The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College Fall 2009

Japanese interest in the Amish spurs visit to Japan

n 1998, Chiho Oyabu and Toshihara Sugihara trav- children’s toys; a few months later, Oyabu invited Ieled from Japan to the United States to study Amish him to lecture at Gifu and the museum after the economics at the Young Center. A decade later, the exhibit opened. two Gifu University professors invited their Young The Young Center welcomed another Japanese Center “teachers” to travel to Japan to present their visitor in November 2008. Nanami Suzuki of the knowledge to a wider Japanese audience. National Museum of Ethnology at Osaka came to the Oyabu became a Young Center Fellow in the sum- Center and interviewed Scott about the Amish. A mer of 1998, and was especially interested in Amish friend of Oyabu’s, Suzuki knew that Scott was trav- school curriculum and other Amish literature. Steve eling to Japan in June 2009, and so she too invited Scott helped arrange for her to live with an Amish him to present a lecture. family and to collect Amish printed material. Oyabu Meanwhile, the Gifu University professors, who returned to Pennsylvania on several occasions for fur- had collaborated on translating two of Donald B. ther Amish studies and to attend Young Center con- Kraybill’s books into Japanese, extended an invita- ferences on the Amish. In June 2008, she asked Scott tion to him to lecture on Amish culture and society in if he could obtain Amish items for an exhibit she was conjunction with the exhibit. Yujin Yaguchi, a pro- developing at the Shibunkaku Art Museum in Kyoto fessor of American studies at the University of the following summer. Scott collected and sent a Tokyo, invited Kraybill to speak to his graduate stu- number of artifacts including Amish clothing and dents about the international media and the Nickel Mines tragedy. Kraybill travelled to Japan at the end of May. In addition to presenting lectures, he spent a fascinating two and a half hours being interviewed by Kunio Yanagida, a prominent nonfiction writer and columnist for The Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s leading newspaper (circu- lation: 8.3 million) and the Japanese pub- lisher of Amish Grace. Yanagida had written a favorable review of the book’s Japanese translation, and he wanted to discuss the Amish forgiveness story as it related to capi- tal punishment, and punitive responses to crime, both of which are lively topics of debate in Japan. The extensive interview appeared in the July 8 issue of the paper. Steve Scott’s visit to Japan followed Kray- bill’s return to the States. He too lectured at Gifu University and the Shibunkaku Museum; his presentations focused on Amish clothing. His talk, “The Amish Way of Life in Modern Donald B. Kraybill and Chiho Oyabu outside the Shibunkaku Art Museum in Kyoto. American Society,” at the (continued on p. 2)

1 FROM THE DIRECTOR

Jeff Bach his summer I have been dealing with countries. Musa Mambula (Fellow in in places and languages that we might Tsome English ivy in my flower garden Spring 2007) published Are There Limits not imagine. The scholarship of the that is spreading to areas where I did not to Pacifism?, which explores Brethren Young Center staff reaches around the imagine it would go. I am amazed at how pacifism and religious tensions in north- world through print and other media. those vines travel! ern Nigeria. Andy Borella, our doctoral Thanks to financial backing for the Cen- At the Young Center, we are amazed at fellow from Italy last spring, released Gli ter, we can welcome scholars from other how our scholarly work is traveling, liter- Amish (The Amish), the first book about countries who want to pursue Anabaptist ally and figuratively. Donald B. Kraybill the Amish written in Italian, and Erik and Pietist studies here. We celebrate the spent a week in Japan talking about his Wesner (Snowden Fellow in Fall 2008) ways that the work of the Young Center book, Amish Grace, which is already has completed the manuscript for a book travels to new places. We are also grate- available in Japanese translation. Steve about the Amish written Polish. In Octo- ful for people who make this growth Scott was invited to Japan for two weeks ber, Marcus Meier (Fellow in Fall 2006) possible through their interest and finan- in June by former Young Center Fellow will receive the Dale Brown Book Award cial support. Chiho Oyabu. He lectured on the lifestyle and lecture on his recent book, The Ori- I hope you will come to our events this of the Amish and other Plain groups. gin of the Schwarzenau Brethren. year and see how the work of the Young We have also received news of recent I am amazed at how the work of staff Center is spreading in amazing ways. „ books written by past Fellows from other and Fellows at the Young Center spreads Anna Blough correspondence project underway

