Did the massive increase in the theology known as the prosperity Gospel help cause the economic collapse?

That was the question on the NPR show “Here and Now” yesterday.  The basic premise is that the prosperity Gospel teaches that you should go ahead and buy the fancy things (i.e. car, house, cell phones, clothes, etc…) that you can’t really afford because “God will give you the money to pay for it”.  The thinking is that this mentality then led people to do things like take out loans for houses that they couldn’t afford (sound familiar yet) on the “faith” that God would miraculously send them a check to pay the monthly payment.  The guest even goes so far as to compare the regional data that suggests the pockets of highest foreclosure rates coincide with pockets where the prosperity Gospel is very prevalent.

It’s an interesting premise.  I don’t know what I think yet but it’s definitely worth checking out.

Click here to listen to the program.

This week I stepped into the wonderful world of the Harper county newspaper scene.  I submitted a letter to the editor for both the Harper Advocate and the aptly named Anthony Republican.  Basically everything I submitted was printed.  The Republican did leave out the words money we make, what our job is or isn’t, what color our skin is, what faith we claim in the last paragraph.  Besides making for an incredibly awkward sentence, it lost a bit of the punch.  I’m assuming that it was an innocent mistake and not a manifestation of political censorship, but I did email them just to find out for sure.  In anycase, here’s the article in it’s entirety.

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Taking the Christ out of Christmas

As the Christmas season swings up each year I often hear some people talk about the abbreviation for Christmas, Xmas, as taking the Christ out of Christmas.  But have you ever wondered where that abbreviation came from?  In Greek, the original language of the New Testament of the Bible, the word for Christ is Christos.  The letter in Greek that makes the “ch” sound looks like the English X.  As a result, it is a common practice for many Christians to abbreviate Christ with an X.  Christians gets abbreviated Xians, Christianity into Xianity, Christmas into Xmas, and so on.

However, I would still agree that Christ is often taken out of Christmas, but for a very different reason.  Jesus was a man who lived in what is now Israel/Palestine.  He lived his life as a homeless man, often not knowing where his next meal would come from.  He was born to an unwed mother in a barn out behind a motel and his first bed was a cattle trough.  His birth was attended not by the wealthy and powerful but by poor, uneducated shepherds.  Jesus was a man who cared deeply for the poor and the oppressed and taught that those who had more than they needed should sell all they had and give it to the poor.

It seems to me that this Jesus might not recognize the holiday we now call Christmas.  We now live in a world where Christmas usually means spending money that we don’t have and eating food that many of us don’t need to.  This Christmas season, especially, is going to be very difficult for many in our community.  As you think about the ways to let your loved ones know how much you care, think about these things as you do your holiday shopping.

-         Buy local.  There are people out of work right here in our community.  Shopping locally keeps your hard earned dollars in the community and creates and keeps jobs for others.  If we like having a variety of businesses in our community, that means intentionally shopping there so that they will still be here in the long run.

-         Focus on gifts with meaning.  Christmas is a time to celebrate with the ones that we love.  With the uncertain economy ahead, we all need to be careful about how we spend our money.  What counts is the love behind the gift, not how deep into credit card debt we went to get the gift.

-         Give to those who really need it.  Many of us will be able to afford things, like presents and a table full of food, that are normally present at Christmas.  There are many people in our community will not be able to afford those things.  Consider making a donation to the food bank, the Salvation Army, the Angel Tree, your Church or another local aid organization that will make a Christmas possible for some people who are having trouble making all the ends meet.

This Christmas season, let’s all come together to truly support each other, regardless of how much money we make, what our job is or isn’t, what color our skin is, what faith we claim, or even whether we live in Harper or Anthony.  This year, let’s put the real Christ back into Christmas.

Alan Stucky

Pastor of Pleasant Valley Mennonite Church

Harper, Ks

Som jag skrivit tidigare så kommer Stuart Murray (Urban Expression, The Anabaptist Network) till Kår 393 i helgen. Temat för konferensen är “Nya församlingar för en ny tid – Hopp från marginalerna” (mer info hittar du här) och jag kan garantera att det kommer att bli en kanonhelg! Stuart har ett viktigt budskap till våra kyrkor och församlingar i väst och jag kan varmt rekommendera hans böcker Post-Christendom: Church and mission in strange new world och Church after Christendom. För mig var dessa en riktigt ögonöppnare i hur jag tänker kring de förändringar som sker i vårt samhälle och frågor som mission, lärjungaskap, församling…

Stuart Murray och Juliet Kilpin besökte Canada för någon vecka sen, Len Hjalmarson har skrivit några riktigt tänkvärda saker om detta på resonate.ca.

Hoppas vi ses i helgen!

Believe it or not but Mennonites are….wait for it….actually….get ready……leading the way and boldly innovative.

For a bunch of people who have historically simply kept to themselves and haven’t really worried about engaging the hot topics of the day, when it comes to health care, Mennonites are actually leading by example.  I’ve recently come across two concrete examples of this.

Example 1 – The Corinthian Plan

As a pastor in the Mennonite church who has had conference provided health insurance, I can vouch for the fact that it has not been exactly stellar in the past.  Part of this is due to the fact that the job of “Pastor” is a sedentary, high stress job that has a quickly aging population.  Translation: we’re old, fat and have high blood pressure.  Not exactly an easy group to insure.

With the new plan, there isn’t necessarily a profound change in the kind of coverage that the insured pastors are getting.  What is profoundly new and important is that within the insurance dues is contained a plan for extending coverage to pastors who are working in low income churches.  The Mennonite church actually does have a lot of churches that are growing and who are in need of good pastoral leadership but whose members are simply not in financial situations to provide for the high costs of health care for their pastor.  The goal of the Corinthian Plan is to close this gap and make it possible for pastors to take those jobs.

And we’re getting some larger attention.  Christian Century even wrote a story on us.  Click Here for the story.

