The Legacy of Jacob A. Loewen Harvey G

The Legacy of Jacob A. Loewen Harvey G. Neufeldt

acob A. Loewen was a missionary, anthropologist, trans- Mennonite Brethren (Elim) Bible School during the late fall Jlator, and writer. As a young boy in a Mennonite village and winter months. After graduating from Elim, he enrolled in the USSR, Jacob Loewen could not in his wildest dreams in Chilliwack High School for one year before registering as a have imagined becoming a mission- conscientious objector in 1942. He ary in Colombia, a college profes- worked nights as a conscientious sor in Kansas, and a translation objector in Toronto Western Hospital consultant in South America and and attended lectures at the Mis- Africa. Loewen’s life was fascinat- sionary Medical Training School in ingly mercurial, considering, for the afternoons. In 1945 he married example, his family’s escape from Anne Enns, and together they left the USSR, his earning a Ph.D. degree, for Hillsboro, Kansas, where Loewen the remarkable education he received attended Tabor College, a Mennonite from native tribes in non-Western Brethren liberal arts college.4 societies, and, in his later years, his Loewen graduated from Tabor confrontationally prophetic stance College in 1947, already set in his and consequent virtual exclusion ways as an “evangelical soul win- from Mennonite Brethren (MB) ner,” confidently proclaiming the churches in British Columbia. There superiority of Christianity over other were, however, abiding constants in religions. Following graduation, both Loewen’s remarkable life, mainly his he and Anne enrolled in the Summer deep love for the Bible and his firm Institute of Linguistics (SIL), held at conviction that the Bible needed to Anne and Jacob Loewen the University of Oklahoma. Shortly be accessibly translated into as many thereafter they prepared to leave for languages as possible. Loewen asked the question, “God, how Colombia as missionaries under the auspices of the Mennonite would you have said this if you had spoken in our language in Brethren Board of Missions.5 the first place?” which was more than an academic question for him—it was his passion.1 Mennonite Missionary in Colombia

Early Life and Education Jacob and Anne Loewen arrived in Colombia believing that they would be MB missionaries for life and that they were called to Jacob Loewen was born in 1922 in Orenburg Colony, a Men- evangelize the Chocó Indians. Along with fellow missionary nonite settlement in Russia near the Ural Mountains, to Jacob David Wirsche they moved in 1948 to Noanamá, at the junction and Katherine Quiring Isaac. Jacob Sr. died while Jacob was still of the San Juan and Becordó Rivers, in order to make contact with an infant. Jacob’s mother then married Abraham Loewen, and the Waunana tribe. Not until his fifth year in Colombia, however, together they immigrated to Canada in 1929 as part of the last was Loewen finally released from other duties (including super- group allowed to leave the Soviet Union before Stalin closed vising the construction of buildings at the mission station) to the borders.2 undertake full-time study of the tribe’s language. This language Upon arriving in Canada, the Loewen family lived for three study became the basis for his master’s thesis at the University years in Manitoba before moving to British Columbia. While of Washington in 1954.6 residing near Kronsgart, Manitoba, ten-year-old Jacob had his Loewen’s experiences with the native people forced him to first conversion experience. He soon discovered, to his and his “reexamine his assumptions about the superiority” of the Western mother’s disappointment, that the “once and for all” conversion worldview and the exclusiveness of Christianity. Loewen gradu- experience advocated by some evangelical Mennonites of that ally reached the conclusion that God had been present among the time did not immediately solve all his behavioral problems. In tribe long before the arrival of the Christian missionary. He also 1934 the Loewen family moved to Yarrow, British Columbia, a began to realize that many biblical truths were communicated in village primarily of Russian Mennonite immigrants who had the form of metaphors and that “these kinds of metaphors could come to Canada during the 1920s. Yarrow left an indelible im- be found in a number of cultures.”7 Most important, he learned pression on Jacob. It was a place where he struggled to attain that in attempting to communicate God’s Word to the Chocó first-class status.3 Indians, the missionary could find valuable contact points in Loewen’s education was heavily influenced by his immigrant the tribal culture to which the Christian Gospel could be linked. experience and his family’s poverty. He dropped out of public On one occasion, Loewen and Wirsche were invited to attend a school after completing eighth grade and attended Yarrow’s Waunana beseeching ceremony held in response to a perceived crisis in the community. Despite their limited knowledge of the Harvey G. Neufeldt, Professor Emeritus, Department of Curriculum and language, Loewen and Wirsche felt compelled to give the Wau- Instruction, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, Tennessee, a former resident nana a message of hope. Using Waunana myths as contact points, of Yarrow, British Columbia, served with Loewen as coordinator of the Yarrow they presented the people with a simple message. Unbeknownst Research Committee and as coeditor of two of its volumes on the Yarrow to them, the Waunana who were present at the meeting shared immigrant Mennonite community. this message with all the tribal families along the river. They