ecently, the Young Center was able to great aunt, Anna V. Blough, a Church of when she died of typhoid fever in China. Rexpand its historical research on the Brethren missionary stationed in They provide valuable insight into the Brethren Missions in China during the Shanxi Province from 1913 to 1922. daily struggles and satisfaction of mis- first half of the twentieth century. In The letters and diaries range from sionary work in a foreign country. March 2009, Maylee Samuel lent the Cen- 1906, during Blough’s student years at Blough’s letters recount her calling to ter correspondence and diaries from her Mt. Morris College in Illinois, to 1922, mission work and detail her departure for China in 1913, where she joined Brethren missionaries in Shanxi Province. Blough Japanese interest in the Amish (continued) visited Chinese women in her area, taught at the girls’ school set up by the mission- Museum of Ethnology had a broader of Living Together in the 21st Century.” aries, and worked in the villages during theme, and was the featured lecture of an Both Scott and Kraybill combined the famine conditions in the 1920s. afternoon forum titled “The Amish Way their speaking engagements with the The Anna Blough Collection is a novel experiences of visit- remarkable primary source for researchers ing a new and intriguing interested in women in the early twentieth country. From decidedly century and cultural interfaces between tourist activities such as American Christian missionaries and, in watching cormorant fishing this case, Chinese people. and visiting the Imperial Samuel has given the Young Center Palace grounds to every- permission on behalf of her family to copy day, “native” experiences the letters and diaries as well as some pho- such as riding the bullet tos. Thanks to the college’s High Library, train, eating rice and fish at the collection will be digitized and made breakfast, and sleeping on available to the public. After the digitizing futons atop tatami mats, the is complete, the original materials will be two enjoyed a bit of cul- returned to Samuel. The collection, how- tural immersion themselves ever, will be available to interested people as they shared the Amish around the world through Elizabethtown Toshihara Sugihara and Stephen Scott in Sugihara’s home near Gifu. culture with their hosts. „

2 Martyrs Mirror conference scheduled Falkenstein n June 8-10, 2010, the Young Center Amish. The Ephrata edition of 1748 was materials donated Owill hold a conference to commemo- the first complete German translation, rate the 350th anniversary of the publi- significant because it meant that Men- n the summer of 2008, Andrew Miller cation of the first edition of Martyrs nonites in the colonies could read the donated several boxes of materials Mirror by Thieleman van Braght in work. It was also the largest book pro- I related to George Ness Falkenstein to Dutch. “Martyrs Mirror: Reflections duced in colonial America. Elizabethtown College and the Young Across Time” will focus primarily on the The goal of the conference is to exam- Center on behalf of G. N. Falkenstein’s German translation produced by the ine the importance of Martyrs Mirror grandchildren. Falkenstein was instru- Ephrata Community in 1748. However, and to provide a forum for sharing the mental in the founding of Elizabethtown the conference will also cover other knowledge of those who have studied it. College and served as president from aspects of Martyrs Mirror, including its The Young Center is coordinating the 1901 to 1903. history and social context, theological conference with a research initiative Among the materials in the collection themes, and portrayal of women. being developed by Mennonite scholars are several of Falkenstein’s detailed Martyrs Mirror has symbolic value for a multi-year study of the full history diaries and a number of business papers for Anabaptist groups in the United and impact of the various editions of related to the Falkenstein and Shellen- States, especially for Mennonites and Martyrs Mirror. „ berger families from the second half of the nineteenth century. A handwritten letter in which Falkenstein reflects on his time as pastor at the Germantown New publications in the JHUP series Church of the Brethren is pasted into one of his journals. Also among the artifacts he Johns Hopkins University Press Prussia from the early is a German Bible dated from 1860 with Thas recently released the sixth book in sixteenth through the “G. N. Falkenstein” signed on a piece of the Young Center Books in Anabaptist late eighteenth cen- paper attached to the inside of the front and Pietist Studies series. In Mennonites turies. Klassen used cover. in Early Modern Poland and Prussia, documents he discov- A significant portion of the donated Peter J. Klassen, professor emeritus of ered during his exten- materials is a group of more than 550 history at California State University, sive archival research stereoscopic slides from around the turn Fresno, discusses the religious tolerance in Poland, Germany, of the twentieth century. The slides that Mennonites found in Poland and and the Netherlands include international scenes ranging from to inform this narrative about a displaced Roman catacombs and Egyptian tombs to people who found, under Polish rule, a city views of Algeria and the digging of safe haven from religious persecution. the Panama Canal. There are also slides The seventh title in the Young Center of historical events and persons includ- Fall 2009 series is slated for release in Spring 2010. ing the U.S.S. Indiana, a battleship in the „ DIRECTOR An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Spanish American War, and John L. Jeff Bach, Ph.D. Change in the World’s Largest Amish Burns, the “old hero of Gettysburg.” „ SENIOR FELLOW Community, by College of Wooster pro- These materials are valuable resources Donald B. Kraybill, Ph.D. fessors Charles Hurst and David for researchers and others interested in „ RESEARCH STAFF McConnell, is an in-depth study of the the Brethren in the early twentieth cen- Stephen Scott Amish settlement in Holmes County, tury and in the life of one of the early Cynthia Nolt Ohio. „ leaders of Elizabethtown College. „ „ ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Hillary Daecher