Example 2 – Maple City Health Clinic

As someone on the Blog Young Anabaptist Radicals, wrote, ” The award for Anabaptist Health Clinic of the year goes to them.”  Maple City Health Clinic is a community clinic in Goshen, In. that has been intentional about meeting the needs of it’s relatively low income and highly hispanic neighborhood.  They’ve done all kinds of innovative things for years, like having community members on the board and conducting all business and meetings in both English and Spanish.  They’ve also worked to lower the massive income gap between doctors and employees in some astounding ways.

But here’s the real kicker.  They have a sliding scale of billing for their patients.  The base is something like $10 for an office visit.  In the tanking economy, it appears that many people can’t even come up with that.  So they set up a plan where their patients can get $10 toward medical care at the clinic for every hour that they volunteer at another non-profit agency in the area.  How’s that for innovative!

Again, they got national attention.  Check out the NPR story here.

Moral of the story

When many people here these kinds of stories there is a temptation that many of us have.  It’s really easy to sit back and think, “hey, they’re Mennonite, I’m Mennonite, we did something really cool.  Now I can feel better about not doing anything where I’m living.”  It’s easy to take the credit for what MCUSA or Maple City Health Clinic are doing, as if we were somehow involved.

Yes it is good to be happy that other people who we’re affiliated with are doing cutting edge things.  The ultimate reaction that we need to have is not satisfaction but rather inspiration.  As Christians, we’re supposed to be able to use our imaginations to envision new ways for God’s kingdom of wholeness and reconciliation to happen.  My hope is that these stories provide concrete examples of where that vision has come to bear fruit.

When I was still in college I heard something that was kind of amazing to me.  Two people, one advocating peace and one advocating war, said the exact same thing.

One of my Religion professors, Duane Friesen, had was talking about the potential involvement of the U.S. in military action in Afghanistan.  This was in early 2002 and we had not yet begun either the war with Iraq or Afghanistan.  He argued that the basic response of the U.S. to Al-Queida should not be one of war but of police action.  The reason was because there are restraints within the concept of policing that ultimately lead to the perpetrators being brought to trial and ultimately justice.  The framework of war, however, is about obliteration and destruction and would allow us to do horrible things to other people.

Then I caught a very pro-military, pro-war advocate on TV.  He said the exact same thing that Duane did.  The framework of policing held within it restraints that the framework of war did not.  The difference was that he was using this to say that we needed to see this as a war because the enemy was so horrible that we needed to obliterate them and destroy them at all costs.

So how’d that work out for us.

Eight years later we’re still fighting two wars, one of which was unnecessary.

In the name of war and retribution the U.S. has illegally picked up people who they saw as a “threat” and shipped them off to secret torture facilities in a whole host of unnamed countries.

Not to mention the abuses at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gahrib.

Racial and religious discrimination has spiked against not only Arabs and Muslims but all kinds of other people as well.

The position of the U.S. as a leader in the world has almost completely been destroyed because of our disregard for other people and nations, both militarily and politically.

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So now we stand at another crossroads.  President Obama is considering what overarching strategy to move forward with in Afghanistan.  Some are arguing for large numbers of new troops.  Some are calling for a complete pull out.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) just sent a bulletin insert out to all the churches.  In addition to reiterating our general peace position it calls for three things.

Democracy

Diplomacy

Development

All of these are to be carried out within a framework not of war but of policing.

Afghanistan is a country that is unbelievably impoverished.  I remember that the joke back in the early 2000’s was that if we bombed Afghanistan back to the stone age it would be an improvement.  The way the MCC describes it is this:

Afghanistan is one of the least developed countries in the world, with
more than 60 per cent of its population living on less than U.S.$1 a day.
More than 20 years of wars and internal instability and recent floods
and disease have nearly destroyed the country. Only 22 per cent of the
population has access to improved drinking-water sources and 30 per
cent to safe sanitation facilities.

In a country with that much desolation it’s no wonder that it has become a breeding ground for hatred and violence.  The response that is needed now is not to re-escalate a war that can’t be won.  The barrel of a gun has never brought safety and security.  What brings security is living in a society where everyone extends respect and trust to their neighbor and agrees to live in peace.

From a Christian perspective, if we are really a people that put our hope and trust in Jesus for our security, then we should be the first ones in line to speak the truth that no government, military, bomb or any other act of violence will ultimately create security.

So, to echo Bruce’s words, it’s time to Bring ‘em home.

For about a year now, I’ve been hearing stories about this thing called “the emerging church”.  I think I first came across the term in an article when I was flipping through an issue of the Mennonite Weekly Review.  I remember reading the article, but I don’t think I really paid much attention to it – at least not until a friend, who was on her way to an emerging church conference, sent the article my way for a second time.  So I read it again.

To be honest, I didn’t understand what the big deal was.

My impression was that there was some group of Mennonites somewhere who were trying to live an authentically Christian life, trying to keep Christianity relevant to the 21st century, and forming ties with other Christians from outside the Mennonite tradition in order that they could learn from one another.  And I thought, “Good for them.  Whenever people are finding relevant  and vibrant ways to be Christ-like, I’m all for that.”

But I didn’t really understand why they thought that they (either these mennos or the others with whom they were forming ties) needed some new catchy label like “emerging” (and believe me – “emerging” is not the only catchy word being thrown around).

So my friend lent me a DVD of Richard Rohr, a Catholic priest and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation, speaking about the emerging church.  I must say that I was very favorably impressed, and it was my intent to blog about it.  Alas – it has now been too many months, and I can’t remember enough to say anything substantial.  However, it was my overall impression that Fr. Rohr did a good job of emphasizing how the Church tends to bicker over relatively minor things, while tending to neglect the important commonalities that we share.  He indicated that the emerging church isn’t trying to create new structures, but rather to reform the existing ones.  In addition, he developed some creative ways to go about doing Church that would redirect the emphasis toward our shared values.