July 2008 141 then decided as a group to “give God their hand” and “walk on thereby limiting the paternalistic supervision common in many God’s road.” This group conversion challenged the predomi- missionary societies. Loewen resisted attempts by MB Mission nantly individualistic conversion emphasis in Loewen’s own Board personnel to impose doctrinal systems and behavioral evangelical theology.8 codes on the indigenous church.12 During his tenure at Tabor College Loewen was asked by the Tabor College, Panama, and Paraguay Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to conduct an anthropological study of efforts by Mennonites in Paraguay to resettle native After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Washington9 and Indians living near three Mennonite settlements in the Gran Chaco: while waiting for an assignment from the MB Board of Missions, Menno, Fernheim, and Neuland. By 1960 the Mennonites were Loewen joined the Tabor College faculty as professor of languages facing a growing Indian population and its increasing demands and anthropology. His increased efforts here “to cultivate channels for land. The threat of an armed uprising in 1962 by a band of for the Spirit of God’s work” in his life were important for his Chulupí near the Neuland Colony, following a drought that had spiritual development. He applied ideas gained from a lecture left many of them without work and food, forced the Mennonite by Elton Trueblood “on how to listen to the Spirit of God” and Resettlement Board in Paraguay to ask for assistance.13 from Theodor Reik’s Listening with the Third Ear. Reik explains Loewen’s study embroiled him in interchurch and interracial how in his work he often had “to listen with . . . a kind of radar disputes. The MB Board of Missions, reluctant at first to endorse system to locate the actual problems in his patients.”10 the study, hoped to separate the land question from any analysis While at Tabor College, Loewen became involved in an of the predominantly MB mission, Licht den Indianern (Light to important experiment in Panama that would further inform his the Indians). Such a separation was impossible, however, because understanding of missions. By the time he had left Colombia in the mission had played a leading role in the establishment of In- 1953 to enroll at the University of Washington, the Colombian dian settlements, beginning with the settlement near Yalvesanga government had drawn up a new concordat that would effectively in 1946. Loewen’s research project exposed the divergent Indian assign the indigenous people and their education to the Roman and Euro-Mennonite views on racial politics and the underlying Catholic Church, thereby ending the MB mission to the Indians. racism within the colonies. The Paraguayan Mennonite settlers When native children were forcibly removed from their homes and were miffed by Loewen’s descriptions of racist policies embedded placed in Catholic schools, several parents “stole” their children in their colonies’ institutions and of the discriminatory behaviors back and fled to Panama, encouraged by reports that Loewen of settlers and local governmental officials.14 and Wirsche were there. (Loewen had arranged periodic visits to Panama to study the language of the Chocó Indians.) While on a Translation Consultant flight to Panama, Loewen and Wirsche met Panama’s minister of education and shared with him their interest in embarking on a Though Loewen found his teaching experience at Tabor College literacy project among the native population. Although skeptical rewarding, he was not content to remain in the ivory tower. So in about the natives’ ability to learn to read, the minister invited 1964, when he had the chance to join the American Bible Society them to conduct the literacy experiment. Loewen’s study of the (ABS) as a translation consultant for South America, and given the unlikelihood of receiving an appointment by the MB Board of Missions in the near future, Jacob and Anne Loewen “jumped Translation consultants had at the opportunity.”15 Before 1970 all ABS translation consultants were recruited by to guard against missionary Eugene Nida, a brilliant linguist who had joined ABS in 1943. The translators’ incorporating translation consultants, many with graduate degrees in linguistics and/or theology, were drawn mainly from former missionaries their own doctrinal biases who had already demonstrated skill and interest in linguistics into the text. and translation. As a translation consultant in South America, Loewen worked with translation teams composed largely of expatriate missionaries, including SIL personnel, assisted by Waunana and Emperá languages and the stories he had collected native-tongue speakers. Since translation teams often were from tribal elders provided the basis for the two series of graded composed of members drawn from several denominations, the booklets drawn up by Wirsche. The primers, field tested in the translation consultant had to guard against missionary translators’ summer of 1959, embedded the Spanish syllabary in the primers incorporating their own doctrinal biases into the text.16 so that once the people learned to read in their own language, Serving as a translation consultant for South America proved, they could read Spanish as well.11 for the most part, to be a satisfying experience for Loewen. He Loewen’s Panama experiences forced him to rethink his con- became immersed in “dynamic equivalent translation,” a concept cept of missions, including his concept of indigenous churches promoted by ABS. Its goal was to provide readers of Scripture and the empowerment of indigenous people. Loewen and Wirsche in a contemporary language the same understanding and emo- had learned from their experiences in Panama the limitations of tional experience that readers of the original texts might have mission stations led by expatriates. Their being present only in had. A guiding question was Loewen’s “God, how would you the summer effectively limited the missionaries’ control. Leader- have said it if you had first spoken it in this native language?” ship of the newly organized native church in the Darién region, Translators needed to move from a more literal word-for-word the Iglesia Evangélica Unida, was placed in the hands of the translation to one that conveyed the equivalent meaning. Loewen people themselves, who selected Aureliano Hombría Sabúgara, observed how difficult such translation often was for expatriate a member of the 1959 literacy class, as their first pastor. Loewen translators. While working with translation teams, he “sought came to understand that the missionary ought to empower the to listen with the ‘third ear’ whenever confronted by a problem indigenous people to manage and control their own churches, in the text.”17 Serving as a translation consultant also launched

