Nonresistance and Responsibility, and Other Mennonite Essays (Institute of Mennonite Studies)

From Introduction: "Even as Anabaptist historiography has moved from a single Zurich hearth theory of origin to a recognition of multiple roots, including not only lower Rhine, Moravian, and Central German soil, but also mysticism, spiritualism, and socioeconomic revolutionary roots, among others, so the interpretations of these movements have likewise been enlarged, changed, and challenged by scholars ranging from the so-called 'Mennonite line' with its purported apologetic intention to the claimers and disclaimers of socialist and Marxist historians. The range of both historiography and interpretation of theological meaning has been wide, with the options posed at times complementing each other and at times contradictory in their thrust, but withal stimulating and fruitful. The essays collected in this volume are a part of this spectrum of interpretation of the legacy of sixteenth-century Anabaptism and its relevance for contemporary personal, ecclesial, and especially social issues. They are benign published not only as significant theological contributions in their own right, but also in the hope that their ready availability will contribute to and stimulate further dialogue about the meaning and relevance of truths for which men and women of a long gone age were willing to suffer and die. Reformation leaders in the sixteenth century believed that honest debate could lead to the discerning of new truth. The many Anabaptist debates, though usually one-sided because the very lives of the debaters were at stake, testify to the fact that the Anabaptists too looked for new truth to be discovered through intense 'dialogue'. On the surface, dialogue about the issues raised in this volume seems less existential than the dialogue they experienced. And yet, if truth is immortal (Hubmaier), to enter into this dialogue can have implications far beyond personal growth and theological understanding, touching the very existence and future of mankind."