This kind of speech is edifying, and I always appreciate those who can articulate a clear vision for grace-filled Christian community and mission.  And yet there was still a disconnect for me – what was special about what he was saying that it deserved to be a movement?

On a whim, I decided to purchase A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren* from the Laurelville gift shop one weekend when my family was there.  Brian begins the book by describing the many reasons why you shouldn’t read it.  This seemed to confirm my less charitable perceptions – that these “emergents” just liked to hear themselves talk.  Then Ordinary Spouse pointed out that I write the same way…

* I hope to provide a more in-depth look at this book sometime in the future.  However, given the speed at which I move, I was concerned that it might take me a year or two to get around to it.  So I decided to mention it in this post first.

So I slogged through that introductory chapter and made my way through the rest of the book.  Brian lays out a vision for what this emerging church might look like, and I began to understand the significance of the emerging movement…

(We interrupt this discourse to bring you a disclaimer.  The author of this post has read one book by Brian McLaren and started to read a second.  He has managed to read snippets of other authors who are considered to be “emerging”.  In addition, he has no first-hand experience with communities that identify themselves as “emerging”.  Furthermore, any halfway motivated person can see from a quick Google search that the range of ideas about what constitutes “emerging” is fairly broad.  Therefore, to claim to speak with any authority on the “significance of the emerging movement” is completely uncalled for.  It’s unwise.  It’s misguided.  It’s just plain stupid.  Here goes anyway.)

It seems to me that the emerging church is motivated by a desire to get back to the person of Christ, to understand who he is and how his message is relevant today, and then to live into that message.  And that’s important – to really apply the way of Christ to one’s approach to life now.  In some ways, this is a very Anabaptist thing to do.  Anabaptists have always been about the centrality of Christ.  And so, this explains some my initial ambivalence about the whole movement.  Parts of this thinking is not new to me.  In fact, it comes naturally, as I believe it would to people who value historical Anabaptism and who are wondering about its relevance for the future.  And as I’ve been reading, I’ve learned that this kind of thinking has brought about many connections between Anabaptists and the broader Church – the kind of connections that were mentioned in that Mennonite Weekly Review article.  Furthermore, this focus on living out the way of Christ is (as I understand it) a shift of sorts for some other Christian groups.

But if I’ve come to understand my initial, blase reaction to the emerging church, I’ve also begun to understand how it informs (or reforms) my own Christian journey.  I talked above about a way of “thinking”.  In his book, Everything Must Change, Brian McLaren talks about “framing stories”.  These are the narratives that shape how we see the world, how we interact with it, and how we make decisions.  And one area where my framing story was incomplete and providing a mixed message was in my approach to scripture.  I was (and still am) influenced by a number of traditions: Anabaptist, of course, but probably also traditional protestant (whatever that is), evangelical, charismatic/pentecostal, and maybe even fundamentalist.  And it had become clear to me that these traditions weren’t always in agreement, weren’t always right, and were leaving me with an inconsistent approach to understanding the Bible.  It didn’t help that this wasn’t a topic that I thought much about during my time at Goshen (which is where I might have received some good guidance on the matter – but that’s another story).

Recently, I had come to a more comfortable place in my biblical understanding – one that averted a faith crisis of sorts – but it was still an uneven understanding.  However, when I read A Generous Orthodoxy, I encountered a subtle shift in interpretation, but one that (I think) will be life-giving and more holistic than my previous approaches.

Since I want to blog about that separately, I’m going to leave you wondering what I’m talking about.  Let me only say that a slight change in framing story or a small shift in the way that I read the Bible seems to have enormous possibilities for living out my life.  In some ways, I feel like I’ve been working on a puzzle.  I have all of the needed pieces in front of me, but all of a sudden I think I might have some sense of how to fit the pieces together to solve it.  Cool!

Another personal benefit is a new sense of the unity of the Church.  I’ve already mentioned that others were  building these bridges, but my reaction was rather “ho-hum”.  Now, however, I’m also getting excited by these ties.  Similarly, I gaining a greater appreciation for the strengths of various traditions.  (This was a major emphasis of A Generous Orthodoxy.)

One final benefit that I’ll mention is the encouragement that I receive when I witness how the emerging church lives out the way of Christ.  It is a generous way, filled with grace, humility, and hospitality.  There is so much for me to learn from it.

As an example, I’d like to point you to a story of someone who was denied communion when she went to visit her parents’ congregation.  The details aren’t given.  But look how her own congregation (a Lutheran group) responds when she returns home.  Now – my understanding of Lutheran eucharistic theology is that they consider the elements to contain the Real Presence of Christ.  This isn’t my understanding, but frankly, my understanding isn’t the point.  The point is that this person’s community saw a need and responded with grace.  And that is beautiful no matter what your theology is.  That’s the kind of Church that I want to be a part of.

Craig Carter. The Politics of the Cross: The Theology and Social Ethics of John Howard Yoder. Brazos Press, 2001.

Reviewed by Ted Grimsrud

I think The Politics of the Cross: The Theology and Social Ethics of John Howard Yoder (Brazos Press, 2001) is quite a good book.  Craig Carter reads Yoder sympathetically and appreciatively.  As a big Yoder fan, I would unhesitatingly recommend this book to someone who wants better to understand Yoder.  Maybe most importantly, Carter’s book furthers the cause of the gospel of peace.  For that I am grateful.

However, I have to admit that some of what got my blood pumping the most in the book were points where I would want to challenge Carter’s argument.  I will discuss a few of those points here.

(1) It was courageous of Carter, as an “outsider” to write chapter one, “Yoder and the Recovery of the Anabaptist Vision,” where he tries to situate Yoder in the context of twentieth-century Mennonite thought.  This is a very important and necessary task, though.  Yoder’s Mennonite context must be taken seriously if his thought is to be understood—and not enough attention is paid to this context by most Yoder interpreters.

