Anabaptist%20Groups

1
Anabaptist Groups

• Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish

2
Utopian Communities

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

3
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?

4
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.
• Todays Anabaptists are descendants of the 16th
  century European movements.

5
CHURCH vs. Sect

• Church-Protestant vs. Catholic
• Sects-Protestant-Presbyterian, Lutheran,
  Methodist, Baptist, United

6
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

7
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.

8
AnaBaptist Sects

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

9
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.

10
Apostasy

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

11
Anabaptists

•  
• The name Anabaptist is derived from the Latin
  term anabaptista, or "one who baptizes over
  again."
•  

12

• This name was given them in reference to the
  practice of re-baptizing converts who already had
  been baptized as infants. 

13

•  
• Anabaptists required that baptismal candidates be
  able to make their own confessions of faith and
  so rejected baptism to infants.
•  

14

• 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

15

• 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.

16
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.

17

• 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.

18

• 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.

19
16c Anabaptists

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

20
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.

21
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.

22

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

23
Three Pioneers of FaithCharismatic 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)

24
Leaders of Movements

• Jacob Hutter (Hutterites)
• Menno Simons (Mennonites)
• Jacob Amman (Amish)
• Each of these men had charisma a magical
  quality inspiring followers.

25
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

26
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)

27
Asceticism

• They practice inner-world Asceticism in Webers
  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.
•  

28
Hutterites

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

29
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.

30
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
  1836 Romans 131-7

31

• 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
  5913and Matthew 181 se.
•  But no force is to be used towards them.

32
Hutterites

• Grew as a movement by Jacob Hutter, an organizer
  in the area around Czechoslovakia in the late
  1500s.
• By 1600, the number of followers were as many as
  25,000.
• They lived outside the systemrefused to pay
  taxes in Europe and Russia

33
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. 

34
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.

35
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.
•   

36

• 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.

37
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 
38

• 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
  businessAs the nail stickth between the door and
  the hinge, so doth sin stick close between buying
  and selling
•  

39

• 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.

40

•  
• They exercise, a Protestant asceticism-they are
  frugal, self reliant, rational, methodical and
  industrious.
• They lack the Spirit of Capitalism however..not
  individualistic, against avaricegreed.

41
Anabaptist creed

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

42
Mennonites

• Mennonite origin spreads back to Anabaptism from
  Switzerland and the Netherlands.
•  

43

• Faced with persecution in the sixteenth century,
  they began to migrate to northern Germany and
  found their way to Russia by the nineteenth
  century.
•  

44

• 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.

45

• 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.

46
Mennonite Family Structure

•  
• In 1955, divorce among Mennnonites was unheard of
  but by 1977, there were some cases but very few.
•  

47

• 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.

48

• 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.

49
Anabaptist practices

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

50
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.

51
The Meaning of Religion

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

52
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
•  

53
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

54
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

55

• 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.

56
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

57
In functionalist terms

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

58
The West

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

59
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..."

60
creed,

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

61
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"

62
Anabaptist creed

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

63
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....
•  

64

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