Prophets and Reconcilers

Prophets and Reconcilers was the title of the 1974 Swarthmore Lecture by Wolf Mendl, who was shortly to become Professor of War Studies (!) at King’s College, London. He wrote:

“In every generation Friends have been found among the visionaries and the realists, or, if you will, among the prophets and the reconcilers, according to which side their experience or personalities incline them. In speaking of someone as a ‘visionary’ or ‘prophet’, I stress that the person is filled by a vision of the ideal and attentive to its fulfilment. In calling someone a ‘realist’ or ‘reconciler’, I am emphasizing that his attention is focused on concrete particulars”.

In terms of this distinction, a Prophet would be powerfully motivated by a sense of justice, and disposed to challenge perceived wrongdoing. A Reconciler would be more inclined to focus on the specifics of peacemaking.
One can trace this dichotomy within Quakerism back to Early Friends. Thus George Fox (“Woe, woe to the bloody city of Lichfield”) coexisted with Isaac Penington (“Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another; and not laying accusations one against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand”).

What light does the split between Prophets and Reconcilers throw on earlier Quaker boycotts?
on present-day boycotts?
on the current Quaker boycott of settlement goods?
on possible Quaker misgivings about boycotting?

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