Quaker Religious Thought extends a heartfelt thank you to David Johns, who is stepping down from the advisory council after decades of service. Currently the president of Ferrum College, Johns previously taught at Wilmington College and Earlham School of Religion.

Johns writes, “Without a doubt, my relationship with the journal has been an important part of my professional life, beginning with Dean Freiday’s edits on my first QRT article on Douglas Steere’s ecclesiology.”

Current QRT editor, Jon Kershner, says, “I will miss David’s presence on the QRT editorial board. When I was a PhD student, David was an encouragement to me. He has been kind and generous of spirit; he has also shown himself to be theologically rigorous and passionate about the task of engaging the Friends’ tradition with new and invigorating theological resources.”

Paul Anderson, former QRT editor, thanks David Johns for the partnership they have shared over the last quarter century: “I appreciate also David’s help in getting Quaker Theological Discussion Group started again at the national American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature meetings back in the mid-1990s and the pleasure of doing good work together onBarclay’s Apology, Maurice Creasey’s works, and other projects, as well. I especially recall gathering papers alongside his Mary Dyer essay (‘Hanging as a Flag’: Mary Dyer and Quaker Hagiography) for the 1999 meetings.”

If you would like to read David’s first essay on Steere’s ecclesiology you can do so here.  

See the impressive list of David’s contributions to QRT.

We offer our deep gratitude for your many contributions to QRT and QTDG, and we wish you all the best in your ministry at Ferrum.