Book Reeews 

Harvey L. Dyck, editor,Tlze PaczJist Ii?zpt~lse in Historical Perspective 
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996). Cloth, 444 pp. 
$70.00 

Harvey Dyck is to be congratulated for making available 22 of the papers 
presented at an international conference on "The Pacifist Impulse in Historical 
Perspective" convened at the University of Toronto in iviay of i991, a date 
coinciding with the release of Peter Brock's comprehensive three-volume 
history of pacifism to 1914 (University of Toronto Press). Given the intellectual 
stature, reputation and longevity o f  Peter Brock, one is hard pressed t o  imagine 
a morc aptly dedicated Festschrift on this subject; the list of contributors 
constitutes a veritable "who's who" in peace studies. 

Following the editor's eloquent tribute to tlie prolonged and synergistic 
role played by Peter Brock in the scholarly discipline of peace history, tlie 
essays are subsumed under f o ~ ~ r  broad categories: "Approaches t o  Peace 
History," "Christian Traditions of Pacifism and non-Resistance,'' "Gandhi and 
the Indian Tradition of Non-Violence," and "Pacifism and Peace movements 
in the Modern World, 1890-1955." A precis provided at the beginning of each 
section attempts, in an unforced and generally l i e l p f ~ ~ l  manner, to fit the widely 

'divcrgcnt essays and approaches within each givcn subdivision into a coherent, 
overarcliing framework. 

While each of the essays was in its own way highly stimulating and often 



Book Reliens 235 

enlightening, I did have my favorites. Of the three contributions subsumed 
under "Approaches to Peace History," tlie most illuminating for this reviewer 
was Martin Ceadel's "Ten Distinctions for Peace Historians." Ceadel, a 
lecturer in politics at Oxford University, demonstrates that the terms and 
concepts at the lieart of the peace-studies lexicon are imbued with meanings 
contingent upon time, place, circumstance and ideology, and are therefore 
understood in such varied and at times contradictory ways as to mal<e their 
misuse by historians an inevitability unless extreme caution is exercised. And 
Charles Chatfield, in "Thinking About Peace in History," wisely observes that 
while analytical distinctions are an important tool of academic analysis, the 
resulting cognitive domains can s o n i e t i n ~ e s  reify to tlie point where they are 
incapable of either noticing o r  accommodating the dynamic and coniplicated 
social contingencies and dilemmas underlying the theory and practice of peace 
peculiar to specific peoples in particular times. 

The eight chapters comprising the second section of the book, "Clirisiian 
Traditions of Pacifism and Non-Resistance," focus for the most part on 
Quaker, Mennonite and Brethren understanding and application of peace 
teaching found in the New Testament. Here, it was John Howard Yoder's 
study, "War as a Moral Problem in the Early Church: T h e  Historian's 
Hermeneutical Assumptions," that proved to be highly thought provoking and, 
at times, mildly disturbing, for this reader. Yoder points out that since the 
literary base upon which the myriad conflicting views on the subject are 
constructed is s o  slim, it follows that more attention should bc paid to thc 
hermeneutical assumptions undergirding thcsc vicws. Hc alcrts rcadcrs to thc 
dangerous tendency t o  draw conclusive generalizations on thc pcacc vicws of 
early Christians, about whom we have only fragnicntary and highly sclcctivc 
written material. This practice, readily observable, alas! in much Mcnnonitc 
in-house writing on the subject, including my own, illustrates thc casc with 
which, in Yoder's words, we "hide some historians' valuc biascs under thc 
cover of what pretends t o  be simple historical description." (94) 

The four chapters comprising the book's third division, "Gandhi and tlic 
Indian Peace Tradition," remind tlie reader not only of Gandhi's significant 
impact on Western pacifism and Indian non-violcncc, but of other powcrfi~l 
streams, Buddhist, Hindu and Humanist, contributing significantly to a largcr 
pool of human peace thought and action. Under the rubric "Pacifisni and Pcacc 
Movements in the Modern World, 1890- 1955," the final scvcn cliaptcrs of tlic 
book offer vignettes into personalities and dcvclopmcnts intcrsccting with 
peace movements in Europe, North Atiicrica and Russia. In addition to an 
index, the book also contains a clironologically arrangcd bibliography o f  
"Boolts and Articles on Peace History by Petcr Brock." 