142 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 32, No. 3 Loewen’s publishing career. His articles on numerous topics, his travels and any possibilities of future consultant work. He including contact points between tribal religions and Christian- then turned all of his attention to writing.21 ity, confession, the role of myth in religion, and empowerment of indigenous people, appeared in numerous scholarly, religious, Loewen the Scholar and church periodicals, most notably in Practical Anthropology. When Loewen requested support to set up several native- From the 1950s, Loewen was a prolific writer; whenever he tongue translation teams in Latin America, Nida consented, encountered a situation or problem new to him, he discussed it despite initial reservations. Loewen’s report on the experiment at in a publication. In his publications one sees Loewen the mis- the Bible Society’s 1969 workshop in Spain received enthusiastic sionary, the anthropologist, the counselor, the storyteller, and support from attendees from the Developing World, but many the autobiographer. It is fitting that his article “Religion, Drives, expatriate missionary translators were unenthusiastic. It may have and the Place Where It Itches” was selected as the lead article seemed to them that native translation teams would end the work in Culture and Human Values, a collection of papers selected that the missionaries themselves felt called by God to do. The United Bible Societies (UBS), organized in 1946 under the leadership of the British and American Bible Societies and given In Africa, Loewen worked responsibility for Africa, decided that in the matter of training native-tongue speakers, Africa provided a better environment than to increase the role of local Latin America. Consequently, in 1970 Loewen was assigned to churches in the translation Central East Africa, with responsibilities in Angola, Zambia, and Rhodesia (later renamed Zimbabwe) and with some advisory roles and review process. in South Africa. He reported to the UBS office in London. In 1979 he was transferred to West Africa, with responsibilities in Ghana, Benin, Niger, Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso), and Togo.18 from his many publications in Practical Anthropology. A Chaco In Africa, Loewen worked to increase the role of local Indian, when asked to evaluate the missionaries’ programs in churches in the translation and review process. In the “oral-group his region, replied, “They are scratching where it doesn’t itch.”22 reviewing” approach someone would read the text aloud to local Undoubtedly, many of Loewen’s publications were motivated church reviewers. If a listener heard something that seemed odd by his concern that missionaries and fraternal societies provide or unnatural, the group would mark the section in question. In a message and assistance that actually scratched where their this way, even individuals with limited literacy could participate audience itched. But it also seems that for him publishing was a in the translation process, and the church itself could claim at way to scratch his own itches. least some ownership of the translation. This approach reinforced While Loewen’s early writings were primarily those of a Loewen’s belief that God spoke to the whole church and not only missionary or publicist submitting news reports to Mennonite to selected experts or ordained individuals.19 newspapers and magazines, by the mid-1950s he was writing Working as a translation consultant presented personal as an anthropologist and a linguist with firsthand missionary problems for Loewen. Despite the many years he had spent in experience. His publications appeared in professional journals non-Western countries and his extensive training in anthropology, such as the International Journal of American Linguistics, Bible he experienced extreme culture shock in West Africa. He eventu- Translator, Mennonite Quarterly Review, Journal of Church and ally came to the realization that he himself was still operating as Society, América Indígena, and especially Practical Anthropology, a “colonial missionary.” where his articles became its “backbone” for a time. Underlying Loewen’s last years in Africa were increasingly problematic many of his publications, and made explicit in “Missionaries for him. He was frustrated by what he considered to be increasing and Anthropologists Cooperate in Research,” was the plea for bureaucratization within the United Bible Societies. His superi- missionaries to use anthropological tools to inform their minis- ors, in turn, found him difficult to deal with, especially when he try, since all “missionary and development programs are really expressed strong disagreement with the UBS’s stated translation programs of cultural change.”23 goals for the 1980s in those African countries assigned to him. A trip Loewen took to Paraguay in 1963 for the MCC provided In 1984, UBS terminated Loewen’s appointment as translation the backdrop to one important set of publications. His analysis consultant in West Africa.20 of the land-settlement issue appears in his comprehensive report In 1982 Jacob and Anne Loewen relocated from West Africa to the MCC and in an abbreviated form in “From Nomadism to Abbotsford, British Columbia, from where Loewen commuted to Sedentary Agriculture.” The article “The Way to First Class: to Africa until his forced retirement. He planned to write and, Revolution or Conversion?” is both intriguing and problematic in as needed, serve as a consultant to mission organizations or that it addresses the issues of power and racism but leaves them international service agencies. He also hoped to communicate unresolved. Loewen’s fascinating discussions of the indigenous to churches and friends what people in non-Western cultures concept of the “innermost,” which were published in several ar- had taught him. This, however, became increasingly difficult, ticles in the Mennonite Quarterly Review and Practical Anthropology, especially when he shared with them his conviction that while highlight the need for cross-cultural understanding.24 “Jesus was the way” to salvation, he was not necessarily the only Colombia and Panama also proved to be laboratories for way. After a pastor charged Loewen with heresy, MB provincial Loewen to rework his concept of missions. The articles “Good leaders cautioned churches against inviting him as a speaker. He News for the Waunana” and “Bible Stories: Message and Matrix,” and Anne, meanwhile, joined with several other individuals to as well as his 1969 publications on myths, present the argument organize Central Valley Fellowship, a group open to exploring that much can be learned by listening to natives’ stories and alternative theological ideas. Loewen continued to do some con- studying their festivals.25 Loewen challenges a commonly held sultant work and research in the area of missions and Anabaptist Christian assumption that syncretism is to be avoided at all costs. history. On June 4, 1993, Loewen had a massive stroke that ended It can be detrimental, as he demonstrates in “Shamanism, Illness,

