A Quaker by convincement who has herself been involved in interfaith explorations, Eleanor Nesbitt has given us a well-researched and highly accessible account of liberal Quaker (Society of Friends) encounters with other faith traditions over the past 350 years. As a follow up to her Interfaith Pilgrims (2003), Nesbitt explores how liberal Friends from Britain and North America, pursuing a Quaker approach of “discerning openness,” have interacted with peoples of non-Christian religions (Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Pagan, and humanist) -- in their travels, commonly exhibiting a readiness “to learn from others” and “to work with other communities of faith” and, at home, following “an imperative of being a good neighbour to newcomers from different faith backgrounds.” Nesbitt also provides us with accounts of how Friends have themselves come to be viewed by members of these other religious traditions, discusses cases of individuals who have taken on merged identities (as, for example, “Muslim Quaker” or “Buddhist Quaker” or “Hindu Quaker”), and explores various Quaker interfaith initiatives. Open to a New Light exhibits Nesbitt’s personal and scholarly familiarity with Quakerism as well as her personal and scholarly familiarity with other religious traditions. (She is married to a Hindu man and is herself a leading Sikh studies scholar.) This background makes for a book both heartfelt and knowledgeable and one that should be of interest to Quakers and non-Quakers alike.

– Professor Verne A. Dusenbery, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Hamline University, St Paul, Minnesota, USA