As one would expect, each o f  the chapters is wcll d o c ~ ~ n i c n t c d ,  pointing to 
sources and ideas beyond the scope of the cssay itsclf. Contribt~tors liavc 
maintained a consistently satisfactory standard o f  lucidity, cogency and 
clarity, thus making this book a notable exception to thc i n t c l l e c t ~ ~ a l  and 



stylistic unevenness often characterizing Festscliriften. The essays are neither 
polemical nor controversial. But they are an intellectual feast guaranteed to 
deepen the reader's appreciation for the complexity of coming to grips witli 
that most perennially elusive of human dreams through the millennia - peace. 

Jonathan J. Bonk 
Providence Theological Seminary 
O t t c r b ~ ~ r n e ,  Manitoba 

Stephen Scott, Introduction to Old Ordernr~dConsei~~ativeA4e11110r1ite 
G r o ~ ~ p s  (intercourse, PA: Good Boolts, 1996). 252 pp. Paperback. 
$8.95 U.S. 

For too long scholars paid little attention t o  the rather uneven and confusing 
religious terrain of old ordcr and conservative Mennonite communities in 
North Amcrica, thc rcmaindcrs of over a cent~lry of Mennonite denomination 
building and consolidation. Recently Steven Nolt reminded LIS that these 
ncglectcd Mennonite groups were poised to eclipse the Mennonite "mainstream" 
due to the non-stop old order baby boom. Now Stephen Scott has provided us 
with a long overdue encyclopedic treatment of one family of old orders and 
conservatives: those left behind by the "old" Mennonite Church during two 
c e n t ~ ~ r i e s  of conflict and transformation. These "old" Mennonite splinter 
groups are located mainly in the eastern and midwestern United States and in 
Ontario. 

Scott has already written numerous books on the habits and practices o f  old 
order groups, most of them publislied by Good Books, and most of them 
designed to interpret these conimunities for visitors, not academics. This new 
book, however, will be appealing to both tourists and scliolars. While it is very 
readable, attractively arranged, and loaded witli photographs, it is also carefi~lly 
written, well-docuniented and q ~ l i t e  informative. Moreover, tlie book includes 
historical and sociological data about many conservative splinter groups 
which are siniply not yet available anywhere else. I an1 especially impressed 
tliat Scott has included information on the numerous conservative congregations 
tliat are ~ ~ n a f f i l i a t e d  with any larger fellowsliip and whose histories and 
practices are normally forgotten in any systematic accounting of Mennonite 
life. 

Wliilc giving attention to tlie complicated dctails associated with the 
n i ~ ~ l t i t u d c  of tlicsc distinctive Mennonite groups, the author has not neglected 
tlie largcr picture. Quite compellingly, lie tells the story of (old) Mennonite 
tnodcrnization and a c c ~ l l t ~ l r a t i o n  and of old order and conservative resistance 



Book Re~ie\vs 23 7 

t o  these trends. While this narrative often tends to frame historical changes in 
(old) Mennonite Church polity rather simplistically as a strugglc between 
conservative keepers of tradition and liberal advocates of change, it docs 
capture quite effectively and sympathetically the old order and conservative 
views of changes in the Mennonite Church. In this sense, the book provides the 
beginnings of an alternative North American Mennonite historical narrative, 
one that both supplements and demonstrates the limits of such mainstream 
histories as Tlze Mentzotzite Experience in America series. 

Following a cursory introduction t o  Mennonites in general, tlie book is 
divided into two sections; one deals with the old order groups that broke away 
from old Mennonite conferences in the late nineteenth century and tlie other 
focuses on the conservative movements away from Mennonite Church conferenccs 
(including the Conservative Mennonite Conference) in tlic mid t o  late twentieth 
century. The book provides detailed descriptions of the conflicts that led to 
schisms and includes plenty of charts and tables to help the reader keep track of 
the churches involved and issues at stake. 