Young Center News is published twice each year for those interested in the work and events of the Divided by Faith: dialogue continues Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Please direct correspondence to the address below. s a follow-up to the April seminar on versation on their work for peace, ideas to

Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies Aracial diversity and Anabaptists co- overcome racism, and advocacy for Elizabethtown College sponsored by the Young Center and the women. The productive discussion illumi- One Alpha Drive College’s sociology and anthropology nated areas for further research on Elizabethtown, PA 17022-2298 department, six staff members from Men- Anabaptist groups that interface with the Phone: (717) 361-1470; Fax: (717) 361-1443 E-mail: [email protected] nonite Central Committee (MCC) visited work of MCC. These conversations are Web site: www.etown.edu/youngctr the Center on May 26 to continue the dis- helpful in planning future programs at the cussion. The MCC staff focused the con- Young Center. „

3 Steven Nolt named Fall 2009 Snowden Fellow

teven M. Nolt will serve as the Snow- While on sabbatical, Nolt will also who share com- Sden Fellow for Fall 2009. At Goshen work on A Global Mennonite History: mon interests, test- College, where he is a professor of history, North America, a book that he is co- ing and refining Nolt teaches a variety of courses including authoring with Royden Loewen, profes- ideas together.” American History, History of Mennonites sor of Mennonite Studies at the As a doctoral in America, Amish and Old Order Groups, University of Winnipeg. “This project is fellow, Nolt spent and War, Peace and Nonresistance. part of an international effort to write five the spring of 1997 Nolt’s semester as the Snowden Fel- continent-focused volumes on Mennon- at the Young Cen- low will be the first half of his yearlong ites and Brethren in Christ around the ter. He is a noted sabbatical from Goshen to work on writ- world,” Nolt says. Volumes on Africa, scholar on the ing projects. While at the Young Center, Europe, and Latin America have already Amish and on Steve Nolt he will team up once again with Donald B. been completed, and the Asian volume is Mennonite history, Kraybill and Karen Johnson-Weiner to also in process. and has written or co-written nine books, complete The Amish in America, a forth- Nolt is looking forward to spending as well as numerous journal articles and coming book that will present a “broadly time at the Young Center to focus on these book chapters. He is also book review edi- comparative interpretation of Amish soci- manuscripts. The Amish research project tor for Mennonite Quarterly Review. ety and culture across North America.” has been based at the Young Center, so “it Nolt will present the Snowden Lec- The book is the final component of their will be helpful to be on location to work ture at the Young Center on November collaborative research project on Amish with Don Kraybill and Steve Scott and 12. The Snowden Fellowship and Lec- identity and diversity in the twentieth cen- have access to the many archival ture are named in honor of Lucille and tury, which is funded by a grant from the resources related to Amish history and Armon Snowden, whose generous gift National Endowment for the Humanities. life, including the migration data that endowed them. The Young Center invites Steve has complied and the news stories applications and nominations for Center that have been scanned and archived,” Fellows and Doctoral Fellows. Visit Nolt says. “For both projects, I look for- www.etown.edu/youngctr for more Center receives ward to spending time with colleagues information on the Fellows program. „ book donations