July 2008 143 and Power in Toba Church Life,” but it can also be beneficial, The Panama experiment is covered extensively in Loewen’s as he illustrates in “Confession, Catharsis, and Healing” and publications and reports to the MB Board of Missions.30 The most “Confession in the Indigenous Church.”26 comprehensive account, written some twenty-five years after Loewen addressed the basis and character of missionary the initiation of the Panama experiment, is Loewen’s retrospec- communication across cultures in a series of seminal articles. tive piece “Developing Moralnets: Twenty-five Years of Culture Several deal with the concept of reciprocity or the search for Change Among the Choco.” It pulls together many of the ideas equal status between speaker and receptor. Another fundamental he had covered in previous articles, such as empowering the concept is sponsorship (the expatriate waiting to be sponsored indigenous church, the role of the missionary as a catalyst and culture broker sponsored by the receptor community, and the need for reciprocity in missions. This article summarizes his rationale, goals, and personal evaluation of the twenty-five-year Loewen challenges a commitment he and Wirsche made “to help the Choco Indians commonly held Christian of Coastal Colombia and Panama develop a set of values and a social milieu which would make them morally free, socially assumption that syncretism valuable persons who could function with self-respect both in is to be avoided at all costs. their own society and in the national society in which they found themselves” (p. 231). In keeping with a belief of Loewen’s that a missionary should serve more as a “spare tire” than as a “driver,” or invited by members from the native tribe before preaching to the article focuses on the role of the native church, the Iglesia them).27 Implied in reciprocity and sponsorship is the concept of Evangélica Unida, as a “moralnet.” It should provide a religious self-exposure, or transparency, as discussed in “Self-Exposure: and moral base for its members as it helps create a “strong cultural Bridge to Fellowship.”28 All of these articles call for a rethinking framework . . . for resocializing adults and for socializing the next of the missionary’s role, and urge accepting the role of mis- generation according to the new values” (p. 242). sionary as catalyst, as argued in “The Church: Indigenous and Loewen’s writings after 1970 turn increasingly to issues of Ecumenical.”29 translation, the role of native-tongue speakers in the translation

144 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 32, No. 3 process, and why one should take cross-cultural perspectives ing North American evangelicals, including the MB Church, to seriously in seeking to understand the Bible. Many of these ideas give up their ethnocentric views, he does not use the MB Church are briefly summarized in “My Pilgrimage in Missions” and are as a whipping boy. Perhaps most controversial is his conviction dealt with in more detail in The Bible in Cross-Cultural Perspective that religions other than Christianity also contain truth and can and Educating Tiger. be redemptive (p. 153). He describes the broadening of his un- Loewen turned to autobiography to scratch the itch brought derstanding of missions from one of “saving souls” to one that on by his stroke in 1993. First there was I’ve Had a Stroke. Then, shows a “concern for the whole person” and his understanding pondering the question of what might give meaning to his post- of the missionary changing from that of a “dyed-in-the-wool stroke years, he found the answer in writing. God, he believed, had nondenominational soul winner” to that of a catalyst (p. 179). called him to write three “testimonies”: one to his grandchildren One underlying theme of The Bible in Cross-Cultural Perspec- (Educating Tiger), one to fellow missionaries and Christians (The tive is the need to read the Bible with multicultural lenses. In Bible in Cross-Cultural Perspective), and one to the MB Church his earlier publication, “Pastoral, Evangelistic, and Missionary (Only the Sword of the Spirit). In the meantime he published two Discourse” (1987), Loewen had discussed three different forms other autobiographical pieces, “My Pilgrimage in Mission” and of speech or religious communication: pastoral (the speaker and “My Personal Pilgrimage Toward Peace.”31 receptor share similar worldviews and religious assumptions); Educating Tiger seeks to trace Loewen’s “intellectual and evangelistic (the speaker and receptor share a similar worldview spiritual development” (p. 2). With its poststroke perspective, it but do not agree on key religious premises); and missionary (the traces his struggles to relearn and rethink several key concepts speaker and receptor share agreement on neither worldview nor as they relate to Christian life and missions. He deals with topics religious premises).32 Viewed in this light, The Bible in Cross- such as conversion, the Spirit of God, sharing the faith, truth, Cultural Perspective functions in part as a missionary and evan- prayer, mission service, culture and religion, his personal journey gelistic discourse as Loewen attempts to explore the worldviews toward Anabaptism, and, finally, life’s unfinished business. In and religious premises of biblical writers and thereby help unlock many cases he begins with the incomplete answers he received some of the Bible’s meanings for Western readers. in his early education and then describes the insights he learned Loewen traces differing conceptions of the universe, the after- from others, including non-Western Christians. While encourag- life, and the spirit world as recorded over time in the Jewish and

