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Beliefs: Mennonite Faith and Practice
Ask any person randomly on the sidewalk what they know about the Mennonites and chances are their answer will include Mormons, black clothes and buggies, or general confusion. This short, engaging book gives a brief account of what Mennonites believe. From the beginnings of the Anabaptist (or Mennonite) movement in the 16th-century, to biblical interpretation, baptism, understandings of the church, ethics, and the complex question of denominationalism, John D. Roth provides a solid framework for on-going conversations about faithful discipleship in the Mennonite church today.
171 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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About the author
John D. Roth
38 books6 followersDepartment chair, Professor of History, Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana
Director, Mennonite Historical Library
Editor, Mennonite Quarterly Review
Education:
BA, Goshen College, 1981
MA, University of Chicago, 1983
PHD, University of Chicago, 1989
Director, Mennonite Historical Library
Editor, Mennonite Quarterly Review
Education:
BA, Goshen College, 1981
MA, University of Chicago, 1983
PHD, University of Chicago, 1989
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June 5, 2017
I appreciate that John D. Roth's book is accessible. Maybe it's precisely because he's a Mennonite that that's the case:
(Anabaptists = "re-baptizers." Primarily Mennonites, Amish, and Hutterite. If you're reading this in America, you probably lump Christians into two main categories - Catholic and Protestant. In truth, it's much more complicated than this. The term Protestant refers to those denominations which came out of the Protestant Reformation under Martin Luther beginning in 1517. But Methodists, for example, branched off from the Anglicans who broke off from the Catholic church completely in 1534 - but were something of their own entity well before that. (Please see this Prezi I made. ...If you notice any glaring mistakes on it, let me know.) Anabaptists, or "re-baptizers" are called this because they believe baptism into the Christian faith is a choice, and thus didn't recognize the infant baptisms performed by the Catholic church... Uggg... Here's the thing about Roth's book: it's much more accessible than the paragraph I just wrote. Mennonites value simplicity. ...I wasn't raised Mennonite...)
Internally, I've always been something of an Anabaptist. I was raised Methodist, attended a Baptist church, and occasional Catholic Mass in Croatia, got a Bible degree from a Baptist College and up until recently attended a non-denominational church here in the Mid-West. ...But at heart, I've been a Mennonite.
Roth does a good job of staying away from highfalutin theological terms which tend to muddy the waters. Again, I'm not Roth. Hermeneutic is the word biblical scholars use when they're discussing how to interpret the Bible. The Baptist college I attended (and indeed, most Baptist churches) hold to a "literal, grammatical, historical" interpretation of the Bible. Basically, that means if the original readers read something as allegorical, then we read it as allegorical. If they read it as literal, we read it as literal. It's much like reading a newspaper. If we see a headline that says, "Steph Curry Kills LeBron on Opening Night," we're going know they mean that the Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in game one. Only an idiot would take that literally. (And I mean that with as much respect as possible directed at the idiots of the world.)
Those adhering to the "literal, grammatical, historical" hermaneutic would interpret "gouge out your eye" from Matthew 18 as metaphorical, because early Christians interpreted it that way. But they would interpret Noah's flood as literal, because the early church interpreted it as literal. This way of interpreting the Bible holds that, "...all the Bible is "God-breathed"' (II Tim. 3:16) and therefore carries equal weight.
And that's quite different from the hermeneutic Mennonites use - which is the Christocentric Hermeneutic. Mennonites view Christ as the pinnacle. Christ said in The Gospel of John, for instance, "I give you a new law, and that law is love each other." Christ said that that entirety of the old law hinged on two things: love God, love people. (That's my own paraphrase. You're welcome.) So, Mennonites believe that the entirety of Scripture should be read through the lens of Christ and this new law.
Both ways of reading the Scripture (and if you believe there's a God, and you believe the Bible is His word, that makes this EXTREMELY important) make sense. It makes sense that, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness..." And that you can't pick and choose what parts to elevate.
But it also makes sense to elevate the New Law precisely because it is new. We don't have Red Flag Laws here in the United States (or in the UK) anymore because they've been replaced by new laws. We don't have to have someone walk 15 feet in front of a motorized carriage waving a lantern at night because we have headlights. It would be weird to say that both laws have equal legal standing.
And the Christocentric hermeneutic makes sense when you think of Christ saying, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." He wasn't saying it would be easy to be a Christian. He was saying, instead of looking at all those old laws, ask yourself this: is it loving God, and is it loving people?
