Download or read book Where the People Go written by John D. Roth and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A barn raising. A quilting bee. A credit union. A socially responsible investment. Where the People Go tells the story of Anabaptist-Mennonite efforts to enable communal forms of sharing. Mutual aid, stewardship, and generosity are deeply embedded in the Christian faith and have been actively nurtured among Anabaptist-Mennonite groups. Spontaneous forms of assistance—a barn raising, a quilting bee, shared meals—are the best-known expressions of such compassion and generosity, but the commitment to “sharing one another’s burdens” has also found expression in more formal structures. Seventy-five years ago, Mennonite Mutual Aid emerged to organize the principle of sharing within a growing Mennonite denomination. A dynamic organization from the beginning, MMA moved quickly from a burial and survivor’s aid plan to include health, property, and automobile insurance. In coming decades, the organization shifted its focus from mutual aid to stewardship and generosity, symbolized by a growing emphasis on socially responsible investment programs, wholistic health, financial planning, and services associated with its member-owned credit union. Always an agency of the Mennonite church, MMA, now known as Everence, has balanced its spiritual commitments with an increasingly complex regulatory environment, the national strains associated with the health-care debate, the shifting sensibilities of its customers, and the organizational complexities of a major corporation. This story of Everence captures the stresses and idealism of a church-related institution committed to mutual aid, stewardship, and generosity during its seventy-five-year history.
Download or read book Christian Mutual Aid written by Joseph Winfield Fretz and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-09-18 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This booklet has been written to foster the development of a program of mutual aid among Mennonites. It assumes that the Mennonites in their various groups constitute Christian brotherhoods based upon a personal experience of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and a loving fellowship in His body, the Church. On this foundation it advocates that the members of the Christian community, locally and as a whole, bear one another's economic burdens and so not only fulfill the law of Christ but strengthen the Brotherhood for its greater tasks of witnessing and building for Christ in the world of today. It is a conscious effort to challenge the secular trend of the times which threatens to denature the Christian community and make its members increasingly dependent upon the state and the commercial world with consequent transfer of loyalty from the church to other agencies.
Download or read book Mutual Aid written by kniaz Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Strangers At Home written by Kimberly D. Schmidt and published by Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM. This book was released on 2003-05-22 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Uniformly sophisticated, interesting, and worthwhile” essays focusing on the often misunderstood experiences of Anabaptist women across 400 years (Agricultural History). Equal parts sociology, religious history, and gender studies, this book explores the changing roles and issues surrounding Anabaptist women in communities ranging from sixteenth-century Europe to contemporary North America. Gathered under the overarching theme of the insider/outsider distinction, the essays discuss, among other topics: • How womanhood was defined in early Anabaptist societies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and how women served as central figures by convening meetings across class boundaries or becoming religious leaders • How nineteenth-century Amish tightened the connections among the individual, the family, the household, and the community by linking them into a shared framework with the father figure at the helm • The changing work world and domestic life of Mennonite women in the three decades following World War II • The recent ascendency of antimodernism and plain dress among the Amish • The special difficulties faced by scholars who try to apply a historical or sociological method to the very same cultural subgroups from which they derive. The essays in this collection follow a fascinating journey through time and place to give voice to women who are often characterized as the “quiet in the land.” Their voices and their experiences demonstrate the power of religion to shape identity and social practice. “Makes a major contribution to our understanding of Anabaptist history and the ongoing construction of Anabaptist identity.” —Mennonite Quarterly Review “This work is significant both for its breadth . . . and for offering glimpses into the varieties of Mennonite and Amish life.” —Annals of Iowa
Download or read book Eastern Mennonite University written by Donald B. Kraybill and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2017-09-14 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this unique educational history, Donald B. Kraybill traces the sociocultural transformation of Eastern Mennonite University from a fledgling separatist school founded by white, rural, Germanic Mennonites into a world-engaged institution populated by many faith traditions, cultures, and nationalities. The founding of Eastern Mennonite School, later Eastern Mennonite University, in 1917 came at a pivotal time for the Mennonite community. Industrialization and scientific discovery were rapidly changing the world, and the increasing availability of secular education offered tempting alternatives that threatened the Mennonite way of life. In response, the Eastern Mennonites founded a school that would “uphold the principles of plainness and simplicity,” where youth could learn the Bible and develop skills that would help advance the church. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the university’s identity evolved from separatism to social engagement in the face of churning moral tides and accelerating technology. EMU now defines its mission in terms of service, peacebuilding, and community. Comprehensive and well told by a leading scholar of Anabaptist and Pietist studies, this social history of Eastern Mennonite University reveals how the school has mediated modernity while remaining consistently Mennonite. A must-have for anyone affiliated with EMU, it will appeal especially to sociologists and historians of Anabaptist and Pietist studies and higher education.