I agree that this topic should be the first chapter, but, even though he has worked hard at understanding Mennonite theology, Carter’s treatment is problematic for at least two reasons that I see.  I could nit-pick his threefold typology on page 48 (“Mennonite revisionists,” “peace witness advocates,” and “classically orthodox Mennonites”)—and, in fact, I do not think it’s particularly helpful.

However, more importantly, I would say (a) Carter does not ultimately take Yoder’s Mennonite context seriously enough.  I think his attempt to link Yoder with Barth is wrong-headed (more about that below), as his focus on “classical, creedal Christology” (more about this below as well).  One consequence of these two linkages is to minimize the fact that Yoder was from start to finish a Mennonite theologian.

And, I would say (b) Carter ignores Yoder’s most important Mennonite links.  Much more than Barth, to understand Yoder one should read his Mennonite teacher Guy Hershberger (especially War, Peace, and Nonresistance and The Way of the Cross in Human Relations).  I think Yoder’s two most important Mennonite students are J. Denny Weaver and Duane Friesen.  Carter ignores Friesen and barely mentions Weaver—but these are the thinkers (much more than Stanley Hauerwas) who have applied Yoder’s thinking the best.  Carter also fails to consider an almost exact contemporary of Yoder’s, Mennonite theologian C. Norman Kraus, whose extensive writings very much parallel Yoder’s.  Especially in relation to issues of christology and Yoder’s relation to classical christology, Kraus’s work provides some crucial sense of perspective.  Another important contemporary of Yoder’s who helps illustrate my point here, also ignored by Carter, is Dave Schroeder of Canadian Mennonite Bible College.

Attention to these Mennonite thinkers, none of whom was particularly influenced by Barth at all, would have made clear that in virtually every aspect of Yoder’s thought, he was not reflecting a perspective originating in Barth’s theology, but a perspective coming directly out of the Mennonite tradition.  I point this out not due to my “Mennonite pride” (which is, popular mythology notwithstanding, not an oxymoron!), but because I think the full radicalness of Yoder’s program will not be appreciated if his roots are not given full credence.

Yoder challenges mainstream theology and ethics not as a kind of mutant individual who brought unique insights to bear on key issues, but as a particularly articulate and prominent member of a community of thought, of which thinkers such as Hershberger, Kraus, Weaver, Friesen, and Schroeder are also important members.  I am sorry that Carter distorts this reality.

(2) Carter himself has drunk deeply from the Waters of Barth and then he turned to Yoder and was struck with the common themes.  Plus, he learned that Yoder studied at Basel and seemed to have some personal connections with Barth.  I am not unsympathetic with Carter’s claims about Barth’s importance to the world, though I remain to be convinced.  Even as evinced with Carter’s discussion of Barth in this book, though, I find Barth’s ethical thrust simply to be too abstract and vague to be that important for peace theology.

I was struck throughout chapter two (“Yoder and the Theology of Karl Barth”), point by every single point, that all Carter was accomplishing was to show that Yoder and Barth had some parallel perspectives.  The Yoder corpus is impressive in how little direct evidence there is of Barth’s influence as a shaper of Yoder’s thought.  Carter milks the few times Yoder refers to Barth, but even those occasions are evidence more of Yoder using Barth to help illustrate a point Yoder has arrived at from non-Barthian sources.

For an audience that has Barth on a pedestal, it may increase people’s openness to Yoder’s work to argue for a close connection.  For other audiences, this connection would provide a further basis for dismissing Yoder.  As I will argue below, to label Yoder’s work as “Christocentric” in a Barthian sense would be a pretty effective way of deflecting the true radicality of Yoder’s theology.

I will cite one sentence from Carter’s book that I think helps make my point. He writes that like Yoder, “Barth also interprets the whole Bible from its center, which is for him Jesus Christ, that is the salvific work of God in Jesus Christ as broadly conceived by classical orthodoxy” (page 65).  Assuming this is an accurate portrayal of Barth’s position, this actually emphasizes his difference with Yoder.  One of Yoder’s main concerns was to challenge the doctrinal focus on Christ as Savior, seeing as central instead Jesus as Model.  What matters for Yoder is the way of life Jesus followed, not orthodoxy’s “saving work of Christ.”  That is why Yoder’s theological ethics are so extraordinarily concrete and specific, in contrast with the vagueness and abstractness of Barth.  An interesting contrast can be seen in comparing Barth’s published sermons (e.g., Liberty to the Captives) with Yoder’s published “Bible lectures” (He Came Preaching Peace).  I love Barth’s sermons, but if you’ve read one you’ve pretty much got his message down—and it is pretty ethically vague.

Carter writes on page 79 that “Yoder’s identification of doctrine and ethics as two sides of the same coin is simply the implementation of Barth’s method.”  This statement amazed me.  Denny Weaver’s Keeping Salvation Ethical has shown how deeply embedded this identification was even in late-19th Mennonite theology.  I think most interpreters would say that the central theological distinctive of the 16th-century Anabaptist movement was its linking of theology and ethics.  I would need to be convinced that Barth did indeed link these two as closely as Carter claims, but even if he did all that would explain is why Yoder might have been drawn to Barth.  To imply that Yoder got this linking from Barth is a case of the problem of not taking Yoder’s Mennonite roots seriously enough.

(3) Carter’s argument that “Yoder’s radical social ethic is derived from a classically orthodox Christianity” (blurb on the book cover) is the element of his book that I would most want to challenge.  Carter writes on page 93, “Yoder’s approach to social ethics is rooted in the classical, orthodox Christology that the ecumenical creeds affirm as the meaning of the Scriptures.”  I believe that this statement is exactly backwards from what it should be.

To the extent that Yoder finds it useful rhetorically to express support for the creeds, he does so only insofar as they are subordinated to scripture.  Yoder does not present the creeds as the interpretive key to Scripture.  The interpretive key to scripture, for Jesus, is the way of life Jesus embodied.  The creeds are useful for Yoder primarily in that he tries to use them rhetorically to argue for the normativeness of Jesus’ way of life.  I learned from Yoder in his class, “Christology and Theological Method” (Spring 1981—this may have been the last time he taught this class at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary), to be suspicious of the creeds (though not to reject them or think of them as wrong) insofar as they tend to express a perspective on faith that increasingly distances the way of Jesus in their making abstract doctrine more and more central.