(Of course, that's according to how I interpret the Bible.)
I've matched up with these ideas for a while, now. And we're just getting started. Eschatology? (Another ten dollar word which means the study of the end times.)
"They [Mennonites] tend to be cautious about a preoccupation with prophetic texts like Daniel and Revelation." (pg. 44) Bingo. Right there. You've understated my position.
Of course, there's a danger to the Mennonite way as well. The OT and Revelation are in the Bible for a reason. They aren't there to be ignored.
Still, the amillennial, pre-millennial, pre-trib post-rapture, etc... camps get rather tedious. And how can anyone be dogmatic about that? (Where there's a pre-mill, there's a Way... As the saying goes...)
And we haven't even broached what Mennonites are probably most known for: their pacifism and nonviolence.
Two bumper stickers I see a lot around here:
The Mennonite church doesn't have a hierarchy like Catholics or Methodists do. They rely on congregants to study and interpret the Scripture together. It's a high calling. And a lot has happened within the denomination even since the writing of this book. (This is true of many denominations.) Roth tells us early on in the book that Mennonite faith isn't so much an argued faith as it is a lived faith. And Mennonites don't view themselves as holding Truth as much as bearing witness to it. As such, they see themselves as part of a much broader conversation on who Christ is and who Christians are. As he says it,
The book continues that tradition of dialogue. If you're intrigued by denominational distinctives, it's worth picking up.
From the very beginning of the movement in the sixteenth century, Anabaptists shared a deep suspicion of the so-called Schriftgelehrten - the university-trained scholars who, they claimed artfully dodged the clear and simple teachings of Jesus by appealing to complex arguments and carefully crafted statements of doctrine. In other words, they confused theological discussions with lived faith. (pg. 30)
(Anabaptists = "re-baptizers." Primarily Mennonites, Amish, and Hutterite. If you're reading this in America, you probably lump Christians into two main categories - Catholic and Protestant. In truth, it's much more complicated than this. The term Protestant refers to those denominations which came out of the Protestant Reformation under Martin Luther beginning in 1517. But Methodists, for example, branched off from the Anglicans who broke off from the Catholic church completely in 1534 - but were something of their own entity well before that. (Please see this Prezi I made. ...If you notice any glaring mistakes on it, let me know.) Anabaptists, or "re-baptizers" are called this because they believe baptism into the Christian faith is a choice, and thus didn't recognize the infant baptisms performed by the Catholic church... Uggg... Here's the thing about Roth's book: it's much more accessible than the paragraph I just wrote. Mennonites value simplicity. ...I wasn't raised Mennonite...)
Internally, I've always been something of an Anabaptist. I was raised Methodist, attended a Baptist church, and occasional Catholic Mass in Croatia, got a Bible degree from a Baptist College and up until recently attended a non-denominational church here in the Mid-West. ...But at heart, I've been a Mennonite.
Throughout history, Christians have faced the persistent temptation of confusing the language we use to talk about God with the essence of Christian faith. This stubborn human tendency to turn doctrine into an idol - to confuse a human creation with the truth itself - can easily lead people to wield doctrinal claims as a weapon against minority or dissenting perspectives. Thus, anyone who does not line up with a certain formulation of Christian faith is not only wrong, but also a heretic and therefore worthy of punishment or death. (pg. 31)
Roth does a good job of staying away from highfalutin theological terms which tend to muddy the waters. Again, I'm not Roth. Hermeneutic is the word biblical scholars use when they're discussing how to interpret the Bible. The Baptist college I attended (and indeed, most Baptist churches) hold to a "literal, grammatical, historical" interpretation of the Bible. Basically, that means if the original readers read something as allegorical, then we read it as allegorical. If they read it as literal, we read it as literal. It's much like reading a newspaper. If we see a headline that says, "Steph Curry Kills LeBron on Opening Night," we're going know they mean that the Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in game one. Only an idiot would take that literally. (And I mean that with as much respect as possible directed at the idiots of the world.)
Those adhering to the "literal, grammatical, historical" hermaneutic would interpret "gouge out your eye" from Matthew 18 as metaphorical, because early Christians interpreted it that way. But they would interpret Noah's flood as literal, because the early church interpreted it as literal. This way of interpreting the Bible holds that, "...all the Bible is "God-breathed"' (II Tim. 3:16) and therefore carries equal weight.