The most daunting task taken up by Scott is categorizing and defining the 
post World War I 1  conservative Mennonite movements. The origins, motivations, 
and identities o f t h e s e  groups vary a great deal and to my knowledge no one has 
ever sought to provide an accurate road map of these movements. Scott 
manages to consolidate the conservatives into five different categories: the 
t~ltra-conservatives, tlie intermediate conservatives, thc moderate conservatives, 
the fundamental conservatives, and the theological conscrvativcs. While thcsc 
five categories provide a useful heuristic dcvicc, thcy don't adcquatcly capturc 
o r  explain the more fundamental dividc bctwccn thc first thrcc groups who 
emphasize cultural uniformity on tlic onc hand and thc remaining two groups 
who are mainly concerned with doctrinal orthodoxy on thc othcr hand. This 
divide constitutes two dramatically different understandings of thc labcl 
"conservative." What possible definitional conncctioii thcrc rcinains (othcr 
than common identification with the word "conscrvativc") bctwccn contcniporary 
Conservative Mennonite Conference congregations andConservative Mennonite 
Fellowship congregations remains unclear. In fact, I can imagine that somc 
congregations in the conservative districts o f t h e  Mennonite Church's Lancastcr 
Conference (say Juniata o r  Martindale) are closcr in cultural and spiritual 
identity t o  ultra to moderate conservative groups than are many of tlic more 
culturally liberal congregations in tlie Conservative Conference. Of course, 
almost any categorization sclicme will be unablc to account for the many 
exceptions and vagaries arising from " ~ ~ n c v c n  dcvclopmcnt" in many of tlic 
cult~lral and rcligiotis trends that led congregations and fellowships to g o  their 
own way. Yet future scholarsliip will nced to give closc attcntion to tlic variety 
of different rhetorical functions of tlic word "conscrvativc" i n  cstablisliing 
movements that challenged mainline Mennonitism. 

Scott has captured quite correctly the spirit and scntimcnt of tlic old order 
and conservative Mennonite movements. In his conclusion t o  the section on 



conservative Mennonites, Scott remarks: "Conservative Mennonites tend to be 
very thorough people. Many of the congregations and groups meticulously and 
articulately address every conceivable area o f  doctrine and practice in their 
effort t o  follow the full counsel of God. Their aim is complete Christian 
consistency (199)." My own experiencc o f  growing up in a Conservative 
Mennonite Fellowship c l i ~ ~ r c l i  confirms this statement's accuracy. There is 
among ~ ~ l t r a  to moderate conservatives a rather profound commitment to 
"getting it right," a commitment tliat leads conservatives to investigate the 
mcaning of Christian obcdience in every single aspect oflife. This commitment 
also leads to much disagreement and conflict, o f  course, and thus t o  m ~ ~ c l i  
schism, separation, and reorganization. Ironically, conservatives' concern for 
being in "right fellowship" has led them toward a congregatio'nalism tliat 
cxcecds that of many (old) Mennonite conferences. This area of church and 
fellowship organization among conservatives is not given much attention in 
Scott's book, but will hopefully be taken up by other scholars more directly. In 
fact, onc important strength of this book lies in such previously uncharted 
watcrs of rcscarch to which it shows the way. 

Finally, this book rcminds us that moves toward organizational unity are 
always bascd on ccrtain cxclusions and that there is always a remainder to any 
conscnsus. Old ordcr and conscrvative Mennonite groups constitute a clearly 
visiblc "outsidc" that haunts (and threatens to eclipse) all expressions of 
"niainline" Mcnnonitc normativity. In studying them, Mennonite scholars will 
not only lcarn more about the contested character ofNorth American Mennonite 
identity, but they will also become aware of the particularity and historicity of 
any narrative that seeks to speak for Mennonites in general. 

Gerald J. Biesecker-Mast 
Bluffton College 
Bluffton. Ohio 

Pamela E. Klassen, Goirzg bj) the Moor7 arzd tlze Stars: Stories of 
Two Rzlssinrz Melzrzoizite Wor7zer1 (Waterloo, O N :  Wilfrid Laurier 
University Press, 1994) 15 lpp. 