he Young Center has received two Tsets of book donations this spring and summer. Dale Brown, retired Bethany Theological Seminary professor, donated books on history and theology related to Anabaptism and Pietism, as well as books about peace studies. Some, such as Martin Schmidt’s two-volume biography of John Wesley and Theodore Tappert’s four-volume collection of selected works by Martin Luther, will expand the col- lege’s collection on church history. Oth- ers, such as Buddhism and Nonviolent Global Problem Solving (Glenn Paige and Sarah Gilliatt, eds.) and Christ the wo scholars from the Institute for Religious Studies in Hanoi met with Donald B. Kraybill at Reconciler (Peter Schmiechen) will Tthe Young Center on June 3 to discuss religious liberty in the United States. Many of their enrich the peace studies collection. questions focused on the Amish and the “free exercise” clause in the First Amendment to the The family of Esther and Earl Kurtz Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit- donated several books, most of which ing the free exercise thereof.” The men, Duong Nguyen (2nd from left), director of the institute, were published by Brethren Press. Among and Chung Hoang (left), international relations assistant and editor of Religious Studies Review, the donations were The Boy and the Man are interested in models of religious freedom that can apply to religious groups in Vietnam. The by J. H. Moore and The Lost Sister among visit was arranged and facilitated by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Global Engage- the Miamis by Otho Winger. The late Earl ment (IGE), which encourages cross-national discussions about religious freedom. Hien Vu Kurtz worked at Brethren Press for many (right), East Asia program officer at IGE, served as translator for the meeting. years, starting in the 1950s. „

4 UPCOMING EVENTS

Lectures „ Thursday, September 17, 7:00 p.m. A Reading and Discussion of Nightwatch: Alone on the Prairie with the Hutterites Robert Rhodes

„ Thursday, October 1, 7:30 p.m. Amish Dress: Tradition and Transition Stephen Scott

A Reading and Discussion of „ Thursday, October 29, 7:30 p.m. Meier is a research fellow with the Inter- Nightwatch: Alone on the Prairie The Schwarzenau Brethren: disciplinary Center for Pietism Research with the Hutterites Anabaptist Dissent in the Context at Martin Luther University in Witten- of Pietism? berg and Halle in Germany. He holds a ROBERT RHODES Marcus Meier Ph.D. from Philipps University in Mar- Thursday, September 17 „ 7:00 p.m. burg, Germany. „ Thursday, November 12, 7:30 p.m. Nightwatch: An Inquiry Into Solitude: Globalizing a Separate People: The Origin of the Schwarzenau Alone on the Prairie With the Hutterites, World Christianity and North Brethren was selected to receive the published in June by Good Books, American Mennonites 2009 Dale W. Brown Book Award. describes the spiritual journey Rhodes Steven Nolt Copies of the book will be available for took from the South, where he grew up Snowden Fellow, Fall 2009 sale and signing following the lecture. near Memphis, Tennessee, to the com- munal farming enclaves of the Hutterian Brethren. The book details not only this Globalizing a Separate People: journey but Hutterite history and the southern Ohio. He has lived in several World Christianity and North impact of modern society and technol- different Amish, Mennonite, and American Mennonites ogy on Hutterian communalism. Rhodes Brethren communities and has visited STEVEN NOLT will read from the book and discuss his many others. As a young man, Scott SNOWDEN FELLOW, FALL 2009 experiences in the Hutterite colony. joined the Old Order River Brethren Thursday, November 12 „ 7:30 p.m. Church in Pennsylvania and now works Robert Rhodes is a former daily news- on the staff of the Young Center. He has Drawing on his work on the Global paper journalist who worked for 11 written six books relating to conserva- Mennonite History Project, Nolt will years at the Northwest Arkansas Times tive Anabaptist groups, including Why explore how Mennonites and, increas- in Fayetteville before joining Starland Do They Dress That Way? ingly, historians of Christianity have Hutterite Colony in Gibbon, Minnesota, begun to think in global terms. He will with his family in 1995. After leaving The Schwarzenau Brethren: not only focus on how North American the colony in 2002, he was associate edi- Christians have impacted other parts of Anabaptist Dissent in the Context tor of Mennonite Weekly Review and an the world via traditional mission work, editor at Good Books. The author of of Pietism? but also on how the wider world and numerous essays and a published poet, MARCUS MEIER wider Christian community has shaped Rhodes holds an M.F.A. from the Uni- Thursday, October 29 „ 7:30 p.m. North American Christianity.The Men- versity of Arkansas. nonite story is distinctive in that it was Meier will offer insights into the Mennonite separatism, especially in process of writing The Origin of the terms of non-participation in the U.S. Amish Dress: Tradition and Schwarzenau Brethren, especially the military, which set the stage for these Transition methodology, source material and cen- global interactions. STEPHEN SCOTT tral themes of the book. In addition, he Thursday, October 1 „ 7:30 p.m. will outline the present state of research Steve Nolt is professor of history at and suggest some future research proj- Goshen College in Indiana, where he Scott will present an illustrated lecture ects in the field of early Brethren his- has taught since 1999. Nolt has written on the religious garb of the Amish and tory. His talk will also reflect on the extensively on Amish and Mennonite how it relates to that of other Plain beginnings of historical research on the topics; he is the author or co-author of groups. Schwarzenau Brethren by focusing on nine books and numerous chapters and Stephen Scott’s interest in the Plain Martin Grove Brumbaugh, the first journal articles. Nolt holds a Ph.D. People began during his boyhood in noted historian among the Brethren. from the University of Notre Dame.