And that's quite different from the hermeneutic Mennonites use - which is the Christocentric Hermeneutic. Mennonites view Christ as the pinnacle. Christ said in The Gospel of John, for instance, "I give you a new law, and that law is love each other." Christ said that that entirety of the old law hinged on two things: love God, love people. (That's my own paraphrase. You're welcome.) So, Mennonites believe that the entirety of Scripture should be read through the lens of Christ and this new law.
Both ways of reading the Scripture (and if you believe there's a God, and you believe the Bible is His word, that makes this EXTREMELY important) make sense. It makes sense that, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness..." And that you can't pick and choose what parts to elevate.
But it also makes sense to elevate the New Law precisely because it is new. We don't have Red Flag Laws here in the United States (or in the UK) anymore because they've been replaced by new laws. We don't have to have someone walk 15 feet in front of a motorized carriage waving a lantern at night because we have headlights. It would be weird to say that both laws have equal legal standing.
And the Christocentric hermeneutic makes sense when you think of Christ saying, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." He wasn't saying it would be easy to be a Christian. He was saying, instead of looking at all those old laws, ask yourself this: is it loving God, and is it loving people?
(Of course, that's according to how I interpret the Bible.)
I've matched up with these ideas for a while, now. And we're just getting started. Eschatology? (Another ten dollar word which means the study of the end times.)
"They [Mennonites] tend to be cautious about a preoccupation with prophetic texts like Daniel and Revelation." (pg. 44) Bingo. Right there. You've understated my position.
Of course, there's a danger to the Mennonite way as well. The OT and Revelation are in the Bible for a reason. They aren't there to be ignored.
Still, the amillennial, pre-millennial, pre-trib post-rapture, etc... camps get rather tedious. And how can anyone be dogmatic about that? (Where there's a pre-mill, there's a Way... As the saying goes...)
And we haven't even broached what Mennonites are probably most known for: their pacifism and nonviolence.
Two bumper stickers I see a lot around here:
The Mennonite church doesn't have a hierarchy like Catholics or Methodists do. They rely on congregants to study and interpret the Scripture together. It's a high calling. And a lot has happened within the denomination even since the writing of this book. (This is true of many denominations.) Roth tells us early on in the book that Mennonite faith isn't so much an argued faith as it is a lived faith. And Mennonites don't view themselves as holding Truth as much as bearing witness to it. As such, they see themselves as part of a much broader conversation on who Christ is and who Christians are. As he says it,
But Mennonite theological understandings are best understood as an ongoing conversation within the broader Christian tradition, in which convictions often become clearest when they enter into dialogue with alternative perspectives. (pg. 13)
The book continues that tradition of dialogue. If you're intrigued by denominational distinctives, it's worth picking up.
September 8, 2010
The book begins with a discussion between Roth and a Japanese man he met on an airplane. The man was working for a Japanese agency and wanted to better understand how Americans think. “‘Who was this person, Jesus? He asked. . . . ’ Can you explain to me, ‘he finally said, ‘just what it is that Christians believe?’” (9).
Roth admits that he was caught off guard and has attempted in this book to respond at some length to the question. After a brief look at the variegated history of Christian thought, much of which he finds unsatisfactory, he proposes “to give a simple account of the Christian convictions that have sustained the Mennonite church for nearly 500 years” (13). He writes as a historian and, it would seem, a lay rather than professional theologian with the 1995 Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective as a background for his work.
The first two chapters cover subjects which Mennonites have in common with other Christians and then he follows in chapters 3 to 11 with four distinctive Mennonite understandings: biblical interpretation, baptism, discipleship, and a visible church. With each of the four he describes the Mennonite position, acknowledges problems the position entails and aspects on which Mennonites do not agree with each other and then summarizes at the end.
At the end of chapter 11, Roth acknowledges that Mennonites do not always “have it together” but he concludes, “At their best, Mennonite congregations are settings for Christian practice, that bear consistent and joyful witness to God’s love for the world and God’s desire that all people live in respect and trust for each other” (143).
The above summary of the book is copied from an article written by Daniel Hertzler, Scottdale, Pennsylvania in the Dream Seeker Magazine, Summer 2010, Vol. 10, Number 3. LINK TO HERTZLER'S ARTICLE
I decided I can't do any better, so I've simply placed it here as my summary review. The following are some excepts from the book about various subjects that caught my attention. They should provide an idea of the book's contents.