Download or read book War Peace and Social Conscience written by Theron F. Schlabach and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-11-23 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Howard Yoder is one of the best-known Mennonite thinkers on peace. But before Yoder there was Guy F. Hershberger, whose reflections on war, violence and peace helped Mennonites navigate perilous times in early to mid-20th century, and who also laid the foundation for what became the Alternative Service Program in the U.S. during World War II. In the 1960s, he played an important role in guiding the Mennonite church’s response to the civil rights movement—nudging them toward greater openness to Martin Luther King’s call for justice for African-Americans. In this definitive biography, Theron F. Schlabach shows how Hershberger helped Christians live their faith in a world beset by war and injustice, at the same time pioneering creative ways to engage pressing concerns such as civil rights, economic justice and capital punishment. Says Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School: “What Schlabach has given us is an invaluable, honest account of a life lived in the tensions of the Mennonite church as that church explored the implications of being a people committed to nonviolence. The resulting account is a crucial account not only of Hershberger’s life, but of Mennonite life—an accounting I hope non-Mennonites will find instructive because it may help them understand Mennonites, but more importantly how Mennonites help us better understand what being Christian entails.” War, Peace, and Social Conscience: Guy F. Hershberger and Mennonite Ethics was made possible through the generous support of Mennonite Mutual Aid and the Mennonite Historical Society.
Download or read book My Calling to Fulfill written by John E. Sharp and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a century marked by two devastating world wars, the fractious fundamentalist-modernist debate, and growing diversity in the church, Orie O. Miller helped to lead Mennonites from rural isolation to global engagement. In this engaging narrative, My Calling to Fulfill describes how Miller led Mennonite work in education, missions, peacemaking, postwar reconstruction, and mental health, and how he helped to mold every major Mennonite agency from Mennonite Central Committee to Mennonite Economic Development Agency. Filled with previously untold stories of Miller’s personal life—his childhood, college years, marriage, and internal conflict between his commitment to his family and commitment to his beloved church—this inspiring and comprehensive biography traces the contours of twentieth-century Anabaptism through the theology and vocation of one of its most influential leaders. Free downloadable study guide available here.
Download or read book Anabaptist Mennonite Faith and Economics written by Calvin Wall Redekop and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 1994 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The continuing conflict between the Anabaptist/Mennonite community and the expanding industrial culture of the modern world has not been investigated. This book addresses the issues which fuel that conflict, focusing on the implications of subordinating an economic system to the theological framework of a Christian society. Contributors: Gregory Baum, Lawrence J. Burkholder, Leo Driedger, Kevin Enns-Rempel, Norm Ewert, Jim Halteman, Leland Harder, Al Hecht, Jim Lichti, Jacob A. Leowen, John Peters, Cal Redekop, Walter Regehr, T.D. Regehr, Jean Seguy, Robert Siemens, Arnold Snyder, Willis Sommer, Mary Sprunger, and Laura Weaver. Co-published with the Institute of Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies.
Download or read book In Search of Promised Lands written by Samuel J. Steiner and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-03-09 with total page 675 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The wide-ranging story of Mennonite migration, theological diversity, and interaction with other Christian streams is distilled in this engaging volume, which tracks the history of Ontario Mennonites. Author Samuel J. Steiner writes that Ontario Mennonites and Amish are among the most diverse in the world—in their historical migrations and cultural roots, in their theological responses to the world around them, and in the various ways they have pursued their personal and communal salvation. In Search of Promised Lands describes the emergence and evolution of today’s 30-plus streams of Ontarians who have identified themselves as Mennonite or Amish from their arrival in Canada to the last decade. In Search of Promised Lands also considers how various Mennonite groups have adapted to or resisted evangelical fundamentalism and mainline Protestantism, and it identifies the nineteenth- and twentieth-century shifts toward personal salvation and away from submission to the church community. Volume 48 in the Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History series. Find out more about Ontario Mennonite and Amish history at the author’s blog.
Download or read book A Communication Perspective on Interfaith Dialogue written by Daniel S. Brown and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communication theory provides a compelling way to understand how people of faith can and should work together in today's tumultuous world. In A Communication Perspective on Interfaith Dialogue, fifteen authors present their experiences and analyses of interfaith dialogue, and contextualize interfaith work within the frame of rhetorical and communication studies. While the focus is on the Abrahamic faiths, these essays also include discussion of Hinduism and interracial faith efforts. Each chapter incorporates communication theories that bring clarity to the practices and problems of interfaith communication. Where other interfaith books provide theological, political, or sociological insights, this volume is committed to the perspectives contained in communication scholarship. Interfaith dialogue is best imagined as an organic process, and it does not require theological heavyweights gathered for academic banter. As such, this volume focuses on the processes and means by which interfaith meaning is produced.