Euring the various sessions at theC'Quietinthe Land" conference (Millersville, 
1995), women, besides reading academic papers, told stories, nursed babies, 
spokc of pcrsonal pain, presented w o n ~ e n ' s  lives in creative forms, read poetry. 
Topics included history of women's dress and hcad covering, women's 
crcativity, women's roles in thc church, women's journals. There was plenty of 
intcracting, casual or intcnsc, over food, but no formal banquct was progranimed 



Book R e i i e i v x  23 9 

in. The arts were generously included and s o  were presentations by "outsiders," 
women from other ethnic groups. Do women have a distinct way of doing 
history? 

The subtitle o f  Pamela Klassen's Coirlg by the blonrz ~ r l t l  the Stcrr.s, 
prolnises "Stories of T w o  Russian Mennonite W o n ~ e n . "  That promise is kept, 
but the book does more than fill in the gaps left by the untold storics of women 
in the official annals of Mennonite history. The author writes: "This book is not 
a historical assessment o f  these women's lives, but rather an inquiry into 
memory-an intimate reflection on what Agatha and Katja remember about 
their lives, and how these memories continue to shape them." 

Klassen's "inquiry" and "intimate reflection" are governed by the fact that 
for this project (a master's thesis) the process was as important as the storics 
obtained. Discussion of process and n~ethodology is, thcrcforc, given space 
alongside the stories. The book is, in part, biography, in which not just the two 
Mennonite women, but also the analystlbiographer, are subjects. In this 
process the (young) biographer collaborates with her (older) subjects and the 
spin-off i s  something like friendship. As the analyst equipped with feminist 
and ethnographic methodologies, author Pamela Klassen admits to being in a 
position o f  power in the process and she makes clear that responsibility for the 
final interpretations is hers. She also admits to fear of barging in and hurting 
her subjects, two women made vulnerable by going public with their lives. 
"Turning the stories of a woman's life into text can be a profoundly disturbing 
act." 

Agatha Janzen and Katja Enns (not their real names) belong to that group of 
women who lived in the southern Ulcraine during World War 1 1 ,  saw the 
detainment, exile o r  death of their men, fled with thc retreating German army 
through Poland, lived as refugees in Germany and crnigratcd cvcntually to 
Canada. Presently Agatl-ra and Katja are members of the same church i n  the 
Waterloo/Kitchener area. The chapters where Klasscn allows thcm to tell, i n  
their own voices, their stories of war and escape will no doubt be rcnlembcrcd 
longest by many readers. But the storytelling, the author cautions, has already 
been filtered through subsequent experiences, and that includes the experience 
of entry into Canada where their stories were not always willingly heard. 

Klassen identifies two main plots in the stories of these women: the war plot 
and the marriage plot. In the case of both women, these plots do not fit the 
conventional plot of the traditional Mennonite woman and when they arrived 
in the Mennonite C I ~ L I ~ C I I  community in Canada, their problematic stories 
prevented their easy reception into that c o n ~ m u n i t y .  

In the terror and danger of war, the worncn s ~ ~ r v i v c d  cvcn without mcn. But 
such independence, endurance and courage pose a problcrn i n  an "order wlicrc 
men reigned" and where a woman's "power for survival w o ~ t l d  bc ignored or 
sanitized and attributed only to God." 

Both Agatha's and Katja's marriage plot, as i n  the case of many worncn of 
that migration, included irregularities that disturbed the Mcnnonite community. 



This resulted in further pain of rejection for the women before they could 
finally be integrated into the church where both s u b s e q ~ ~ e n t l y  became active. 

Besides raising important questions about the treatment of immigrant 
women likc Agatlia and Katja in the Canadian Mennonite community, Klassen 
also raiscs q ~ ~ c s t i o n s  a b o ~ ~ t  the women's ambivalence to the Nazis whom they, 
on thc onc hand, consider s a v i o ~ ~ r s  from a c r ~ ~ e l  regime, but, on tlie other, abhor 
for tlicir gcnocidc. "Asking the difficult questions in trying to ~ ~ n d e r s t a n d  
womcn's stories cvokes grief and pain," Klassen observes, both for the 
subjects and thc analyst; neverthcless she insists that, "As long as Mennonites 
do not cxplore tlieir connection with Nazism, the stories of both men and 
women who suffered in tlie war while affiliated witli tlie wrong side will be 
silcnced." 