A very brief summary of historical Anabaptists:
"Inspired by the Reformation, the Anabaptists broke with the reformers by practicing believers baptism rather than infant baptism. Most Anabaptist groups also advocated a fairly literal application of Jesus' teachings that included a rejection of lethal violence and oath swearing, and promoted the practice of mutual aid along with a view of the church as a voluntary gathering of believers whose way of life would inevitably be in conflict with the unredeemed world." (15)
Regarding the Mennonite attitude toward creeds:
"Mennonites ... have not generally been inclined to express their faith in such carefully worked theological statements or to integrate the creeds formally into their regular worship time." (25)
"For Mennonites, doctrinal statements are a necessary but insufficient way of describing the essence of the Christian faith." (28)
Regarding the hot button issue of homosexuality:
"Currently, some members of the Mennonite church are engaged in a debate regarding biblical understanding of homosexuality. After a lengthy period of study, the denomination as a whole issued a statement that did not recommend changes in the traditional understanding regarding homosexuality and marriage. Yet the church did commit itself to continued conversation and challenged congregations to regard homosexually oriented members in their midst as Christians in good standing, as long as they remained celibate. " (56) [Some churches, mostly urban, are openly affirming and do not concern themselves with the details of this statement.]
Regarding Martin Luther's opinion of Anabaptists (Mennonites are descendants of the 16th Century Anabaptist movement):
" 'The Anabaptists,' wrote Martin Luther, are 'false prophets' who sneak about the country like 'wolves in sheep's clothing, deceiving the innocent.' " (60)
Mennonite attitudes toward baptism:
"... salvation in a Mennonite context is understood not so much as a ritual act (the rite of baptism itself) or as a single moment of decision (the precise date of giving one's heart to Jesus). Rather, Mennonites understand salvation more as a lifelong journey of faith characterized by several crucial ingredients: a spiritual relationship with God, a commitment to full participation in the community of faith, and a willingness to follow Jesus' teachings in daily life. Baptism symbolizes all of these things. Like a marriage vow, it is a serious--albeit joyful--public statement of commitment made in full awareness of the responsibilities and consequences implied in that vow. Thus, Mennonites believe that baptism should be reserved for those who are old enough to understand the nature of this decision and are ready to commit themselves fully to this journey of faith."(61)
Mennonite attitude toward the atonement:
"... many Christians focus so much on the suffering and death of Christ that they virtually ignore the three years of Christ's work of teaching and healing. This is the reason why some Mennonites have expressed reservations about the Apostles' Creed: it moves directly from Christ's birth to his death, without any mention of his life." (72)
Mennonite family:
"Perhaps the most distinctive Mennonite contribution of the topic of marriage and singleness is the conviction that the church--not our biological relatives--is our first family."
Living Simply:
"Not long ago, a caller to the well-known NPR radio talk show Click and Clack identified herself as a Mennonite with a moral and spiritual problem related to her car. The car she was currently driving, she explained, was a beat-up "clunker" that, unfortunately, was still in fine running condition. Such a car was consistent with a Mennonite ethic of simplicity, frugality, and good stewardship. Her spiritual problem, she confided, same in the fact that she had fallen in love with the thought of owning a brand new Toyota Prius--a car that she really liked. The Prius promised great gas mileage and was ecologically friendly. But it was also quite expensive, and her old car showed no signs of imminent problems. Was she justified in buying a new car?
In the end, the Tappet brothers, amid lots of good-natured laughter, advised her to resolve the problem by changing denominations." (118)
Mennonites regarding the Eucharist:
"Mennonites ... generally speak of communion in more symbolic language. ... communion points to a profound reality of Christ's living presence in ourselves and in the gathered body of believers. But partaking of the bread and juice themselves is not a mysterious event focused on the careful preparation of the elements or the crucial words of consecration offered by an ordained clergy." (133)
Mennonites and the state:
"Yet another characteristic practice of the Mennonite church is the conviction that the Christian's allegiance to the church comes before the demands of obedience to the state." (140)
Mennonites relationship with other churches:
"... Mennonites did not join the National Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals, or the World Council of Churches. In part, this was because the Mennonite commitment to the gospel of peace made it difficult to enter into close communion with other denominations that defended the just-war tradition. But it also was out of a concern that Mennonites would simply be swallowed up by the sheer numbers of the larger groups." (155)
The human condition:
... Christian faith offers a rich and compelling account of the human condition. With unflinching insight it describes our daily experience of living in that precarious space between hope and despair, between life and death, between the world as we know it should be and the world as we often experience it. Christian faith affirms that the yearnings deep within us for intimacy, beauty, harmony, and love are true voices--not merely cultural creations or the accident of our psychological makeup. Our desire for all life filled with meaning and purpose is an echo of something genuine, no less real than the evidence all around us that the world is fragmented and broken." (167)
Roth admits that he was caught off guard and has attempted in this book to respond at some length to the question. After a brief look at the variegated history of Christian thought, much of which he finds unsatisfactory, he proposes “to give a simple account of the Christian convictions that have sustained the Mennonite church for nearly 500 years” (13). He writes as a historian and, it would seem, a lay rather than professional theologian with the 1995 Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective as a background for his work.