The issue for Yoder, as I understand it, is not, as Carter presents it, the centrality of “incarnation” as a doctrine about Christ the Savior, but rather the way of life that led to the conclusion that in this man God was present.  That is, the focus for Yoder is on Jesus’ way, not on doctrines about Jesus.

I believe that Carter misses the way Yoder uses his affirmations of orthodox Christology.  Mention of the creeds is rhetorical move by Yoder to make his point that Jesus’ way is True, the most authentic expression of God among human beings.  But the priority is on this way of life, not on the creeds as “ontologically true.”  In this sense, I actually think Mennonite theologian Jim Reimer reads Yoder more accurately (see pages 115ff. in Carter’s book) in seeing Yoder as not really meaning that the “gospel is ontologically true”—though, unlike Reimer, I happen to believe that Yoder was right in this view.

Near the end of chapter 4 (page 133), Carter admits that for Yoder “the authority of the creeds can never supersede the authority of the biblical texts themselves….However, to subordinate the authority of the creeds to that of Scripture is not necessarily to think the creeds are wrong.”  I think this is about right—but seems to me to be much different than earlier claims Carter has made: “protecting, declaring, and unpacking the claims classical Christology is what Yoder is about” (page 17); “Yoder…shows how…Christological orthodoxy…contains the key to the survival and flourishing of the church’s witness to Jesus Christ” (page 23); “peace [is] at the heart of the biblical gospel as it is enshrined in the creeds” (page 49); “Yoder’s approach to social ethics is rooted in the classical, orthodox Christology that the ecumenical creeds affirm as the meaning of the Scriptures” (page 93).

I think here is where Carter’s attempt to see Yoder as a Barthian/Mennonite rather simply as a Mennonite has led him to distort Yoder’s theology.  It is too bad Carter was not more attentive to thinkers such as Denny Weaver and Norman Kraus who, drinking from the same Mennonite waters as Yoder, have done significant work in trying to articulate a christology that places the priority on the way of Jesus as presented in the Gospels over the doctrinal, salvation-oriented christology of the creeds.  I actually also think that Gordon Kaufman could be helpful here as well—not as an influence on Yoder but as an independent expression of a Mennonite-rooted christology.

(4) Finally, I found chapters six through eight to be terrific, especially chapter six (“The Heresy of Constantianism”).  I think, though, the effectiveness of these three chapters actually supports my criticisms above. In these chapters were have pretty much “straight Yoder” without Carter trying to fit Yoder’s thought into the boxes of Barthianism and classical orthodoxy.

[This review was originally posted on the John Howard Yoder listserve in Fall, 2001. For a response from Craig Carter and extended dialogue from Fall, 2001, go here.]

Peacetheology.net book review index

Earlier this year I took on the job of editing the journal of the Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand, On The Road. This month my first issue came out!

You can download it here. It contains some a paper on Ephesians 4, an article about smacking and family values, a reflection on Gandhi and Jesus and some reviews.  You can subscribe for free; just email Mark and Mary Hurst – details in the journal.

On The Road is an electronic pdf journal featuring articles, essays, news and reviews from an Anabaptist perspective.
Some of the recurring themes are:

• Justice and peacemaking
• Radical discipleship
• Believers’ church ecclesiology
• A theology of non-violence
• Christian community and new monasticism
• The Mennonite church
• Anabaptist history

(Issue 42 only covers a few of these.)

In approaching our study of Mark on Saturday night, I confessed my bias against the structures of church (along with negative prejudices toward just about anything big–big business, big churches, big political machines, etc.). What I hadn’t realized before beginning the study project was just how much Mark’s literary treatment of Jesus deals with religious structures.

In successive illustrative remarks and incidents found in chapter 2, Jesus turns the Jewish power structures and hierarchies on their heads. I love it — Mark plays right into my hand!

Some denominations fool themselves into thinking they don’t have structure. But they all do. Haven’t seen an exception. Some are cockier than others, and some are less well-founded than others, but they all have a layer of human stuff superimposed on God’s stuff. It is not in defense of my own fellowship that I write critically of denominational trappings. We have our own stuff, and it is surprisingly institutionalized, in some ways.

I am frequently intrigued by the tenets of anabaptism–connected to modern-day Mennonites. Speaking of anabaptism’s history, Theron F. Schlabach wrote,

The essence was radical discipleship and the ever-renewing church. The structural pattern was non-structure, really: to transcend the cultural and ecclesiastical structures that history had produced and to be a Spirit-led, constantly recreated people of God rather than an institution (“Renewal and Modernization among American Mennnonites,” in The Primitive Church in the Modern World, ed. Richard T. Hughes, 213).

How does that sound to you, as far as it goes?

One more quote seems appropriate to clarify further my own feelings!

The apparently irresistible urge to bureaucratize reflects a modern mind-set. (Susie C. Stanley, “‘Bumping’ into Modernity,” in The Primitive Church in the Modern World, ed. Richard T. Hughes, 126).

I’m pretty content to let bad theology continue to exist.  I am a strong believer that I don’t have the corner on all theology or understanding and seek to learn from others.  But there are a few things that I will go to the mat to speak out against.

There is now a group of people at www.conservapedia.com that are trying to create a conservative translation of the Bible.  their webpage begins with the line “Liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations”.  Let me try and explain why this is so twisted and why this is so misguided.