July 2008 145 Christian scriptures. Incorporating ideas previously published the book. All definitions of concepts, including their definition of in “Which God Do Missionaries Preach?”33 the section entitled the Anabaptist vision, contain both a descriptive and an evalu- “God and the Sacred” challenges the uniqueness and exclusiv- ative component. Loewen’s and Prieb’s discussion of Menno ity of Christianity as it is often expressed within the evangelical Simons’s vision, from which they derive twelve “distinctives” community. The book’s chapters on spirit possession, exorcism, that serve as a measuring stick for a life restricted to the sword and illness probably present the greatest difficulties for Western of the Spirit, is no exception.34 Christians. Loewen argues that the “fundamental characteristic The bulk of the discussion is devoted to Mennonites in Rus- of North American Christianity is an acute schizophrenia.” The sia and North America. In Russia, Mennonites “underwent a church theoretically assents to “the New Testament spirit world,” breathtakingly sudden shift from a people in pilgrimage, seeking but “in everyday life North American Christians are firmly rooted religious freedom and basic human rights, to a stratified class in, and for all practical purposes are operating on, the premise of society with economic, political and religious power vested in a material universe” (p. 147). Postmodern critical thought informs a privileged minority that controlled both church and state” (p. his work, especially his argument that absolute truth “does not 98). The authors assert that despite Pietism’s positive influences, lie in any one worldview, any [group of] worldview[s], or even with its emphasis on a personal emotional experience, it “proved all worldviews together” (p. 16). In keeping with his penchant to be a big temptation to Anabaptist Mennonites to switch from for autobiography, the book ends with a section entitled “The discipleship and community to make their religion primarily Bible in My Life.” inward, personal and individualistic” (p. 120). In addition, the Only the Sword of the Spirit, coauthored with Wesley Prieb, Pietist and Baptist influence brought with it a military orientation can be described as a letter to the MB Church. This church, torn that many Mennonites were not able to ignore. The emergence of throughout its history between its ethnic Mennonite roots and the Selbstschutz (armed self-defense) units within the Mennonite pietistic, evangelical leanings, has struggled to find its identity. community in reaction to Russian postrevolutionary violence Loewen experienced the same struggle in his own life, embarking marked the end of four centuries of continued avoidance of on a pilgrimage from ethnic Mennonitism to North American military participation. Most of the discussion of North American Mennonites con- cerns their views on citizenship and property, social class and The book is a letter written wealth, the interpretation of Scripture, church structure, and the Mennonites’ vulnerability to outside influences (p. 144). Us- to a church the authors love ing British Columbian Mennonites as a case study, the authors but from which they feel analyze the loss of the focused canon (one that “placed primary emphasis on Christ’s teachings” [p. x]) and the inroads of dis- themselves to be pensationalism, evangelicalism/fundamentalism, and modernity. increasingly estranged. In addition they discuss power abuses resulting from the rise of professional, paid clergy and members’ accommodations to the commonly accepted business practices of society. soul-winning evangelicalism to a discovery of an Anabaptist After completing the three testimonies, and with his time vision (i.e., a life of discipleship that takes seriously Menno running out, Loewen organized the Yarrow Research Commit- Simon’s “swordless lifestyle”) (p. 10). There is no vindictiveness tee in 1998. This committee is now in the process of publishing a in this book; rather, it is a letter written to a church the authors series of books, based in part on material Loewen had collected love but from which they feel themselves to be increasingly over the past decade. The Yarrow project helped Loewen address estranged. his need to come to terms with a community and a church that Only the Sword is not easy to describe. On the surface, the had, on occasion, been reluctant to accord him first-class status. first sections appear to be a history of the Anabaptist/Mennonite In his perceptive review of Richard King’s study of the school movement, tracing aspects of its development from the time of at Mopass, Loewen makes a comment that is perhaps more self- Menno Simons to the present. The book discusses the origins, revealing than originally intended: “Regardless of how remote growth, and subsequent decline of the Anabaptist vision in the the missionary may feel toward the setting of his origin, it is there various Anabaptist/Mennonite communities in Europe and North that he desires to get recognition.”35 America. The historical chapters, especially those dealing with western and northern Europe, North America, and Russia, are During Loewen’s last years, his health deteriorated to the point at best a compilation of brief outlines based on material drawn where he could no longer write or even read. He died on January from other published sources and supplemented by heavily 27, 2006, survived by his wife, Anne, and their four children— value-laden summaries or conclusions. Whether the focus is on Gladys, Joyce, Sharon, and Bill—as well as six grandchildren Mennonites in the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, or North America, and two step-grandchildren. Throughout his life as a missionary, the analysis is the same. In each case, as Mennonites achieved anthropologist, and linguist, many found him to be an original first-class economic, social, and political status, they compromised and exciting thinker and practitioner. His appeal to missionaries many of their core Anabaptist values and practices. to use anthropological tools and insights to inform their work, In evaluating this book, one needs to keep in mind the kind his commitment to empowering indigenous peoples long before of discourse employed by the authors. To a large extent it serves it became established practice in many mission programs, and an evangelistic function (as described in Loewen’s 1987 article his efforts to include native tribal churches in the translation “Pastoral, Evangelistic, and Missionary Discourse”)—to convert process are all part of his legacy. This legacy was recognized a constituency that has greatly compromised the Anabaptist by the Association of Anabaptist Missiologists, which selected vision, to challenge it to accept a life of discipleship that includes Jacob and Anne Loewen as one of three Anabaptist missiologist a nonresistant lifestyle. Loewen and Prieb do not seek to portray couples and individuals for special recognition at their meeting their stance as neutral; value-laden assertions occur throughout in Winnipeg in 2007. But Loewen was also a source of controversy

146 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 32, No. 3 and an irritant to his superiors in the Bible societies and the Men- context of his pilgrimage toward peace. If one could ask him nonite Brethren Church.36 His controversial and confrontational about that reputation today, he might well shrug his shoulders presence makes him something of an enigma, especially in the and reply, “God and I are still working on that!”

