The Conrad Grebel Review and Mennonite Quarterly Review join to form new collaborative journal

Two historic academic journals — The Conrad Grebel Review (CGR) and Mennonite Quarterly Review (MQR) — will merge into a single open-access publication in 2026 through a new collaboration among their three founding institutions: Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana; Conrad Grebel University College (Grebel) in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and Goshen College (GC).

Both journals were dedicated to exploring themes of history, theology, thought and life from Anabaptist-Mennonite perspectives. An initiative of Walter Klaassen, Grebel’s first Chaplain and Religious Studies Professor, CGR was published by Grebel three times a year from 1983 to 2023. MQR was founded in 1927 by Harold S. Bender and the Mennonite Historical Society (MHS), eventually becoming a cooperative publication of GC, AMBS and MHS. The quarterly journal’s 100th-anniversary edition will be published in January 2026.

“MQR has been the preeminent English-language journal for Mennonite and Anabaptist historical scholarship for nearly 100 years, led and published by scholars at Goshen College under the auspices of the Mennonite Historical Society,” reflected Ann Vendrely, EdD, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean at GC. “Expanding this strong legacy of scholarship into additional collaborations will open new opportunities.”

Troy Osborne, PhD, Dean and Associate Professor of History at Grebel, added, “For more than 40 years, CGR promoted thoughtful scholarship and engaging dialogue on theology, peace, society and culture from Anabaptist and Mennonite perspectives. As it joins this new initiative, we celebrate CGR’s continuing impact and the foundation it’s providing for this exciting new venture.”

Initially, the new journal will be led by a Transition Team comprising Vendrely, Osborne and Beverly Lapp, EdD, Vice President and Academic Dean at AMBS. In the coming months, they’ll invite additional institutions and organizations that are invested in a collaborative and sustainable future for Anabaptist scholarship to join the project and help form a Partners Council to provide operational and strategic leadership.

According to the Transition Team, the new peer-reviewed journal will be available online for free to ensure that its content is widely accessible. Print options will also be available. The Institute of Mennonite Studies (IMS), AMBS’s research agency, will serve as the publisher, and a board of scholars from across the U.S. and Canada will have editorial oversight.

Lapp expressed appreciation to the MHS Board, which includes leaders from GC and AMBS, as well as to leaders of Grebel, for their longstanding stewardship of the journals and their support of the new collaboration.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how the new combined journal will continue the intellectual projects of both MQR and CGR while increasing access for scholars and readers around the world,” she said.

The Transition Team has appointed the editorial team for the combined journal:

• Jeremy Bergen, PhD, and Jamie Pitts, PhD, will serve as Co-Editors-in-Chief. Bergen, who is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Theological Studies at Grebel, was Editor of CGR from 2009 to 2017 and began his work with the new combined journal in July 2025. Pitts, who is Professor of Anabaptist Studies and IMS Director at AMBS, served as Editor of Anabaptist Witness from 2013 to 2025 and has been Interim Editor of MQR since January 2025.
• Breanna Nickel, PhD, Associate Professor of Bible and Religion at GC, has been named Book Review Editor. She has been Book Review Editor of MQR since July 2024.
• Jo-Ann Brant, PhD, Professor Emerita of Bible and Religion at GC, will serve as Managing Editor. She has been Managing Editor of MQR since May 2022.

Both Bergen and Pitts expressed excitement to help lead the new journal.

“I’m honored to be part of the project, and I will bring with me some of the spirit and four-decade legacy of The Conrad Grebel Review, especially its critical theological engagement with the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition,” Bergen reflected. “One key measure of success will be if this journal becomes the place that scholars seek out as their first choice for publishing original research in the areas of the journal’s mandate.”

“It’s an incredible honor to be part of the team stewarding the legacies of MQR and CGR into the future,” Pitts added. “The new journal will be the premier English-language periodical in Anabaptist and Mennonite studies. Jeremy and I are excited to begin working with established and early-career scholars to publish cutting-edge research in history, theology and related disciplines.”

Plans for the new journal’s launch will be announced by summer 2026. The editors are currently accepting article submissions at mqr@goshen.edu.

Located in Elkhart, Indiana, on ancestral land of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs — all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God’s reconciling mission in the world. ambs.edu

Conrad Grebel University College, founded by the Mennonite church and affiliated with the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, is grounded in a Christian identity and Anabaptist heritage. In both its academic and residence programs, Grebel’s mission is to seek wisdom, nurture faith, and pursue justice and peace in service to church and society. uwaterloo.ca/grebel

Goshen College is a nationally-ranked Anabaptist-Mennonite college and Hispanic-Serving Institution in Indiana renowned for its distinctive hands-on, real-world educational opportunities, and its commitment to creating positive change in the community and the world. Located in the vibrant City of Goshen, the college offers over 65 undergraduate areas of study; as well as best-in-class graduate programs in nursing, business administration, social work and environmental education.