First: it’s not as though this is the first time someone has put out a Bible meant to be read from a particular perspective.  Every study Bible out there has a particular bias that comes out in the notes that they add around the text.  There are women’s study Bibles, men’s study Bibles, Bibles for your soldier, Bibles for your athlete , Bibles for kids and Bibles for your grandmother.  There’s even a Poverty and Justice Bible that highlights passages that they deem important.  This practice is not new, it’s called hermeneutics.  Hermeneutics is the process of understanding the lens with which we read the Bible.  If you’re reading it from a military perspective, you’ll find the pro-military passages.  If you’re reading if from a pacifist perspective, you’ll find the pro-peace passages.

In the conservative vein there have been many Bibles that have been produced with a conservative slant.  There’s even the American Patriots Bible, that is as conservative as you can get.  What’s more, let’s look at existing translations.  The New International Version is owned by Zondervan.  That’s right, one company owns the exclusive rights to an entire translation.  Who owns Zondervan?  Rupert Murdoch.  Rupert Murdoch is the conservative stalwart that also owns things like Fox News.  If there was anyone in a position to effect the Bible with a Conservative agenda, it would be him.

For all of this Conservative perspective, there is yet another kind of Conservative exclusivist perspective on the Bible.  There is a massive movement that sees the King James Bible as the only inspired version of the Bible.  This tradition has led to people attacking other English translations, some using the phrase “the New International PerVersion” to describe the NIV, for example.  This tradition is really hard line in it’s beliefs, even calling into question the original languages.  Which has led to such incredible statements as, “you really need to stay away from that Hebrew and Greek stuff, it will really mess you up.  If the King James was good enough for Jesus it was good enough for me.”  Jesus lives from 0-33 AD.  The King James was written in 1611 AD.  You do the math.

The really big deal here is that the conservapedia group is not simply offering a new hermeneutic, or a way to interpret the Bible, they’re openly saying that the Bible is wrong.  While they do give some lip service to the idea that the original language can be taken in a variety of ways, they are explicitly trying to narrow the interpretation around Republican catchprases.  For example; one of the stated goals is even to weed out references to Socialism.  1) The idea of Socialism didn’t come into existence until 1900 years after Jesus lived.  2) The term “socialism” as a political weapon only has come about after the election of Obama.   To try and weed out something that wasn’t there in the Biblical text simply because it it currently politically handy, is both unbelievably inappropriate and offensive to God.  It is one thing to interpret the Biblical text for your particular goals or ends (which is still wrong, by the way) but it is even more offensive to then try to write that agenda back into the Biblical text itself.

For this group to pretend like all versions of the Bible are somehow all a secret Liberal Plot to turn everyone into atheists is not only flat out wrong but shows how ignorant of the Biblical tradition this group really is.  What’s more, to pretend like this particular group of “conservatives” is the only version of conservatives that have ever existed is ridiculous.  What does this group do with the King James only group?  What does this group do with real conservatives like the Amish who make the conservapedia version of “conservative” look like the decadence of Rome?

The Second big thing is the quality of the translation.  The webpage makes reference to issues that surround the process of translating from the original language to English.  When you actually go to the page where the “work” of translating is being done, their primary text isn’t Greek, Hebrew or even Latin, it’s the King James.  This simple fact means that they are not actually translating the Bible; they are paraphrasing another English translation of the Bible.  Again, there are many other paraphrases of the Bible out there, and no, I don’t put much stock in them either.  On top of the fact that this is simply a re-writing of the English, rather than an actual translation, it must also be noted that this is being done online, open to the general public.  All other real translations are done by people who actually know something about the original languages.  They have a grasp of the issues regarding the original manuscripts.  They are people who have devoted their lives to scholarship and understanding of the text.  They are not some angry guy sitting at a computer with too much time.  (Although, now that I think about it, I might actually fall into that category…but that’s another story)

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One of the Biggest themes in the Bible (at least the ones that I read) is following God and conforming your life to his way of being.  This project is a blatant attempt to try to conform God to our way of being.  In John 8:31-32 says, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  The truth is that Conservapedia has not grasped the first part of this commandment from Jesus and followed the teachings of Jesus.  They are attempting to put their teachings onto Jesus.  For that, they will surely miss the truth.

I am very happy to have a new book just out. It’s called Theology As If Jesus Matters: An Introduction to Christianity’s Main Convictions (Living Issues Discussion). It’s published by Cascadia Publishing House.The book asks (and tries to answer) the question: What would each of the core Christian beliefs look like if we focused on how it links with Jesus’ call to love God and neighbor? What results is a book that is kind of Bible-centered, postmodern, practical, theoretical, pacifist, and confrontational.

 

If Tom Waits were to describe this theology he might say: “It’s new, it’s improved, it’s old fashioned.

Here is a link to the books web page: Theology as if Jesus Matters.

I just received this email from the Coordinator of the Anabaptist-Mennonite Scholars Network:

Please note that there will be no Mennonite Scholars and Friends Forum or Reception at this year’s AAR and  SBL meetings, because we were unable to make the necessary arrangements for hosting and sponsorship. The intent is to resume annual meetings in 2010.

The Mennonite Scholars and Friends Forum and Reception are often the highlight of the conference for me, or at least in the top five highlights. I’m bummed to get this news, but I will look forward to next year!

Update: We got a correction that the reception will go on! Good, I look forward to some Menno-schmoozing.

The Mennonite Scholars and Friends Reception will occur at SBL in New Orleans, hosted by Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary / Institute of Mennonite Studies:

Friday, November 20, 7:00-8:30 pm

Gallier A, Sheraton New Orleans

Tänkte skriva lite utförligare om de bloggar jag har listat till höger. Jag börjar med att beskriva Barnabasbloggen.

Den som skriver på bloggen heter Jonas Melin och bor i Jönköping. Han är bibellärare på Mariannelunds folkhögskola och är med i Råslätts församlingsgemenskap, en församling som han var med och startade i början av 80-talet. De teman Jonas ofta tar upp på sin blogg är framför allt församlingsplantering och anabaptism. Varför bloggen heter som den heter förklarar han här och här.