She admits that this dimension of her subjects' stories makes it "more 
difficult to vicw Katja and Agatlia as cither saints or victims," and that their 
survival, a combination o f  strength, luck, and, according t o  them, God's help, 
should be rcspcctcd, but not revered." 

Ultimately, Klasscn, a student ofreligion, is interested in how the experience 
of each woman has shaped her present r e l i g i o ~ ~ s  life. She compares the 
womcn's dcscriptions of tlicir carly lives at a time when formal religious 
education and c h ~ ~ r c h  lifc had ccascd t o  exist in the Mennonite colonies. While 
both womcn rcmcnibcr thcir mothers as faithful, godly women, Agatha sees 
licrsclf as being likc her mother, while Katja differentiates herself from hers. 
The author also compares their experience o f  God in times o f  hardship and 
danger, and their present religious life. Both are active in the church, but where 
Agatha has felt called to preach, Katja believes the preacher's role is not for 
women. 

Klassen makes this interesting observation: "The way they tell tlieir stories 
(and the way others listen) affects how they feel connected witli o r  differentiated 
from themselves, God, other Iviennonites, and the church." Clearly, if a 
woman's story is the greatest gift she can offer, listening to her story must be 
the reciprocal gift. 

Goir~g Bj] Tlze A/loon Arzd Tlze Stars will be a valuable resource, both for tlie 
two personal stories it offers the reader and for its contribution t o  Mennonite 
women's scholarship. 

Sarah Klassen 
Liberal Arts Christian College 
Klaipeda, L i t l i ~ ~ a n i a  



Book Revievvs 241 

P. Travis Kroeker,Clzristian Ethics arzd Political Ecorzonzj~ irz North 
Ainericn: A Critical Analysis (Montreal and Kingston: McGillI 
Queen's University Press, 1995). 

This important book provides a critique o f  the liberal political economy 
and Christian attempts to address the problem; it also offers an alternative 
political economy based on Augustinian realism. Kroeker begins this study by 
identifying a spiritual crisis in North America's political economy. At its core 
is liberal thought and, particularly the notion of a productivist paradigm that 
insists on progressive expansionism. This creates an 'iron cage' in which 
humans are isolated from each other, f r ~ m  cnmmunit;/, end fro111 nature. !n 
liberalism "our choices are ever more narrowly constricted within short-term 
utility calculations and collective slavery t o  material processes ...." (I 3) 

Kroeker sets out to analyze the thinking of influential Christian social 
ethicists a n d  show that these ethicists do not rise above some faulty theological 
assumptions. Both American and Canadian representatives of the social 
gospel, Walter Rauschenbusch and James Woodsworth respectively, are 
described and both are credited for attempting to "make theology relevant t o  
the social order by elaborating a public ethic." (41,42) While the social gospel 
recently h a s  been seen by scholars-Ramsey Cook, Allan Mills, David 
Marshall-as the ironic harbinger o f  secularization, Kroeker concentrates on 
the religious claims of the social gospel. In the process Kroekcr offers a 
withering critique o f t h e  social gospel. Its problem is that it assumes that God is 
becoming present in western civilization and that dcmocratisation, technological 
growth, and the modern sciences, will ensurc tlic realization of human good. 
So, while the social gospel takes exception to parts of libcral socicty, i n  thc cnd 
it canno!, begin t o  address the spiritual crisis of tlic dcnial o f  transccndcncc and 
the estrangement from nature. (44) 

Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian realism and the work of thc Fcllowsliip for a 
Christian Social Order [FCSO] are also analyzed. Krockcr defends Niebuhr 
against charges of being ideologically driven, describing him instead as 
someone who s o ~ t g h t  to work out his theology in the rapidly changing political 
economy o f  the 1930s and 1940s. In essence, Niebuhr called for a Christian 
realism based on a "franl< dualism in morals" seen in the pursuit by "self- 
transcendent individuals and the more limited moral capacities and resources 
o f  collective action." (53) The FCSO, on the other hand, leaned more toward 
Marxist social analysis to develop policy proposals. The FCSO saw humans as 
products o f  the their relationships to others in socicty and i n  naturc. Howcvcr, 
when the FCSO sought to provide a way out of tlic capitalist morass, it fcll into 
the "social gospel pitfall," a utilitarianism in which pcoplc comc to rcly on 
socialist planning for abundance.(86) In ICroeker's estimation, both o f  tlicsc 
visions of society fail to account for an appropriate theology of creation. 
Instead, they fall into a trap that narrows the purpose of being human and fails 
t o  see the divine purposes of creation. 