Notes 1. Jacob A. Loewen, Educating Tiger: My Spiritual and Intellectual Journey Loewen, and David Wirsche, “A General Philosophy of Mission (Hillsboro, Kans.: Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, 2000), Work Among the Choco Indians of Panama,” n.d., JLP, box 3, folder p. 66. See also Jacob A. Loewen, The Bible in Cross-Cultural Perspec- Panama, 1959; Jacob A. Loewen, “Observations, Considerations, tive (Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 2000), pp. 249–53. The and Recommendations on the Panama Program, August 2, 1962,” author would like to thank Robert Martens, Robert Armor, and JLP, box 3, folder Panama Report, August–October, 1962; Loewen, Leonard Neufeldt for their insightful comments on this article. Educating Tiger, p. 207. 2. Jacob A. Loewen, taped interview by author, Abbotsford, B.C., 13. William Fretz, Pilgrims in Paraguay: The Story of Mennonite Colonization August 2–3, 1996; Loewen, Educating Tiger, pp. 3, 13–15; Cornelius in South America (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1953), pp. 12–60; Jacob Dyck, An Introduction to Mennonite History: A Popular History of the A. Loewen, “From Nomadism to Sedentary Agriculture,” América Anabaptists and the Mennonites, 3d ed. (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, Indígena 16 (1966): 27–42; Loewen interviews, July 31 and August 1, 1993), p. 188. 1996; Jacob A. Loewen, “Preliminary Report on the Neuland Colony 3. Loewen interview, August 2–3, 1996. Indian Settlement,” JLP, box 5, folder Paraguay. 4. Ibid.; Jacob A. Loewen, taped interviews by author, July 31, August 1 14. H. R. Wiens to Jacob A. Loewen, August 19, 1963, JLP, box 4, folder and 5, 1996; Jacob A. Loewen, “Anne in My Life,” n.p., n.d., in Jacob Paraguay; Loewen interviews, July 31 and August 1, 1996; Jacob A. A. Loewen Papers, B.C. Mennonite Historical Archives, Abbotsford, Loewen, “Paraguay Report” (preliminary draft), JLP, box 5; Jacob A. B.C. (hereafter cited as JLP). On the Elim Bible School, see Harvey Loewen, “The Way to First Class: Revolution or Conversion?” in CHV, Neufeldt, “‘You’ve Changed Too’: The Education of the Yarrow pp. 91–107; Calvin Redekop, taped interview by author, Abbotsford, Mennonite Community,” Historical Studies in Education 17 (Spring B.C., May 9, 1998; Frieda Kaethler to Jacob Loewen, August 17, 1995): 83–87. 1972, JLP, box 11, folder K–Misc. To the credit of the Mennonites 5. Tabor College Faculty Group, taped interview by author, Hillsboro, in Paraguay, it should be noted that of all land settlement projects Kansas, July 7, 1999; Wesley Prieb, taped interview by author, undertaken by religious institutions in the Paraguayan Chaco prior Hillsboro, Kansas, July 7, 1999; Jacob A. Loewen, “Why I Came to to 1960, theirs was the most successful. College,” JLP, box 6, folder English Comp; Loewen interviews, July 15. Loewen, “My Pilgrimage in Mission,” p. 72. For a background on 31 and August 1, 1996; Loewen, Educating Tiger, pp. 297–98. For a national religious and moral societies organized in the early decades more detailed description of Loewen’s educational experiences see of the nineteenth century (including the ABS), see Clifford Griffin, Harvey Neufeldt, “Jacob A. Loewen, Missionary, Anthroplogist, and Their Brothers’ Keepers: Moral Stewardship in the United States, 1800–1865 Translator: ‘I Want to Become a Mensch,’” in Windows to a Village: (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1960), pp. 4–43. Life Studies of Yarrow Pioneers, ed. Robert Martens, Maryann Tjart 16. Jacob A. Loewen, taped interviews by author, Abbotsford, B.C., Jantzen, and Harvey Neufeldt (Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 2007), December 27, 1996, and March 17, 1999; Philip Stine, taped interview pp. 381–83. by author, Wilmington, N.C., March 24, 2000; Eric M. North, “Eugene 6. Loewen, Educating Tiger, pp. 147–49; Loewen interviews, July 31 and A. Nida: An Appreciation,” in On Language, Culture, and Religion: In August 1, 1996; Jacob A. Loewen, “Waunana Grammar: A Descriptive Honor of Eugene A. Nida, ed. Matthew Black and William Smalley (The Analysis” (M.A. thesis, Univ. of Washington, 1954). Hague: Mouton, 1974), pp. vii–xxvii; Jacob A. Loewen, “Professional 7. Loewen, Educating Tiger, p. 117. Competence,” n.p., n.d., JLP. 8. Jacob A. Loewen, “Good News for the Waunana,” in Culture and 17. Loewen interview, December 27, 1996. Human Values: Christian Intervention in Anthropological Perspective; 18. Ibid.; Loewen, “My Pilgrimage in Mission.” Selections from the Writings of Jacob A. Loewen (Pasadena, Calif.: 19. Musimbi Kanyoro and Aloo Majola, “A New Look at Reviewing William Carey Library, 1975), pp. 111–14. Culture and Human Values Bible Translations in African Languages,” JLP, box 8, folder African (hereafter cited as CHV) comprises selected Loewen articles from General. Practical Anthropology (hereafter cited as PA) from 1961 to 1970; 20. Jacob A. Loewen, Consultant’s Self-Evaluation, January 17, 1974, Loewen, Educating Tiger, pp. 150–52. Lowen recounted his Colombia JLP, box 10, folder Consultant Evaluation; Herbert Peacock, taped experiences in the low German monograph, Jash Leewe, Onze Ieashte interview by author, Whittier, N.C., May 28, 1998; Loewen interview, Missjounsreiz (Abbotsford, B.C.: QL Trust, 1997). March 17, 1999. 