Jag har läst bloggen då och då under en tid och förundras över tre saker:

• Hur väldigt intressanta ämnen Jonas tar upp. Dagsaktuella händelser blandas med teologiska reflektioner och studier i en tycker jag perfekt komposition. Har själv försökt efterlikna detta på min blogg, vet inte om resultatet är lika bra som Barnabasbloggen dock. Jonas behandlar ämnen som jag tycker är oerhört intressanta, vilket i och för sig mycket väl kan bero på en annan sak som jag förundras över gällande Barnabasbloggen, nämligen
• Hur lika teologi Jonas och jag har. Våra bloggar är nästan som systerbloggar. Nu vet jag inte vad Jonas anser men från min sida sett har vi likadan syn på det mesta (inte minst när det gäller inlägget “Hela Pingsten” som jag bad Jonas att få publicera på min blogg efter att han hade publicerat den på sin, jag kunde ha skrivit vartenda ord). Dock uttrycker vi oss ofta annorlunda, vilket sannolikt beror på den tredje punkten jag fascineras över när det gäller Barnabasbloggen, vilket är
• Hur moget och ödmjukt Jonas skriver. Han behåller hela tiden lugnet och skärpan när han skriver, vilket jag ser som väldigt positivt. Han belyser ofta frågor ur flera olika vinklar även när han själv har en tydlig och fast hållpunkt. Han bemöter människor som kommenterar med respekt. Samtidigt som han är väldigt klarsynt ochvet vad han tycker bemöter han andras argument lugnt och sakligt. Jag känner att jag har mycket att lära av honom.

Kort sagt är Barnabasbloggen en blogg av en bra och mogen författare med mycket intressanta ämnen som bör intressera er som gillar den här bloggen (vilket jag hoppas att nån av er som läser detta gör).

Anabaptist Dirk Willems rescues his captor

I first attended a Baptist church thirty-two years ago.  My participation in Baptist life during the next three decades has included hearing and learning about Anabaptists. Over the last two years, I have started getting serious about expanding my knowledge of this “third way.” What follows is the record of my research: a list of primary-source works—from elementary to scholarly—which have introduced me to these kin.

Print Resources

History and Theology

Anabaptist Timeline. Berlin, Ohio: Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center, n.d.

Bender, Harold S. The Anabaptist Vision. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1944.

Coggins, James R. John Smyth’s Congregation: English Separatism, Mennonite Influence, and the Elect Nation. Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History, 32. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1991.

Dyck, Cornelius J. An Introduction to Mennonite History: A Popular History of the Anabaptists and Mennonites. 3^rd ed. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1993.

Dyck, Cornelius J., trans. and ed. Spiritual Life in Anabaptism. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1995.

Filbrun, Darryl, and Fred Benedict. Advised by Donald F. Durnbaugh, comp. 1^st ed. Chart of Brethren Bodies. 3^rd ed. Brookville, Ohio: Brethren Heritage Center, 2005.

Finger, Thomas N. A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology: Biblical, Historical, Constructive. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004.

Kauffman, Daniel, ed. Doctrines of the Bible: A Brief Discussion of the Teachings of God’s Word. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1928.

Klaassen, Walter, ed. Anabaptism in Outline: Selected Primary Sources. Classics of the Radical Reformation, 3. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1981.

Kraybill, Donald B. The Upside-Down Kingdom. 25^th anniversary ed. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2003.

Lee, Jason K. The Theology of John Smyth: Puritan, Separatist, Baptist, Mennonite. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2003.

Liechty, Daniel, trans. and ed. Early Anabaptist Spirituality: Selected Writings. The Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1994.

Roth, John D. Beliefs: Mennonite Faith and Practice. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2005.

———. Practices: Mennonite Worship and Witness. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2006

———. Stories: How Mennonites Came to Be. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2009.

Snyder, C. Arnold. Anabaptist History and Theology: An Introduction. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1995; Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 2004.

———. Following in the Footsteps of Christ: The Anabaptist Tradition. Traditions in Christian Spirituality Series. London: Darton, Longman, and Todd, 2004; Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2004.

———. From Anabaptist Seed: Exploring the Historical Center of Anabaptist Teachings and Practices. Mennonite World Conference Global Anabaptist Shelf of Literature, 2002 selection. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1999; Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 2004; Intercourse, Pa.: Good Books, 2007.

van Braght, Thieleman J. The Bloody Theater or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians: Who Baptized Only Upon the Confession of Faith, and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus, Their Savior, From the Time of Christ to the Year A.D. 1660. 2^nd English ed. Translated by Joseph F. Sohm. Elkhart, Ind.: N.p., 1886. Reprint, Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1938.

Yoder, John H., trans. and ed. The Legacy of Michael Sattler. Classics of the Radical Reformation, 1. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1973.

Old Order

Budget, The. National ed. Sugarcreek, Ohio: Sugarcreek Publishers, weekly (Wednesday) since 1890.

Good, Merle, and Phyllis Good. 20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Rev. ed. People’s Place Books, 1. Intercourse, Pa.: Good Books, 1995.

Kraybill, Donald B. The Amish: Why They Enchant Us. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2003.

———. The Puzzles of Amish Life. Rev. ed. People’s Place Books, 10. Intercourse, Pa.: Good Books, 1998.

Nolt, Steven M. A History of the Amish. Rev. ed. Intercourse, Pa.: Good Books, 2003.

Scott, Stephen. An Introduction to Old Order and Conservative Mennonite Groups. People’s Place Books, 12. Intercourse, Pa.: Good Books, 1966.

Scott, Stephen, and Kenneth Pullman. Living without Electricity. Rev. ed. People’s Place Books, 9. Intercourse, Pa.: Good Books, 1999.

Confessions of Faith

Confession of Faith [Dortrecht, 1632]. Alymer, Ont.: Pathway Publishers, 2005.

General Board of Mennonite Church Canada and Executive Board of Mennonite Church USA. Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, by arrangement with the General Board of the General Conference Mennonite church and the Mennonite Church General Board, 1995.