Kroeker is also critical of the Catholic bishops approach to the problem. 
His careful analysis o f  several statements on the economy, including that o f  
the Canadian bishops in 1983, concludes that these initiatives a r e  too 
narrowly anthropocentric. Wliilc t h e  Catholic positions may address issues 
such as rights of labour, redistribution, democratisation, they fail t o  get at the 
~ ~ n d c r l y i n g  causc of the crisis, the progressivist assumptions of the modern 
libcral socicty. Again, in Krockcr's view, an adcquate creation theology is 
left ~ ~ n c x p l o r c d .  

In the final chapter, "Toward a Moral Theology of Creation," Kroeker 
outlines a theocentric utilitarian vision o f l i f e .  He returns t o  classic Augustinian 
rcalism to chart the path that will see "public life ... oriented toward the 
common good of thc created order". (122) Augustinian realism "seelts the 
establishment of tlic truc order of love by referring all thought, action, and 
dcsirc to God ...." (138) Tlicre exists a divine order to things, and humans and 
n a t ~ l r c  can only function properly when this is understood and when tliings are 
used, not in scrvicc o f  progressive expansionism, but in a manner consistent 
with intcndcd purposc. 

This book is compelling. It critiques at lcast three major attempts to address 
thc North Amcrican political cconomy from a Christian position, and then 
providcs an altcrnativc bascd on Augustinc. The breadth and depth of this 
attcnipt is part of the attraction of this book. The critiques blend sympathy with 
incisivc analysis. This analysis is timely and in some ways devastating, since it 
is difficult to know if the church can extricate itself from this deep-rooted 
worldvicw, or even recognize the naturc o f  the problem. 

The emphasis on transcendence based on a creation theology is also well- 
placed. Kroekerprovides his answer without entering (explicitly) the ubiquitous 
discussion of modern versus postmodern thought. Instead, transcendence here 
is not esoteric, but a grounding from which the 'reality' of life can be addressed 
in a profoundly Christian manner. He also avoids tlie separation o f  group - .  
versus individual ethics, insisting that each part of the world has a purpose 
within the fellowsliip of tlie created order. (141) Kroeker is ultimately 
convincing in his postulation of a moral theology of creation. It is refreshing to 
rcad a treatment that goes beyond partisan debatc. And he does this without 
creating 'straw-mcn'. 

However, it strikes nic tliat Kroelter's critique is more compelling tlian Iiis 
own argument for Augustinian realism. He makes only a brief foray into the 
problc~ii with fi~ndar~ientalism, leaning heavily on Owen Barfield. Why not 
pursuc the issue of conformity and loss o f  religious synibols further? If religion 
can be a tool of idcology tliat is destructive to human life and the common good 
(124), tlicn tliis problem of perception and faith needs t o  be addressed more 
explicitly. Tlic notion of character building as a vital part of Christian ethics as 
they rclatc to tlic political ccononiy is not p ~ ~ r s ~ ~ e d  farenougli. What implications 
~iiiglit tliis idea have for policy or practice witliin the larger society? Further, 
Kroeker's promotion of the concept o f  purpose and place for all things witliin 



Book R e ~ ~ i e n ~ s  243 

the creation order avoids any mention of Alisdair Maclntyre, including his 
After Virtzre. 

This i s  a n  important book that will motivate the church to rethink its ethics. 
I noted recently that universities are beginning to use this book as a text, and it 
seems that its message will be disseminated widely, which is as it should be. 