5 YOUNG CENTER FOR ANABAPTIST AND PIETIST STUDIES ONE ALPHA DRIVE ELIZABETHTOWN, PA 17022-2298

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Marcus Meier receives 2009 Brown Book Award

he Origin of the Schwarzenau Meier is a research fellow with the ground on the T Brethren by Marcus Meier has won Interdisciplinary Center for Pietism influence of the 2009 Dale W. Brown Book Award. Research at Martin Luther University in Anabaptism Published by Brethren Encyclopedia in Wittenberg and Halle in Germany. He and, to a lesser its monograph series in 2008, the book holds a Ph.D. from Philipps University in extent, Quaker was translated into English by former Marburg, Germany, is a former Young thought on Radi- Young Center Fellow Dennis Slabaugh. Center Fellow, and has taught courses on cal Pietism,” The original German version, Die Brethren history for Bethany Theological “adds consider- Schwarzenauer Neutäufer: Genese einer Seminary. Meier’s research interests able clarification Gemeindebildung zwischen Pietismus include religious reform movements and to the complex und Täufertum (The Schwarzenau New the intellectual transfer of religious pat- relation of Radi- Marcus Meier Baptizers: Genesis of Church Formation terns of meaning. cal Pietism and between Pietism and Anabaptism), was Meier co-edited, with Wolfgang Breul Anabaptism,” and “is especially helpful in published in 2008 in Germany. and Lothar Vogel, Der Radikale Pietismus showing how the diverse strains in Radi- Dale R. Stoffer, academic dean of (Radical Pietism), which is slated for pub- cal Pietism shaped Mack and other Ashland Theological Seminary, hails the lication in 2009. He recently contributed Schwarzenau Brethren.” book as “by far, the most detailed exposi- an essay on Jane Leade to a forthcoming The national award, which recognizes tion available of the sources that shaped collection of essays (edited by Udo an outstanding book in Anabaptist and Brethren thought in Germany.” Meier, he Sträter) from the second International Pietist studies published during the previ- says, has documented “the numerous Congress on Pietism Research in 2005. ous three years, was named for noted connections between Anabaptism and The book award judges selected The author and theologian Dale W. Brown. Radical Pietism,” and advanced “the Origin of the Schwarzenau Brethren from Nominations for the 2010 award will be scholarly discussions about the interac- a pool of 35 books nominated for the accepted until December 10, 2009. Visit tion of these movements.” award. They noted that Meier “plows new www.etown.edu/youngctr for details. „

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