Anabaptist Groups

Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish

Utopian Communities

• William Kephart, Extraordinary Groups: The Sociology of Unconventional Lifestyles (1999)

F. Tonnies

• The question one must ask is how an institutionally complete Gemeinschaft culture can be maintained in the middle of a gesellschaft an industrialized, fast changing, society?

16th century European movements

• Various groups at various times have been

called Anabaptist, but the term is most commonly used to refer to the Anabaptists of 16th century Europe.

• Today’s Anabaptists are descendants of the 16th century European movements.

CHURCH vs. Sect

• Church-Protestant vs. Catholic

• Sects-Protestant-Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, United

Protestant Sects

• Franklin H. Little, The Origins of Sectarian Protestantism (New York: Beacons, 1964),

• Also see Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

• Inner- worldly asceticism

Anabaptist. Sects

• Amish, Hutterites, Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, Brethren in Christ, and other respective German Baptist variants) are the most common bodies referred to as Anabaptist Sects.

AnaBaptist Sects

• Rebelled against the Roman Catholic Church and began rebaptizing adults who had followed Jesus, but had unlawfully been 'baptized' as infants.

Persecutions and migrations

• Much of the historic Roman Catholic and

Protestant literature has represented the Anabaptists as…

• groups who “preached false doctrine” and led people into “apostasy”.

Apostasy

• Apostasy is the formal religious disaffiliation or abandonment or renunciation of one's religion, especially if the motive is deemed unworthy.

Anabaptists

• The name Anabaptist is derived from the

Latin term anabaptista, or "one who baptizes over again."

•

• This name was given them in reference to

the practice of re-baptizing converts who already had been baptized as infants.

• • Anabaptists required that baptismal

candidates be able to make their own confessions of faith and so rejected baptism to infants.

•

• The early Anabaptists disliked the name

Anabaptist, claiming that since infant baptism was null and void, re-baptism was in fact the first baptism for them

• Anabaptists the LUTHERAN doctrine of salvation by God's grace alone, and insisted that the believer's inward faith must be authenticated and supplemented by outward actions: believers must bear the cross of discipleship, thus participating in the process of becoming reconciled with God and creation.

Switzerland

• Anabaptism in Switzerland began as an offshoot of the church reforms instigated by Ulrich Zwingli.

• A charismatic religious leader-invokes, awe and inspiration in his followers.

• As early as 1522, it became evident that U. Zwingli was on a path of reform preaching when he began to question or criticize such Catholic practices such as:

• tithes, (money to RC church in search of salvation)

• the mass, • and infant baptism.

• Zwingli had gathered a group of reform-minded men around him, with whom he studied Classic literature and the Scriptures.

• Thus, he founded a religious social movement.

16c Anabaptists

• They were the predecessors of the modern-day Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites, Puritans, Quakers, and Baptists.

•

Pariah People

• Faced with persecution in the

sixteenth century, they began to migrate to northern Germany and found their way to Russia by the nineteenth century.

Main Anabaptist Groups

1. The Hutterite Brethren have existed for 450 years and in one way or another have been persecuted throughout their history.

2. Mennonite origins spreads back to Anabaptism from Switzerland and the Netherlands.

• 3. The Amish are a branch of the Mennonites, the Mennonites are direct descendants of the Swiss Anabaptists.

Three Pioneers of Faith Charismatic Authority

• There are three names who stand out and are leaders of three movements that are directly linked to one another but have unique differences:

• (See Weber on Charismatic Authority)

Leaders of Movements

1. Jacob Hutter (Hutterites) 2. Menno Simons (Mennonites) 3. Jacob Amman (Amish) Each of these men had `charisma’ a magical quality inspiring followers.

Ana Baptist Theology

• The Teachings of all these men were similar in three respects:

• 1. separation of church and state • 2. adult baptism • 3. refusal to bear arms and take oaths

Anabaptist practices

1. Total absorption into group life (communalism)

2. Separation from Secular society (sacred over secular)

3. Inner worldly asceticism. (hard work for salvation)

Asceticism

• They practice inner-world Asceticism in Weber’s notion but lack the Spirit of Capitalsim

• All of these groups lived a communal lifestyle.

• They more or less reject modernization and capitalism, they believe in communalism.

•

Hutterites

• The Hutterite Brethren have existed for

450 years and in one way or another have been persecuted throughout their history.

Hutterite Beliefs

1. They believe in adult Baptism

2. They refuse to take oaths or to bear arms

3. They believe in the right of the individual to worship as he saw fit.

According to J. Hutter

I. Civil government (i.e., "Caesar") belongs to this world... The believer, who belongs to God's kingdom, must not fill any office, nor hold any rank under government, which is to be passively obeyed.John 18:36; Romans 13:1-7

II. Sinners or unfaithful ones are to be excommunicated, and excluded from the sacraments and from intercourse with believers unless they repent, according to 1 Corinthians 5:9–13and Matthew 18:1 se. • But no force is to be used towards them.

Hutterites

• Grew as a movement by Jacob Hutter, an

organizer in the area around Czechoslovakia in the late 1500’s.