9. Jacob A. Loewen, “Ēmpēra Speech: Sambu Dialect” (Ph.D. diss., 21. Loewen interviews, July 31 and August 1, 1996; Herb Neufeld, Univ. of Washington, 1958). taped interview by author, Abbotsford, B.C., August 3, 1996; Jacob 10. Theodor Reik, Listening with the Third Ear: The Inner Experience of A. Loewen, I’ve Had a Stroke (Abbotsford, B.C.: Abbotsford Stroke a Psychoanalyst (New York: Grove Press, 1948); Loewen, Educating Society, 1994); Loewen, Educating Tiger, pp. 1–2. Tiger, pp. 44–46. 22. Jacob A. Loewen, “Religion, Drives, and the Place Where It Itches,” 11. Jacob A. Loewen, “My Pilgrimage in Mission,” International Bulletin in CHV, pp. 3–26. of Missionary Research 22 (1998): 69–72; Harvey Neufeldt, “Fox 23. Jacob A. Loewen, “Missionaries and Anthropologists Cooperate in (Kuriwa) and Tiger (Imana): An Experiment in Literacy and Missions Research,” PA 12 (1965): 160. in Panama, 1957–80,” Vitae Scholasticae 20 (2001): 53–72; Jacob A. 24. Jacob A. Loewen, “A Mennonite Encounter with the ‘Innermost’ of Loewen, “The Church Among the Choco of Panama,” in CHV, the Lengua Indians,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 39 (1965): 40–67; pp. 115–26, and “Literacy: Bridge in Choco Evangelism,” in CHV, “Lengua Indians and Their ‘Innermost,’” in CHV, pp. 135–55; pp. 377–85; David Wirsche, “The Development of Basic Readers “Mennonites, Chaco Indians, and the Lengua Spirit World,” Menno- Utilizing Language Universals as Applied to Selected Dialects of the nite Quarterly Review 39 (1965): 280–306; and “Lengua Festivals and Chocó Linguistic Family in the Jacqué District of Panama” (M.A., Functional Substitutes,” in CHV, pp. 156–77. Univ. of Washington, 1964). 25. Loewen, “Good News for the Waunana,” pp. 111–14, and “Bible 12. Jacob A. Loewen, “Developing Moralnets: Twenty-five Years of Stories: Message and Matrix,” in CHV, pp. 370–76. Loewen published Culture Change Among the Choco,” in Missionaries, Anthropologists, a six-part study of myth and mission in PA 16 (1969): “I. Myth and and Cultural Change, ed. Darrell L. Whiteman (Williamsburg, Va.: Mission: Should a Missionary Study Tribal Myths?” pp. 147–50; “II. College of William and Mary, Department of Anthropology, Studies The Structure and Content of Myth,” pp. 150–59; “III. The Function of in Third World Societies, 1983), pp. 229–61; Glenn Prunty, Jacob A. Myth in Society,” pp. 159–70; “IV. The Dynamics of Myth-Changing

July 2008 147 and Mythmaking,” pp. 170–78; “V. Myth Analysis,” pp. 178–85; and box 3, folder Panama Reports, August–October 1962; and Jacob A. “VI. Myth as an Aid to Missions,” pp. 185–92. Loewen, “A Report on the Church in the Choco . . . with Suggestions 26. Jacob A. Loewen, Albert Buckwalter, and James Kratz, “Shamanism, on an Indigenous Approach to Church Building in a Face-to-Face Illness, and Power in Toba Church Life,” in CHV, pp. 178–208; Society, 1961,” JLP, box 3, folder Panama, September–December Jacob A. Loewen, “Confession, Catharsis, and Healing,” in CHV, 1975. pp. 287–98; and “Confession in the Indigenous Church,” in CHV, 31. Jacob A. Loewen and Wesley J. Prieb, Only the Sword of the Spirit pp. 299–312. On guilt and forgiveness, see also Loewen’s “Four (Winnipeg, Man.: Kindred Press, 1997); Loewen, Bible in Cross- Kinds of Forgiveness,” in CHV, pp. 330–45, and “The Social Context Cultural Perspective; Loewen, Educating Tiger; Loewen, “My Personal of Guilt and Forgiveness,” in CHV, pp. 313–29. Pilgrimage Toward Peace,” in Alternative Service for Peace in Canada 27. On reciprocity, see Jacob A. Loewen, “Aureliano: Profile of a Prophet,” During World War II, 1941–1946, ed. A. J. Klassen (Abbotsford, in CHV, pp. 73–90; “A Chocó Indian in Hillsboro, Kansas,” in CHV, B.C.: Mennonite Central Committee, Seniors for Peace, 1998), pp. 68–72; and “Reciprocity in Identification,” in CHV, pp. 27–42. On pp. 281–88. sponsorship, see his “Sponsorship: The Difference between Good 32. Jacob A. Loewen, “Pastoral, Evangelistic, and Missionary Discourse,” News and Propaganda,” in CHV, pp. 43–53. Direction 16 (1987): 3–10. 