Download or read book Christianity and Ethnicity in Canada written by Paul Bramadat and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2008-06-14 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade, scholars and policy makers interested in Canadian multiculturalism have begun to take religion much more seriously. Moreover, Christian communities have become increasingly aware of the impact of ethnic diversity on church life. However, until very recently almost no systematic academic attention has been paid to the intersection between the ethnic and religious identities of individuals or communities. This gap in both our academic literature and our public discourse represents an obstacle to understanding and integrating the large numbers of "ethnic Christians," most of whom either join existing Canadian churches or create ethnically specific congregations. In Christianity and Ethnicity in Canada, eleven scholars explore the complex relationships between religious and ethnic identity within the nine major Christian traditions in Canada. The contributors discuss the ways in which changes in the ethnic composition of these traditions influence religious practice and identity, as well as how the nine religious traditions influence communal and individual ethnic identities. An introductory chapter by Paul Bramadat and David Seljak provides a thorough discussion of the theoretical, historical, and empirical issues involved in the study of Christianity and ethnicity in Canada. This volume complements Religion and Ethnicity in Canada in which the authors address similar issues within the six major non-Christian communities in Canada, and within Canadian health care, education, and politics.
Download or read book Mennonites in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union written by Leonard G. Friesen and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2022-11-17 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mennonites in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union is the first history of Mennonite life from its origins in the Dutch Reformation of the sixteenth century, through migration to Poland and Prussia, and on to more than two centuries of settlement in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Leonard G. Friesen sheds light on religious, economic, social, and political changes within Mennonite communities as they confronted the many faces of modernity. He shows how the Mennonite minority remained engaged with the wider empire that surrounded them, and how they reconstructed and reconfigured their identity after the Bolsheviks seized power and formed a Soviet regime committed to atheism. Integrating Mennonite history into developments in the Russian Empire and the USSR, Friesen provides a history of an ethno-religious people that illuminates the larger canvas of Imperial Russian, Ukrainian, and Soviet history.
Download or read book Christian Compassion written by Monty L. Lynn and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-06-17 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although not always unswervingly, from antiquity until today, Christians have engaged in charity. As settings changed, compassion evolved, laying in place an ongoing mosaic of Christian ideas and institutions surrounding care. From the antique and medieval to the modern and contemporary, each age offers unique actors and insights into how compassion is viewed and achieved. We consider repeating motifs and novel appearances in the arc of Christian compassion which enlighten and inspire. Encountered on the journey are the formation and sacrifice of ancient Christians; an emphasis on virtues taught through sparing and sharing; the nascent social welfare of the Byzantine church; the sacralization and mobilization of a medieval church; innovative ideas from reformers who advance the role of the state; and modern movements in justice, peace, humanitarianism, mutual aid, and community development.
Download or read book The Mennonite Quarterly Review written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 698 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Churches Engage Asian Traditions written by John Lapp and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Churches Engage Asian Traditions is the first comprehensive history of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in Asia. From the first Mennonite church in Asia in 1851, to 265,000 Mennonites and Brethren in Christ church members in 13 countries today. From the Introduction to the volume: This vast and fascinating area, with its many centuries-old cultures and languages, its huge problems mastering the elements of nature, its immense population (problematic but also an asset), and its serious globalization efforts, is home to many competing, clashing or more often harmoniously cooperating religions. In [this book] we will see how and why Christians, and particularly Mennonites, arrived on the scene and how they have accommodated to the specific contexts of the Asian countries where they are at home.
Download or read book Seeking Places of Peace written by Royden Loewen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perhaps the most inclusive, sweeping, and insightful history ever written about the North American Mennonite saga. Both authors are eminent historians. Royden Loewen is Professor of History, with a chair in Mennonite Studies, at the University of Winnipeg. Steven M. Nolt is Professor of History at Goshen (IN) College. Both authors of this book bring to the task the insights of "social history." As such, they focus on people in many geographical environments rather than on institutional development and theological controversy. Readable, understandable, and incisive. Appeals to all ages and all groups.
Download or read book Simple Life Fretz written by Sara Fretz-Goering and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The engaging life story of J. Winfield Fretz, the first Mennonite sociologist, told in his personable voice from childhood days on a Pennsylvania farm through the years as a student, professor, researcher, author, and founding president of Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario
