Thomas Muentzer, a Destroyer of the Godless: The Making of a Sixteenth-Century Religious Revolutionary

History

Friesen, Abraham

Europe

University of California Press

Many scholars have pointed to the influence of Erasmus on the early Swiss Anabaptists and Menno Simons. Yet the truth of this contention has never been firmly established. This volume uses new research data and argumentation to build a more convincing case for the early Anabaptist movement's dependence on Erasmus's thought.Abraham Friesen first surveys the various ways Anabaptist history has been interpreted. He then discusses the state of scholarship regarding the relationship of Erasmus to the Anabaptists and suggests a new approach to the question. In the main body of the text, Friesen traces the intellectual origins of both Swiss Anabaptism and Menno Simons to the writings of Erasmus -- especially to Erasmus's unique interpretation of Christ's Great Commission as presented in his famous paraphrases of Matthew and Acts -- and shows the impact that this interpretation ultimately had on the form and content of Anabaptist thought.

Erasmus, the Anabaptists, and the Great Commission

Eerdmans Pub.Co.

Mennonites have repeatedly appropriated (or misappropriated) their history for purposes of renewal. Fifty years ago, Harold S. Bender propounded the "Anabaptist Vision," the defining statement of Mennonite identity since then, known not just to scholars but to the average church member as well. Historical visions are composed for particular situations and eventually decline in attractiveness. What came before Bender’s Anabaptist Vision? What declining paradigm did he replace or revise? Friesen explains the work of Ludwig Keller, a 19th century, non-Mennonite, German historian who reacted against the condemnation of Anabaptism by mainstream Protestant historiography. Keller saw his Mennonite contemporaries as the potential center of an "old evangelical" ecumenism of free churches against mainstream Protestantism. Keller strongly influenced later Mennonite historians such as John Horsch and C. H. Wedel. These chapters were originally delivered as the Menno Simons Le

History and Renewal in the Anabaptist/Mennonite Tradition (Cornelius H. Wedel Historical Series, No 7)

Bethel College

Menno Simons: Dutch Reformer Between Luther, Erasmus, and the Holy Spirit a Study in the Problem Areas of Menno Scholarship

Reference

Xlibris

In 1962 the Reformation scholar Hans Hillerbrand said the following of Menno Simons For the past four hundred years he has been a man with a bad press criticized not only by all of his foes outside his tradition but also by many of his friends within Outsiders accused him of at the very least sympathizing if not actively supporting the revolutionaries involved in the notorious Mnster uprising of 1534 1535 the jihadists of the sixteenth century Many insiders at first fearful that this might indeed be the case sought early to distance themselves from him calling themselves Doopsgezinde rather than Mennists Later other insiders having moved beyond Menno theologically under the influence of the Enlightenment and Rationalism criticized him for being overly dogmatic and narrow minded Only a few pietists like Jung Stilling and pietistically influenced Dutch Mennonites like Johannes Deknatel together with the occasional Baptist scholar like J Newton Brown spoke highly of him Indeed the latter said of Menno But there stood one among them the great reformers whom they knew not who was greater than they more truly eminent in the likeness of their common Lord In a first section this study begins with a chapter on the problem of reform in the sixteenth century A second section on the 1534 1535 Mnster uprising that has so bedeviled Menno historiography follows Both sections seek to recreate at least to a degree the larger context of Menno s life and activity and free him from the prejudices of the past It does so by making the case not made heretofore that Menno was powerfully influenced not by the revolutionaries but by the two intellectual giants of the age Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus But the study also takes seriously Menno s repeated assertion that he had experienced a life transforming conversion through the power of the Holy Spirit in early 1535 With this as background the study then investigates in a chronologica

Reformation and utopia;: The Marxist interpretation of the Reformation and its antecedents (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische ... abendländische Religionsgeschichte, Bd. 71)

F. Steiner

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