Defending the Defenseless: a Radical Return to an Honest Portrayal of Anabaptism
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Sketching the Stories of the Ausbund Carita B
The University of Akron IdeaExchange@UAkron The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors Honors Research Projects College Fall 2015 Sketching the Stories of the Ausbund Carita B. Keim Ms. University of Akron Main Campus, [email protected] Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Follow this and additional works at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects Part of the Nonfiction Commons Recommended Citation Keim, Carita B. Ms., "Sketching the Stories of the Ausbund" (2015). Honors Research Projects. 215. http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/215 This Honors Research Project is brought to you for free and open access by The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors College at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The nivU ersity of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Research Projects by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. “To the praise of God . though very coarse”: Sketching the Stories of the Ausbund Critical Essay The Ausbund, a hymnbook, is a historical anomaly for its tenacious usage. The Amish, one of the few surviving folk cultures in the United States, still sing the hymns in the original German. Their ancestors penned the words to these hymns nearly five hundred years ago on another continent. Ironically, the Amish arose in opposition to the Latin Christian Church (later known as the Roman Catholic Church), yet could be considered to be nearly their equal in their tradition. -
Cathedrals, Churches, Caves Notes on Architecture, History, and Worship
CHAPTER 1 Cathedrals, Churches, Caves Notes on Architecture, History, and Worship he layers of history, the ways the past persists, are easier to see Tin the Old World, where the irony of ancient towers juxtaposed against tattoo parlors and multinational fast-food outlets is inescapable. The smooth and rough children of western Europe at the millennium, in their black designer dresses or their spiked hair and pierced eyebrows, do not spend nights arguing infant baptism, the uses of the sword, or the perils and advantages of a state church, as my ancestors did during the Anabaptist Reformation of 1525. If today’s citizens were to meet to study the New Testament and reach conclusions about its meaning contrary to those of the state church, the worst they would suffer is ridicule. When my wife Marlyce and I crossed ancient European borders no one asked about our passports, let alone our religion; as long as our cash and credit cards held out, we were free as any bird. So we went our quiet way across Holland and France and Switzerland and Ger- many, sometimes simple travelers enjoying the food and the sights, sometimes pilgrims in pursuit of the strange, small traces of our past. We call ourselves Mennonites now, but our people have claimed and been given many names in the last five centuries, as they wandered over Europe and then to many parts of the world in search of places where they might work out their particular, pecu- liar version of the gospel. 5 6 Scattering Point We were in Europe for three weeks, hardly time to discover anything. -
A People of Diversity: Mennonites in Canada Since 1970
A People of Diversity: Mennonites in Canada since 1970 November 15 – 17, 2018 The Mennonite Historical Society of Canada’s 50th Anniversary Conference Hosted by the Center for Transnational Mennonite Studies University of Winnipeg FREE ATTENDANCE | REGISTER AT CONFERENCE This anniversary conference focuses on the increased diversity of Mennonites in Canada since 1970. Listen to stories of new ethnic identities, crossing old boundaries, and new ways of thinking about faith, culture, and socio-political issues. Consider their implications on being “Mennonite” in the 21st century. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. MHSC 50TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Location: Mennonite Heritage Archives (610 Shaftesbury Blvd) Open to the public 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. RECEPTION FOR PRESENTERS, SESSION CHAIRS, AND MHSC BOARD MEMBERS Location: University Club, 4th Floor Wesley Hall, University of Winnipeg FEATURED EVENING I: KEYNOTE ADDRESS 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Location: Eckhardt Gramatte Hall, 3rd Floor Centennial Building Chair and Conference Introduction, Royden Loewen, Chair in Mennonite Studies • Ted Regehr, University of Calgary, “A 50th Year Retrospective” • Keynote Address: Marlene Epp, Conrad Grebel University College, “The Intersectional Mennonite and Writing Inclusive Histories: Cookbook as Metaphor” FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16: Location: Convocation Hall, 2nd Floor Wesley Hall Building 8:30 – 10:00 a.m. Conference Welcome: Annette Trimbee, President, University of Winnipeg INDIGENEITY, MISSION, AND COLONIALISM Chair: Joe Wiebe, University of Alberta • Daniel Sims, University of Alberta, “‘Accrued Many Rights:’ The Ingenika Tsay Keh Nay and Mennonite and Catholic Missionaries” • Melanie Kampen, Toronto School of Theology, “‘They shout peace! peace! When there is no peace’: Colonialism and a Trauma-Informed Theology” • Brian Froese, Canadian Mennonite University, “Evolving Conceptions of Service: Mennonites and Missions in Post-1960s British Columbia” 10:00 – 10:30 a.m. -
Anabaptist History Unit.Qxd
The Dawn of a New Age BACKGROUND During the next two centuries, the Holy Roman Empire slowly began to decline. Various states—such as England, Germany, and Bohemia—became angry when their tax dollars went toward building bridges in Rome. People from individual states began building loyalty toward those states instead of Rome. The Roman Empire, for all practical purposes, had become divided into smaller social states with their own unique ideals and customs. Other changes took place during the 1300s and 1400s as well. Across the empire, people became intrigued with ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and literature. This period of great awakening set the stage for new ways of thinking. By the early 1500s, corruption in the church had reached its peak. Many bishops, priests, abbots, monks, and popes were living in luxury and sin. The church had gained much wealth and power through the practice of selling indulgences. When a person sinned, he or she would confess the sin to the local priest. The priest would then ask that person to pay a specific fee, according to the seriousness of the sin. This fee was viewed as a guarantee that the sin would be forgiven. People also bought indulgences to release persons they knew from purgatory. Actually, the selling of indulgences was a profitable way to raise money for the government without assessing more taxes. People who were opposed to paying large sums of money in taxes often did not balk at paying small amounts (over time) for the purchase of indulgences. The church split these monies with the gov- ernment. -