The first two chapters cover subjects which Mennonites have in common with other Christians and then he follows in chapters 3 to 11 with four distinctive Mennonite understandings: biblical interpretation, baptism, discipleship, and a visible church. With each of the four he describes the Mennonite position, acknowledges problems the position entails and aspects on which Mennonites do not agree with each other and then summarizes at the end.
At the end of chapter 11, Roth acknowledges that Mennonites do not always “have it together” but he concludes, “At their best, Mennonite congregations are settings for Christian practice, that bear consistent and joyful witness to God’s love for the world and God’s desire that all people live in respect and trust for each other” (143).
The above summary of the book is copied from an article written by Daniel Hertzler, Scottdale, Pennsylvania in the Dream Seeker Magazine, Summer 2010, Vol. 10, Number 3. LINK TO HERTZLER'S ARTICLE
I decided I can't do any better, so I've simply placed it here as my summary review. The following are some excepts from the book about various subjects that caught my attention. They should provide an idea of the book's contents.
A very brief summary of historical Anabaptists:
"Inspired by the Reformation, the Anabaptists broke with the reformers by practicing believers baptism rather than infant baptism. Most Anabaptist groups also advocated a fairly literal application of Jesus' teachings that included a rejection of lethal violence and oath swearing, and promoted the practice of mutual aid along with a view of the church as a voluntary gathering of believers whose way of life would inevitably be in conflict with the unredeemed world." (15)
Regarding the Mennonite attitude toward creeds:
"Mennonites ... have not generally been inclined to express their faith in such carefully worked theological statements or to integrate the creeds formally into their regular worship time." (25)
"For Mennonites, doctrinal statements are a necessary but insufficient way of describing the essence of the Christian faith." (28)
Regarding the hot button issue of homosexuality:
"Currently, some members of the Mennonite church are engaged in a debate regarding biblical understanding of homosexuality. After a lengthy period of study, the denomination as a whole issued a statement that did not recommend changes in the traditional understanding regarding homosexuality and marriage. Yet the church did commit itself to continued conversation and challenged congregations to regard homosexually oriented members in their midst as Christians in good standing, as long as they remained celibate. " (56) [Some churches, mostly urban, are openly affirming and do not concern themselves with the details of this statement.]
Regarding Martin Luther's opinion of Anabaptists (Mennonites are descendants of the 16th Century Anabaptist movement):
" 'The Anabaptists,' wrote Martin Luther, are 'false prophets' who sneak about the country like 'wolves in sheep's clothing, deceiving the innocent.' " (60)
Mennonite attitudes toward baptism:
"... salvation in a Mennonite context is understood not so much as a ritual act (the rite of baptism itself) or as a single moment of decision (the precise date of giving one's heart to Jesus). Rather, Mennonites understand salvation more as a lifelong journey of faith characterized by several crucial ingredients: a spiritual relationship with God, a commitment to full participation in the community of faith, and a willingness to follow Jesus' teachings in daily life. Baptism symbolizes all of these things. Like a marriage vow, it is a serious--albeit joyful--public statement of commitment made in full awareness of the responsibilities and consequences implied in that vow. Thus, Mennonites believe that baptism should be reserved for those who are old enough to understand the nature of this decision and are ready to commit themselves fully to this journey of faith."(61)
Mennonite attitude toward the atonement:
"... many Christians focus so much on the suffering and death of Christ that they virtually ignore the three years of Christ's work of teaching and healing. This is the reason why some Mennonites have expressed reservations about the Apostles' Creed: it moves directly from Christ's birth to his death, without any mention of his life." (72)
Mennonite family:
"Perhaps the most distinctive Mennonite contribution of the topic of marriage and singleness is the conviction that the church--not our biological relatives--is our first family."