28. Jacob A. Loewen, “Self-Exposure: Bridge to Fellowship,” in CHV, 33. Jacob A. Loewen, “Which God Do Missionaries Preach?” Missiology: pp. 54–67. An International Review 16 (1986): 3–19. 29. Jacob A. Loewen, “The Church: Indigenous and Ecumenical,” in 34. For a discussion on the twelve distinctives, see Only the Sword of the CHV, pp. 252–69; see also Jacob A. and Anne Loewen, “Self-Image Spirit, pp. 13–18. and Missionary Communication” and “The ‘Missionary’ Role,” in 35. Jacob A. Loewen, “A Message for Missionaries from Mopass,” in CHV, pp. 412–43. CHV, pp. 400–411. 30. Jacob A. Loewen, “The Church Among the Choco of Panama,” in 36. Stine interview; Bill Reyburn, taped interview by author, Blairsville, CHV, pp. 115–26. On reports, see Harold Federau and R. M. Baerg, “A Ga., March 20, 1998; Peacock interview; James R. Krabill, “In Special Report of the Visit to the Choco Indians in the Darien of the Republic Recognition: Jacob and Anne Loewen, 1922–2006” (address, meeting of Panama (June 20–July 9, 1964),” JLP, box 3, folder Panama Report, of the Association of Anabaptist Missiologists, Canadian Mennonite 1963–64; Panama Committee, “Observations, Considerations, and University, Winnipeg, Manitoba, October 12–13, 2007). Recommendations on the Panama Program, August 2, 1962,” JLP,

Selected Bibliography

Works by Jacob A. Loewen 1997 [Jash Leewe] Onze Ieashte Missjounsreis. Abbotsford, B.C.: QL 1954 “Waunana Grammar: A Descriptive Analysis.” M.A. thesis, Trust. Univ. of Washington. 1997 (with Wesley J. Prieb) Only the Sword of the Spirit. Winnipeg: 1958 “Ēmpēra Speech: Sambu Dialect.” Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Kindred Press. Washington. 1998 “My Personal Pilgrimage Toward Peace.” In Alternative Service 1965 “A Mennonite Encounter with the ‘Innermost’ of the Lengua for Peace in Canada During World War II, 1941–1946, ed. A. J. Indians.” Mennonite Quarterly Review 39:40–67. Klassen, pp. 281–88. Abbotsford, B.C.: Mennonite Central 1965 “Mennonites, Chaco Indians, and the Lengua Spirit World.” Committee, Seniors for Peace. Mennonite Quarterly Review 39:280–306. 1998 “My Pilgrimage in Mission.” International Bulletin of Missionary 1966 “From Nomadism to Sedentary Agriculture.” América Indígena Research 22:69–72. 16:27–42. 2000 The Bible in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Pasadena, Calif.: William 1969 “I. Myth and Mission: Should a Missionary Study Tribal Carey Library. Myths?” pp. 147–50; “II. The Structure and Content of Myth,” 2000 Educating Tiger: My Spiritual and Intellectual Journey. Hillsboro, pp. 150–59; “III. The Function of Myth in Society,” pp. 159–70; Kans.: Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies. “IV. The Dynamics of Myth-Changing and Mythmaking,” pp. 170–78; “V. Myth Analysis,” pp. 178–85; “VI. Myth as an Works About Jacob A. Loewen Aid to Missions,” pp. 185–92. Six articles on myth in Practical Krabill, James R. “In Special Recognition: Jacob and Anne Loewen, Anthropology 16. 1922–2006.” Address, meeting of the Association of Anabaptist 1975 Culture and Human Values: Christian Intervention in Anthropologi- Missiologists, Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, cal Perspective; Selections from the Writings of Jacob A. Loewen. Manitoba, October 12–13, 2007. Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 1975. Selected Loewen Neufeldt, Harvey. “Fox (Kuriwa) and Tiger (Imana): An Experiment in articles from Practical Anthropology from 1961 to 1970. Literacy and Missions in Panama, 1957–1980.” Vitae Scholasitcae 1983 “Developing Moralnets: Twenty-five Years of Culture Change 20 (2001): 53–72. Among the Choco.” In Missionaries, Anthropologists, and Cultural ———. “Jacob A. Loewen, Missionary, Anthropologist, and Translator: Change, ed. Darrell L. Whiteman, pp. 229–61. Williamsburg, Va.: ‘I Want to Become a Mensch.’” In Windows to a Village: Life Studies College of William and Mary, Department of Anthropology, of Yarrow Pioneers, ed. Robert Martens, Maryann Tjart Jantzen, Studies in Third World Societies. and Harvey Neufeldt, pp. 377–440. Kitchener, Ontario: Pandora 1986 “Which God Do Missionaries Preach?” Missiology: An Press, 2007. International Review 16:3–19. Smalley, William A. “Preface.” In Jacob A. Loewen, Culture and Human 1987 “Pastoral, Evangelistic, and Missionary Discourse.” Direction Values: Christian Intervention in Anthropological Perspective: Selections 16, no. 2, pp. 3–10. from the Writings of Jacob A. Loewen, pp. ix–x. Pasadena, Calif.: 1994 I’ve Had a Stroke. Abbotsford, B.C.: Abbotsford Stroke William Carey Library, 1975. Society.

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