CHURCH HISTORY LITERACY Lesson 56 & 57 Anabaptists
CHURCH HISTORY LITERACY Lesson 56 & 57 Anabaptists, Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren We have studied Luther and his spiritual revolution waged against the Church and government of his day. While Luther was fighting for justification by faith in Germany, another movement to the south was struggling against the religious and governmental powers as well. The scene: Switzerland and Bavaria; the time: 1520’s; the cause: Biblical Christianity. Here, however, the adversary to free religious expression was equally Protestant as it was Catholic. As with Luther, the stage was set for things to happen in the area of human thought and belief. The advent of the printing press made writing more available. The ready availability of writing made literacy more important and useful. Increased literacy brought on the greater sharing of ideas, and western civilization found itself in the midst of a renaissance of learning. The dark ages were moving rapidly into history as civilization moved forward. Understandably, this energy for learning and change affected every arena of public and personal life, and religion was in no way excluded. The effect of putting the Bible in mass distribution and giving people the education to read and understand it was huge. More and more people would read the Bible and question the doctrines and practices the church authorities taught. It was no coincidence that this same renaissance brought on exploration as countries and adventurers set out to find new trade routes and treasures. The discovery of the New World brought a measure of discomfort in the intellect and in faith. People were recognizing that the world was greater than previously thought. -
The Roots of Anabaptist Empathetic Solidarity, Nonviolent Advocacy, and Peacemaking
The Roots of Anabaptist Empathetic Solidarity, Nonviolent Advocacy, and Peacemaking John Derksen Introduction uch of Mennonite nonviolent advocacy and peacebuild- ing today finds its roots in sixteenth-century Anabaptism. But Msixteenth-century Anabaptists were diverse. In keeping with the polygenesis viewSAMPLE of Anabaptist origins, this paper assumes diversity in the geography, origins, cultures, shaping influences, spiritual orientations, attitudes to violence, and other expressions of Anabaptists.1 We define Anabaptists as those who accepted (re)baptism or believer’s baptism and the implications of that choice. Various Anabaptists had sectarian, ascetic, spiri- tualist, social revolutionary, apocalyptic, rationalistic, or other orientations, and the distinctions between them were often blurred. Geographically, they emerged in Switzerland in 1525, in South Germany-Austria in 1526, and in the Netherlands in 1530. Many agree that the Anabaptists displayed 1. Stayer, Packull, and Deppermann, “Monogenesis,” 83–121; Coggins, “Defini- tion”; Stayer, Sword. Surveys of Anabaptist history that incorporate the polygenesis perspective include Snyder, Anabaptist, and Weaver, Becoming Anabaptist. Works that explore Anabaptist unity beyond polygenesis include Weaver, Becoming Anabaptist, and Roth and Stayer, Companion. 13 © 2016 The Lutterworth Press 14 Historical Conditions of Anabaptist-Mennonite Peacebuilding Approaches both Protestant and Catholic characteristics in different configurations. “Negatively, there was anger against social, economic, and religious abuses . but responses to this discontent varied widely. Positively, the ‘Word of God’ served as a rallying point for all, but differences . emerged over how it was understood and used.”2 While Swiss Anabaptists tended to fa- vor sectarianism after the 1525 Peasants’ War, South German and Austrian Anabaptists tended more toward spiritualism, and early Dutch Anabaptists tended toward apocalyptic thinking. -
7 Anabaptist Environmental Ethics: a Review Essay
Anabaptist Environmental Ethics: A Review Essay PETER DULA* Abstract: This article situates four decades of Anabaptist writing on environmental ethics in relationship to Laurel Kearns and Willis Jenkins’s typology of eco-justice, stewardship, and eco-spirituality. It argues that while stewardship discourse dominates the early work, it has faded in significance as Anabaptist theology increasingly appropriates varieties of eco-spirituality such as agrarianism and watershed discipleship. It concludes with a turn towards recent arguments that eco-theology, in all three varieties, has over-emphasized questions of cosmology and worldview at the expense of what Jenkins calls “prophetic pragmatism.” Evidence for anthropogenic climate change and its attendant dangers has mounted over the last several decades to the point where it is now undisputed in the scientific community. In spite of this consensus, large numbers of Christians in the U.S. remain unconvinced.1 Concern, and increasingly alarm, for this combined state of affairs—ecological crisis and vocal Christian denial—has generated a vast literature. University and seminary programs in religion and ecology or eco-theology now proliferate, as do professorships specializing in them. This literature is united by a sense of alarm at human degradation of the planet, a penitent awareness that the Christian church and Christian theology are complicit in that degradation, and a common concern to construct and recover theologically responsible ways to think and practice healthier relationships between God, humans, and the rest of creation. Yet while *Peter Dula is professor of religion and culture at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia. The research and writing of this essay was made possible through funding from the Center for Sustainable Climate Change and the encouragement of its director, Doug Graber Neufeld. -