Koop, Karl. Anabaptist-Mennonite Confessions of Faith: The Development of a Tradition. Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies, 3. Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 2004; Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2004.

Koop, Karl, ed. Confessions of Faith in the Anabaptist Tradition: 1527 – 1660. Classics of the Radical Reformation, 11. Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 2004; and Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2006.

Lumpkin, William L. Baptist Confessions of Faith. Rev. ed. Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1969.

Mennonite General Conference. Mennonite Confession of Faith. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1963.

Yoder, John Howard, trans. and ed. The Schleitheim Confession [1527]. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1973.

Worship and Education

Conversation on Saving Faith: For the Young in Questions and Answers. Rev. ed. Ephrata, Pa.: Committee of Mennonites, 1974. Reprint, East Earl, Pa.: Earl Z. Weaver, 2002.

Devoted Christian’s Prayer Book, A. Alymer, Ont.: Pathway Publishers, 2003.

Funk, Joseph, and Sons. The Harmonia Sacra: A Compilation of Genuine Church Music Comprising a Great Variety of Metres, Harmonized for Four Voices: Together with a Copious Explication of the Principles of Vocal Music: Exemplified and Illustrated with Tables, in a Plain and Comprehensive Manner. 25^th ed. Edited by James Nelson Gingerich. Intercourse, Pa.: Good Books, 1993; Harrisonburg, Va.: Eastern Mennonite College and Seminary, 1993.

Gingerich, James Nelson, and Matthew Lind. The Harmonia Sacra Handbook: A Compilation of Genuine Information: Comprising a Great Variety of Tedious and Tasteless Details, Gathered for the 25^th Edition: Together with a Copious Documentation of Authors, Composers and Sources: Exemplified with Dates and Cross-References, in a Plain and Comprehensive Manner. Goshen, Ind.: N.p., 1994.

Gross, Leonard, trans. & ed. Prayer Book for Earnest Christians (Die ernsthafte Christenpflicht). Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1997.

1001 Questions and Answers on the Christian Life. Alymer, Ont.: Pathway Publishers, 1992.

Peace, Non-resistance, Reconciliation, and Politics

Brown, Dale E. Biblical Pacifism. 2^nd ed. Nappanee, Ind.: Evangel Publishing House, 2003; Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2003.

Church, Richard P. First Be Reconciled: Challenging Christians in the Courts. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2008.

Lind, Millard C. Yahweh Is A Warrior: The Theology of Warfare in Ancient Israel. A Christian Peace Shelf Selection. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1980.

Yoder, John Howard. Christian Attitudes to War, Peace, and Revolution. Edited by Theodore J. Koontz and Andy Alexis-Baker. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brazos Press, 2008.

———. Nevertheless: The Varieties and Shortcomings of Religious Pacifism. Rev. ed. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1992.

———. The Original Revolution: Essays on Christian Pacifism. 2^nd ed. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2003.

———. The Politics of Jesus: Vicit Agnus Noster. 2^nd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994; Carlisle, UK: Paternoster, 1994.

Yoder, John Howard, with Joan Baez et al. What Would You Do? A Serious Answer to a Standard Question. Expanded ed. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1992.

Yoder, Nathan E., and Carol A. Scheppard, eds. Exiles in the Empire: Believers Church Perspectives on Politics. Studies in the Believers Church Tradition, 5. Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 2006.

Journals

Conrad Grebel Review, The

(Published three times a year in Winter, Spring, and Fall by Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada)

Direction: A Mennonite Brethren Forum

(Semiannual publication of the North American Mennonite Brethren schools and conferences)

Mennonite Quarterly Review, The

(Published in January, April, July and October by the “Mennonite Quarterly Review and Publication Committee” formed by the Mennonite Historical Society, Goshen College and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary)

Directories

Mennonite Church Directory: 2008. Harrisonburg, Va.: Christian Light Publications, 2008.

Mennonite Church USA: 2007 Directory. Scottdale, Pa.: Faith and Life Resources, 2006.

Online Resources

Mennonite Denominations

Conservative Mennonite Conference: http://cmcrosedale.org/index.shtml

Mennonite Church USA: http://www.mennoniteusa.org/

US Mennonite Brethren: http://www.usmb.org/

Sister Brethren Denominations

Brethren in Christ: http://www.bic-church.org/

Church of the Brethren: http://www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=cob_homepage

History

Brethren in Christ: http://www.bic-church.org/about/history.asp

Church of the Brethren: http://www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=visitor_about_history

Conservative Mennonite Conference: http://cmcrosedale.org/about/history.shtml

Mennonite Church USA: http://www.mcusa-archives.org/

US Mennonite Brethren: http://www.usmb.org/our-story

Confessions of Faith

Mennonite Resolutions and Confessions (Mennonite Church USA): http://www.mcusa-archives.org/library/resolutions/index.html

Conservative Mennonite Conference Statement of Practice: http://cmcrosedale.org/about/practice.shtml

Conservative Mennonite Conference Statement of Theology: http://cmcrosedale.org/about/theology.shtml

Twelve Principles of Anabaptism, The (US Mennonite Brethren): http://www.usmb.org/our-story-basic-principles-of-anabaptists-beliefs

Agencies

Mennonite Central Committee: http://www.mcc.org/

Mennonite World Conference: http://www.mwc-cmm.org/en15/

Mennonite Publishing Network: http://www.mpn.net/

Amish

Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center [Behalt], Berlin, OH: http://www.behalt.com/

Online Encyclopedia

Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online [GAMEO]: http://www.gameo.org/

Postscript: Significant Relevant Works by Non-Anabaptist Authors

Bainton, Roland H. Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace: A Historical Survey and Critical Re-evaluation. Nashville: Abingdon, 1960.

Verduin, Leonard. The Reformers and Their Stepchildren. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964. Reprint, Paris, Ark.: The Baptist Standard Bearer, n.d. The Dissent and Nonconformity Series, 14.