• By 1600, the number of followers were as many as 25,000.

• They lived outside the system…refused to pay taxes in Europe and Russia

North America

• The Hutterite movement to North America, began 1873 after the Czarist government in Russia took away religious guarantee of freedom.

• They immigrated en mass to the United State and Canada.

• Found refuge in South Dakota. • Set up three different colonies.

Anabaptists in Canada

• The migration of various groups from Europe who may be considered heirs to the Anabaptist movement include Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish, and the Brethren (seeBRETHREN IN CHRIST), the latter originating in 1708 in Germany with indirect connections to the Anabaptist tradition.

North America

• Their experience in North America is mixed. There have been times of tolerance and intolerance towards the group.

• • For example, between the time of arrival

and WWI, the group grew and prospered, from 400 to 1700 colonies.

•

• WWI however, brought special trouble. • Their refusal to sign up for service..made

them contentious objectors and young Hutterite men were confined to guard houses.

Their Economy

• The Hutterites are unique in their

questioning of capitalism.. We have a lot to learn from them:

• i.e. the concept `avarice’..

synonyms: greed, greediness, acquisitiveness, cupidity, covetousness, materialism

• The Hutterites are not entreprenuers, the idea of buying low and selling high is against their religion..

• • Quote “the life of the merchant is a sinful

business…As the nail stickth between the door and the hinge, so doth sin stick close between buying and selling”

•

• However, they are astute in business practices.

• They understand market values. • They are frugal in their consumption

practices, yet they do not hesitant to invest in the latest farm equipment.

• They exercise, a Protestant asceticism-they

are frugal, self reliant, rational, methodical and industrious.

• They lack the Spirit of Capitalism however..not individualistic, against avarice=greed.

Anabaptist creed

• Baptism is rational • Baptism requires faith • Children are innocent • Adult must profess their in Christ

Mennonites • Mennonite origin spreads back to

Anabaptism from Switzerland and the Netherlands.

• Faced with persecution in the sixteenth

century, they began to migrate to northern Germany and found their way to Russia by the nineteenth century.

•

• In 1874, a large scale migration occurred due to revocation of privileges in Russia.

• Like the Hutterites, Mennonites migrated to North America in search of religious freedom.

• Mennonites quickly spread through the West in varying degrees of orthodoxy.

• • ie. Old Colony Mennonites are more

conservative than General Conference Mennonites but not as conservative as the Old Order Mennonites in Ontario or the Amish.

Mennonite Family Structure

• In 1955, divorce among Mennnonites was

unheard of but by 1977, there were some cases but very few.

•

• Family size has changed dramatically. • When Mennonites were farmers, children

were assets. • But now, while they continue to have more

than the national average, family size is now smaller.

• Among Old Colony Mennonites, it is still not unusual for families to have over a dozen kin living nearby.

• • However, among young Mennonite

Families, the equalitarian family is emerging, typical of the modern nuclear family.

Anabaptist practices

• Total absorption into group life • Separate from Secular society • Other worldly aceticism./

SUMMARY

• Anabaptist groups are collectives that live outside of mainstream society through their religiousity.

• Anabaptist practice inner world asceticism yet turn their back on capitalism.

The Meaning of Religion

•

• *Meaning-refers to the interpretation of situations and events in terms of some broader framework.

Man vs. Animals

•

• Three things seem to distinguish man from all living creatures:

• 1. The systematic use of tools • 2. The use of abstract language • 3. Religion •

Myth Making

•

• Although some observers have detected the parallels of ritual in some birds, mammals and other organisms, no one has seriously suggest the presence of myth or theology

Myths-

• Are stories or belief systems that help people understand the nature of the cosmos, the purpose or meaning of life, or the role or origin of human suffering

• Even Communist society before Perestroika was not without religion.

• First, there is evidence that traditional religion did not die in the Soviet Union between 1918 and 1989.

Communism –a religion?

• Second, it could be argued that Communism is in itself a secular religion. While they repudiate the supernatural, they give allegiance in thought and feeling to body of doctrine which is intended to provide life with meaning

In functionalist terms…

• So then religion is universal, permanent and pervasive in human society. (see Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life)

The West

•

• In the West religion is usually defined in terms of beliefs and creeds associated with a connection to Christ.

•

•

Christianity

• Christianity is a montheistic religion that excludes all others,,,,you are either a follower of Christ or not and Christ is the only true path..."

creed,

• These definitions usually refer to finding religion in the context of a creed, ritual and practice.....

William Robertson Smith 1894

• (Lecture on the Religion of the Semites)

• One example of a Western scholar of this type is Smith 1894, "our first business is to search for a creed, and find in it the key to ritual and practice"

Anabaptist creed

• Baptism is rational • Baptism requires faith • Children are innocent • Adult must profess their in Christ

Rituals and Practices

• can vary significantly from group to group and among the orthodox vs less orthodox...

• • In India, Hindus revere the Cow while among primitive people birds animals and trees may have religious significance....

•

• Food may or may not be significant ie. pork and shellfish among the orthodox Jews or wine and pork among the Muslims.

• •