Until well into the nineteenth century scholars have repeated a tra ditional view of Anabaptism when they turn to Reformation history. They have regarded the Zwickau Prophets and Thomas Miintzer as the instigators of the movement. The radical disturbance caused by the Prophets and Miintzer in Wittenberg and the Saxon lands spread to Switzerland, there to plague Zwingli and his following. In both regions a radical spiritualism was the dominating element of the movement. Anabaptism reached its peak of development in the forceful establish ment of the Kingdom of Miinster. Most historians have devoted the major part of their discourse on Anabaptism to this model of fanati cism. After the rebellion was suppressed a rather pious but nonetheless harsh converted priest named Menno Simons collected the dispersed elements and attempted to direct them into more peaceful channels. Other leaders, like David J oris, continued the radical spiritualism if not the civil disorder. In this picture of the movement historians have insisted on regarding more highly the similarities rather than the differences in religious ideas of men such as Miintzer, Storch, Carlstadt, Grebel, Manz, Sattler, Denk, Marpeck, Matthys, Jan van Leyden, Joris, and Menno Simons. Even a cursory perusal of the writings of the Reformers - particularly those of Luther, Melanchthon, Menius, and Bullinger - reveals the identity of this traditional picture with that of the sixteenth-century polemicists.
This book portrays one of the most dramatic episodes in recent Mennonite history. Set against the background of the early Soviet era in Russia, it narrates the story of a small religious and ethnic group caught in the tenacious grasp of political upheaval and social change. Having devoted a century of toil to the country whose patronage attracted them early in the nineteenth century, the Russian Mennonites faced a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions after 1917. Progressively uprooted by the cross-currents of revolution, they began a struggle for survival in which every alternative offering even a vague promise of a better future was explored. Lost Fatherland stresses the economic, social, cultural, and religious aspects related to the ultimate failure of the Mennonite dialogue with communism. Once convinced Russia held no future for them, the colonists formulated plans for mass emigration. The story of the exodus was one of endurance, fortitude, patience and faith. For many the movement was overshadowed by the constant threat of failure. It ended in heartbreak for the majority of settlers, for only one quarter of the Mennonite minority in Russia managed to find a new home in Canada. John B. Toews (PhD, University of Colorado) is Professor of Church History and Anabaptist Studies at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. His other books include Perilous Journey: The Mennonite Brethren in Russia, 1860-1910 and The Diaries of David Epp, 1837-1843.
A comprehensive and sympathetic history of all branches of the Mennonites and Amish, including a portrayal of their doctrine, life, and piety. It attempts to present a true picture of the Christian bodies in Indiana and Michigan which are descended from the European Anabaptists of the sixteenth century.
Some four centuries ago, thousands of Christians died because they dared to refuse to join the state church in medieval Europe. Their reading of the Holy Bible and their consciences led them to believe that church membership should be a voluntary, adult decision. These believers died public, tortured deaths as martyrs. Many modern-day Christians claim these persons of courage as their spiritual ancestors. In the late 1600s, many of those scenes were etched on copper plates, some of which, still exist. Mirror of the Martyrs reproduces 30 of those etchings and tells the courageous stories of these people of faith.
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