence Among 17th Century Quakers

by Richard Bauman

Amid the spiritual and intellectual turmoil of seventeenth-century England, the Quakers emerged and grew into a distinct and enduring religious movement. This book offers a fresh and striking insight into early Quaker history through a study of their distinctive ways of speaking, which, together with their use of silence, served as a specific identifying feature of the movement. Using the combined perspectives of the ethnography of speaking, symbolic anthropology, and the historical sociology of religion, Richard Bauman shows that for the very early Quakers speaking and silence were key symbols, providing both a vocabulary for conceptualizing their principles as well as a vehicle for carrying these principles into action. Silence was not merely an abstention from speaking or an empty interval between utterances, but an act as richly textured and multidimensional in its meanings as speaking. Both unified thought and action. Professor Bauman discusses many instances of the operation of speaking and silence, including, among other central elements of early Quaker belief and practice, the contexts and settings of Quaker religious communication, the patterns and functions of Quaker "plain language," and the Quaker testimony against the swearing of oaths. In particular, he examines the role of the minister, both as a dynamic speaker who played out the tension between speaking and silence, and as a link between the outside world and the Quaker inner community. He also uses the role of the minister to trace the changes in speaking, and, correspondingly, the direction of the Quaker movement, during the seventeenth century. This book is unique in that it comprehends both the cultural and social aspects of Quaker history by explicating their construction of meaning through their use of language. Its unified approach will make it of interest to sociolinguists, social historians, symbolic anthropologists, and sociologists of religion.

Genres: History

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Let Your Words Be Few: Symbolism of Speaking and Silence Among Seventeenth-Century Quakers, Richard Bauman offers a distinctive perspective on the development of early Quakerism by examining something often taken for granted: the way people speak, and the meaning they give to silence.

Set against the religious and intellectual tensions of seventeenth-century England, the book explores how speaking and silence became more than ordinary forms of communication for early Quakers. They functioned as expressions of belief, markers of religious identity, and ways of putting spiritual principles into practice. This approach provides an illuminating way to understand how a religious community developed and communicated its values.

One of the book’s most intriguing ideas is that silence is not simply the absence of speech. As presented in Bauman’s analysis, silence could carry meaning and intention just as spoken words could. His discussion of plain language, religious communication, the refusal to swear oaths, and the role of ministers demonstrates how everyday practices could reflect deeper convictions and help define a community’s relationship with the wider society.

The book’s interdisciplinary approach is another important strength. By bringing together the study of language, symbolic anthropology, and the sociology of religion, Bauman connects historical evidence with broader questions about how communities create meaning and express their identities. This perspective makes the work relevant beyond Quaker history alone.

For readers interested in religious history, sociolinguistics, anthropology, and the relationship between language and belief, Let Your Words Be Few offers a thoughtful examination of how communication can become an essential part of cultural and spiritual life. Its central insight invites readers to look beyond what people say and consider what their words—and their silences—communicate.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good insights into the first Quakers' use of language and mysticism, as well as the transition from radical sect to organized church during the British Restoration. Plain and technical language, but then again it's a book about Quakers speaking plainly, so perhaps that is appropriate.

[Samuel Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

So tied up in theory it was hard for him to make an important argument, but I enjoyed his attention to the roles of silence and speech acts in the idea and social worlds of early Quakers.