As Head Man of the Rich Square Friends’ Meeting during the 1920s and 1930s, the author’s grandfather Myrton Lewis Johnson was at the center of a heated controversy concerning music, and whether the performance of music was consistent with Quaker beliefs. At the center of this controversy were competing ideas about how to experience “ultimate reality,” whether called God, the divine light, the inward light, the seed of truth, or the Christ within. This controversy raises important issues about the experience and meaning of music.
