Reflections on Growing up Mennonite in Lancaster County MARY JEAN KRAYBILL* The Mennonite church where my family attended was more than ten miles from our home, which seemed like a vast distance to me as a child whose primary activities unfolded within a two-mile radius of my house. Nevertheless, every…
On Being a Mennonite Catholic IVAN J. KAUFFMAN* When I told my wife, whose ancestors have all been Amish or Mennonite since at least the seventeenth century, that I was becoming a Catholic, she answered that it was impossible. Although she and our children later joined me in becoming Catholic,…
Retrospect and Apologia DENNIS D. MARTIN* RADICAL REFORMATION AND THE SEARCH FOR CREDIBLE RADICES To explain why I am no longer a Mennonite I must begin with whether and to what degree I ever was a Mennonite. Although I am descended from David Martin of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Mennonite…
IN THIS ISSUE Few convictions are more central to Anabaptist-Mennonite theology than the principle of voluntary, or believer’s, baptism. Becoming a Christian, argued the radical reformers of the sixteenth century and countless believers after them, was a genuine choice-a conscious decision to accept God’s gift of grace, to earnestly follow…
Thinking Theologically about War against Iraq TED KOONTZ* From: The Mennonite Quarterly Review 77 (January, 2003), 93-108 Abstract: It is helpful to think in terms of a “first language” and a “second language” in seeking to address questions of war and peace. The ability to speak a second…
The Mennonite Year in Review “They Left Everything and Followed Him”: A Year of Finding a New Way to Community ROBERT RHODES[*] Jesus said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” . . . When they had done…
Mennonite World Conference 1925-2000: From Euro-American Conference to Worldwide Communion JOHN A. LAPP AND ED VAN STRATEN* Abstract: In 1925 Mennonites in Europe began a series of meetings they called Mennonite World Conference (MWC). They intended these occasional meetings to deepen fraternal ties, commemorate shared histories and strengthen common spiritual…
Atonement, Violence and the Will of God: A Sympathetic Response to J. Denny Weaver’s The Nonviolent Atonement CHRISTOPHER D. MARSHALL* Abstract: In the past generation, criticism of “satisfaction” theologies of atonement has grown in intensity, especially among feminist, womanist and black theologians. Mennonite theologian J. Denny Weaver has recently…
IN THIS ISSUE When future historians write the history of the Mennonite church in the twentieth century one theme will undoubtedly loom large: in the relatively short space of a century, the composition of the denomination has shifted from a largely Germanic sub-culture rooted in Europe and North America to…
