Recovering from the Anabaptist Vision: New Essays in Anabaptist Identity and Theological Method

This book performs a critical yet vibrant reconstruction of Anabaptist identity and theological method in the wake of the recent revelations of the depth of the sexual abuse perpetrated by the most influential Anabaptist theologian of the twentieth century, John Howard Yoder. In an attempt to liberate Anabaptist theology and identity from the constricting vision appropriated and reformulated by Yoder, these essays refuse the determinative categories of the last half century supplied by and carried beyond Harold Bender’s The Anabaptist Vision. While still under the shadow of decades of trauma, a recontexualized conversation about Anabaptist theology and identity emerges in this volume that is ecumenically engaged, philosophically astute, psychologically attuned, and resolutely vulnerable. It examines a wide variety of issues, such as Mennonite feminism, Anabaptist queer theology and Mennonite theological methods. It offers a Trinitarian and Christological framework that holds together the importance of scripture, tradition, and the lived-experience of the Christian community. As a result, the essays interrogate the operations of power, violence, exclusion, and privilege in methodology in this changed context, offering self-critical constructive alternatives for articulating Anabaptist theology and identity.