I grew up in a liberal-leaning Mennonite church. That is, not an old-order Mennonite church and not as progressive as some Mennonite churches are, somewhat in the middle. This can only be formative to my own biases and implicit understandings, but I left for college, and a few years later l and was saved in a reformed Baptist / A29 church, and I really never looked back.
I'm reading Reformed Dogmatics (the abridged version) and Bavinck seems to regularly mention Anabaptist theology with some skepticism as an aberrant offshoot of the reformation. Looking back on some of the theology (even the implicit understandings of God, Christ, etc.) I can understand the critique in a notional sense, but I'm trying to understand the distinctions better, if only for the purpose of understanding my own background and the faith-tradition I spring out of.
Does anyone know if there are any theologians (reformed or otherwise) that have given a serious treatment to any branch of Anabaptist tradition? I'd also be willing to read any comprehensive systematic theology by an Anabaptist writer if only to better understand the contrast, though preferably whatever I read would be written by an orthodox Christian (affirmation of the full deity and humanity of Christ, justification by faith alone, necessity of faith in Christ for salvation, the trinity, etc... you know- the important stuff :)
I've heard they did a lot of things that probably would have been the closest thing to communism in the 16th century (banishment of private property, no loans with interest etc). Did the founders of Communism get any influence from this at all?
Hey everyone, lately I've been reading up on the Anabaptist concept of Gelassenheit (essentially, seems to mean serenity + submission to God) and its political implications (given that Anabaptists tended to find themselves caught up in political feuds whether or not they wanted to).
I don't know if this is still much of a thing with modern Anabaptists, but I'd love to learn more.
So I last year, stopped by Munster Germany on a eurpoupean vacation before covid, because as a first year history major l, was facinated by the munster anabaptist rebellion and wanted to know more because theres like... a grand total of 4 English sources and even less people talking about it in depth except for like, Dan Carlin and a few others that aren't the most 100% or unbiased. The people there (when they spoke good english) told me about alot of what happened and then when I asked why Melchoir Hoffman believed that 1533 in Strausborg was Doomsday, they said "well they believed it was 500 years after Christ's death", and when I asked why, no one could tell me. So where did thoes extra 1000 years go on their callendar? It's been bothering me for a while.
I've been trying to figure out why a Baptist church in the area I used to live has a mission to "bring the Amish to Christ." I don't think they're IFB because they use NKJV, so maybe this is too ot, but I'm hecka confused.
FWIW, I had some connection to this church as a kid whose friend tried to win my soul. A teen lock-in resulted in my answering an altar-call and developing claustrophobia.
Hi everyone. I'll keep this a little short because I'm pretty tired.
I'm a baptized Orthodox Christian who still likes many elements of my faith, including its emphasis on transformational theology, mysticism, and mercy. But other elements, such as infant baptism and rigid church hierarchies, are really beginning to give me doubts. A lot of Orthodox Christians are experiencing persecution in areas like the Middle East and Israel, and a lot of times our bishops fail to speak out against the violence (ie, USA selling weaponry to Israel). I was surprised to see a lot of the Anabaptist churches in particular standing up against arms selling instead, and standing in solidarity with Muslims and Orthodox Christians who faced persecution, which kind of set me on the journey to learning about your faiths.
I really like the pacifism aspect, and from what I've read about the concept of Gelassenheit, it seems almost like theosis (deification in Christ) but even more centered on community and voluntary commitment. I struggle a lot with how I feel about Orthodox Christian takes on doctrine and hierarchy, and I'm a fan of the concept of "priesthood of all believers."
I have a few questions:
- Do Anabaptists generally take communion?
- How do Anabaptists relate to Church Traditions (ie Church Fathers and patristics, saints, etc?)
- If I want to explore Anabaptist spiritualities more, are there any good reads?
- Are there any good houses of worship to visit maybe in the DC area, where I will be headed soon?
Thank you for reading, have a blessed night to all my brothers and sisters in Christ. <3
I’m curious what the view of the reformers was but also of the modern church.
When I joined a Reformed Baptist Church they drank Whiskey and smoked cigars. They (we) are also okay with war in some circumstances. I just found out that my aunt is a missionary with an anabaptist denomination in Brazil at an orphanage and my dad grew up in an evangelical (kinda ex) Mennonite mega church. So very interesting.
I know this has probably been discussed before but why do the Anabaptists, specifically the Pennsylvania ones due to there Amish heritage and the freden Canadian ones and not the newyork Anabaptists as they are recent converts, have feudal kings and dukes due to their whole cultural aversion to any sort of involvement in politics know that they renounced most of their pacifistic ways since the americanists attacked them but the americanists killed their king leading to this renunciation of pacifism implying they had kings for at least a while. love to hear anyone's thoughts on why this would happen is it simply due to the influx of more people into Amish communities after the apocalypse or did the Amish perhaps see it as their divine mandate from God to build his kingdom on earth. Any thoughts welcome?
