Rhiannon Grant works on all aspects of modern Quaker thought, including theological understandings, approaches to changing practice, and philosophy. She is interested in issues around theological diversity within Liberal Quakerism, such as nontheism and responses to it, while also maintaining a focus on the theological consistency and coherence found within the tradition.
Her first book, British Quakers and Religious Language (Brill, 2018), explored the ways in which Quakers in Britain talk about God, with a particular focus on the challenges they face in creating a community which both welcomes diversity and is united around the practice of unprogrammed meeting for worship. She is passionate about presenting research in accessible as well as academic formats, and her first entry in the Quaker Quicks series made this content on Quaker religious language available to a wider public: Telling the Truth about God (Christian Alternative, 2019).
Her recent projects include an analysis of Liberal Quaker theology which drew heavily on books of discipline/books of faith and practice from around the world (published as Theology From Listening, Brill, 2020, and also to be presented in a more accessible discussion in Hearing the Light, Christian Alternative, 2021). This work has been supported by study leave from Woodbrooke and a grant from the K. Blundell Trust.
She has also been involved in two snapshot surveys of British Quaker worship during the coronavirus pandemic, and is supervising research projects on topics such as Quakers and animal ethics, philosophers’ attitudes to Quakers, and Anabaptist beliefs about the soul.