Living Simply:
"Not long ago, a caller to the well-known NPR radio talk show Click and Clack identified herself as a Mennonite with a moral and spiritual problem related to her car. The car she was currently driving, she explained, was a beat-up "clunker" that, unfortunately, was still in fine running condition. Such a car was consistent with a Mennonite ethic of simplicity, frugality, and good stewardship. Her spiritual problem, she confided, same in the fact that she had fallen in love with the thought of owning a brand new Toyota Prius--a car that she really liked. The Prius promised great gas mileage and was ecologically friendly. But it was also quite expensive, and her old car showed no signs of imminent problems. Was she justified in buying a new car?
In the end, the Tappet brothers, amid lots of good-natured laughter, advised her to resolve the problem by changing denominations." (118)
Mennonites regarding the Eucharist:
"Mennonites ... generally speak of communion in more symbolic language. ... communion points to a profound reality of Christ's living presence in ourselves and in the gathered body of believers. But partaking of the bread and juice themselves is not a mysterious event focused on the careful preparation of the elements or the crucial words of consecration offered by an ordained clergy." (133)
Mennonites and the state:
"Yet another characteristic practice of the Mennonite church is the conviction that the Christian's allegiance to the church comes before the demands of obedience to the state." (140)
Mennonites relationship with other churches:
"... Mennonites did not join the National Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals, or the World Council of Churches. In part, this was because the Mennonite commitment to the gospel of peace made it difficult to enter into close communion with other denominations that defended the just-war tradition. But it also was out of a concern that Mennonites would simply be swallowed up by the sheer numbers of the larger groups." (155)
The human condition:
... Christian faith offers a rich and compelling account of the human condition. With unflinching insight it describes our daily experience of living in that precarious space between hope and despair, between life and death, between the world as we know it should be and the world as we often experience it. Christian faith affirms that the yearnings deep within us for intimacy, beauty, harmony, and love are true voices--not merely cultural creations or the accident of our psychological makeup. Our desire for all life filled with meaning and purpose is an echo of something genuine, no less real than the evidence all around us that the world is fragmented and broken." (167)
June 27, 2012
We read this for the Young Adult Sunday School Class, and it was a great read. I wish in some ways this had been the book we read in the Faith Exploration class I took prior to membership at my church. It does a great job explaining what it means to be Mennonite, and identifying the places where Mennonites disagree, and where other Christians disagree with Mennonites. It's done in a fact-based way, so while it presents controversy, it doesn't seem to stoke it. Its a great introductory book and led us to some great discussions.
April 1, 2012
I found this book both interesting and helpful as a person exploring the option of becoming a baptized Mennonite. The format of the book was basic and easy to follow. John D. Roth did an excellent job explaining the history and current views of the Mennonites. I would suggest this book to anyone wishing to learn more about the Mennonite faith.
September 26, 2011
Mennonites are mostly awesome! While I find it hard to relate to the basic Christian foundations of Mennonite beliefs - their progressive approach to interpreting scripture on a congregational level, and high values placed on love, community, forgiveness, nonviolence, and service are inspiring.
February 23, 2011
Mennonite beliefs are nicely explained. Very accessbile.
March 26, 2020
A history professor at Goshen College, Roth does just what the title suggests: lays out the foundations upon which this particular denomination was built and continues to develop. He does so with a fluency and an openminded modesty that makes his subject interesting and easy to understand, and, yes, relate to. While I'm not about to convert, I did like learning more about an often overidealized faith. This is one reference book I shall keep.
July 2, 2021
I just finished "Beliefs: Mennonite Faith and Practice" by John David Roth.
This was really a good book. My favorite part of the book is:
"I am called to love my enemies because that's exactly what God did to me. I can not sing 'Amazing Grace' with integrity until I am ready to extend that same grace--a grace that is greater than even the sins of my enemies--to those who have done nothing to deserve it." Pg. 106.
This was really a good book. My favorite part of the book is:
"I am called to love my enemies because that's exactly what God did to me. I can not sing 'Amazing Grace' with integrity until I am ready to extend that same grace--a grace that is greater than even the sins of my enemies--to those who have done nothing to deserve it." Pg. 106.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews