Ruth Tod offers us a fascinating window onto the life and spirituality of Isaac Pennington. She demonstrates that, despite the hundreds of years that separate us from him, Penington’s writings remain a vital source of inspiration and challenge for Friends today. Like all good introductions, this book whets the appetite, and readers will be left wanting more. Stuart Masters, ~ Stuart Masters, Tutor at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre

With remarkable clarity and profound insight, the writings of Isaac Penington continue to speak to us in our day, just as they did among the first generation of Friends. As a standout leader within British society and among Quakers, Penington wrote about his life-changing experiences with Christ, who like a powerful spiritual seed within bears fruit, producing other seeds and bountiful harvests of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and other fruits of the Spirit. In this accessible book, Ruth Tod brings readers into Penington's way of the heart, sure to bring forth yields of wisdom, peace, and love in the gardens of our lives, today. ~ Paul N. Anderson, Professor of Biblical and Quaker Studies, George Fox University

Isaac Penington is one of the most inspiring and thoughtful leaders in the beginnings of Quakerism in England. Ruth Tod engages him personally. While providing information about him, his circumstances, and the origins of the Religious Society of Friends, she shares the intertwining of her life with him as spiritual mentor in ways that are endearing and edifying. As she presents his view of silence, she shares her own meditative going deep into silence, becoming immersed in his images and metaphors, and seeking to understand their impact on her heart. She concludes her book with helpful suggested exercises that are about feeling, noticing, and experiencing. ~ R. Melvin Keiser, Professor Emeritus of Religious and Interdisciplinary Studies, Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina. , Author, with Rosemary Moore, of Knowing the Mystery of Life Within: Selected Writings of Isaac Penington in Their Historical and Theological Context (London: Quaker Books, 2005).

In this great new addition to the Quaker Quick series, Ruth Tod, lifelong Friend, is drawing our attention to the life and work of 17th century Quaker, Isaac Penington. She encourages us to look at his writings and thoughts meditatively and to draw them deeply into our own spiritual lives, now, in the 21st century. Ruth stresses how important it is for us to feel inspired and encouraged by Penington's beautiful words and ideas, and to see how they can enrich us now in practical as well as spiritual ways. ~ Joanna Godfrey Wood, author of In STEP with Quaker Testimony and In Search of Stillness

Ruth Tod offers us insights into Isaac Penington's experience, ideas and faith that springs from a deep sense of spiritual and emotional affinity with him. She paints a vivid portrait of a Friend who very early on, brought colour, warmth, heart and gentleness into the Quaker understanding of the divine, using poetic images that speak to us and uplift us to this day, more powerfully than any amount of formal theology. 'His words sing to me', Ruth tells us and she unpacks those words with empathy that makes them sing to us too. ~ Stevie Krayer, Quaker and Poet

In this book, Ruth provides an embodied and personal reading of the rich heritage of Isaac Penington's life and writings, It reaches out to those who know only a little, as well to know who know a lot about his life and spirituality. Whilst it nourishes the mind, it also invites us to connect with the body as the source of learning and awareness. It offers to assist us, through carefully selected passages and practices, to find first hand experience of the deep connection with the universal part of ourselves. ~ Lina Jordan, Quaker and Psychotherapist