Paul Doerksen 
Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute 
Winnipeg, Manitoba 

Delbert F. Plett, S a r a h ' s  Prairie (Winnipeg: Windflower 
Communications, 1995). Trade paperback, 349 pp. A Novel. 

Mennonite histories often leave the impression that the real story is 
somewhere between the lines. Delbert Plett's novel, Saralz 's Prairie, attempts 
t o  tell the story between the lines of the history of the Mennonite East Reserve 
in Manitoba, by exploring the life of Martien Koep, whose Old Lacnder 
Mennonite family is torn apart when most of his siblings join the Morsavians, 
an unsavory religion imported from Oaten Collcgc in Tcxas. 

There i s  certainly fertile ground for a novelist's imagination hcrc, and Plctt 
has used his extensive knowledge of East Rcscrvc history to fill thc book with 
colorful characters such as Offenbarung Jauntzand Rosic Bolson, thc cvangclist's 
seductive wife. He gives the reader an elaboratc picturc of thc East Rcscrvc 
community and its links to Russia, Kansas, and Saskatchewan. As a youth 
Martien has many rollicking adventures. He is sexually aroused by his sistcr, 
Susch, seduced by Rosie Bolson, learns to dance with French girls and drink 
homebrew with the Ukrainian bootlegger's daughters. Hc has unlimited access 
t o  motor cars, albeit with bumpers painted black. Somehow he colnes through 
all this with his innocence intact and becomes an upright member of the Old 
Laender community, a community that knows how to forgive and takc care of 
its own. 

Unfortunately, Scrr.alzts Prairie reads like a rough draft and i t  is rcgrettablc 
that the publisher did not provide Plett with an expericnccd fiction editor to 
guide him through a rewriting process that could have turncd this book into a 
powerfill, and I dare say, a popular novel. 

Part o f  the problem is that Plctt packs too much information into the story 
and tries t o  juggle too many characters. There are many interesting cvcnts, but 
he loses the focus on the Koep family and this human drama where children 
join a churcli that i s  o p e l ~ l y  contemptuous of the parents' whole way of life. 



When Martien's sister, Susch, elopes with the Morsavian minister's son, we 
are not shown how this affects her parents. A teardrop on a tablecloth o r  a 
fathcr's trembling hand might have taken the reader into the experience. 

Plctt uses very specifically dated chapter titles and tliis makes a literary 
discussion in a 1920's bush camp about Ruby Wiebe, who wasn't born until 
1934, a puzzling anachronism. There are many discussions in the novel which 
providc background information about the religious conflicts, but because 
Plctt has choscn to use fictional designations such as "Morsavian" and "Old 
Lacndcr" and "Bolsonite" the reader is not enlightened very much as t o  who's 
who, who believes what, and what is the fuss about anyway? The irony of 
Manitoba Mennonite communities being the target for missionary work i s  
never explored. Martien and the omniscient narrator arc obviously on the side 
of the Old Laenders and the satire in the novel i s  directed largely at the 
Morsavians. Plett uses many Low German words and expressions in his writing 
and sometimes tliis works and at other times it isn't clear whether h e  is in 
control of his language. The words "Jeisus" and "Erloeser" seem t o  verge on 
unintcntional mockery when used in the same context as the satiric "formula 
crfoarung" o f  Offenbarung Jauntz. 

I hope Dclbcrt Plctt finds the motivation to rewrite this novel. In fact, he 
c o ~ l l d  LISC this book as a sourcc for three or four full-length novels; there 
certainly arc cnough stories in it. On the other hand, perhaps he should use his 
considerable skills as an historian and write a no-holds-barred history o f  these 
religious wars. Why should there be stories that historians fear t o  tell? 

- 
Armin Wiebe 
Winnipeg, Manitoba 

Harry Loewen and Steven Nolt, Throz~glz Fi1.e nizd Water: An 
Overview ofMeiznonite History (Kitchener ON and Scottsdale, PA: 
Herald Press, 1996). 350 pp. $1 8.25. 

Loewen and Nolt have authored a "book designed as an introduction t o  
church history and the Mennonite faith story." i t  has been written for "individuals 
who want t o  learn more about Anabaptists ..., congregations looking for a way 
to teach ... Mennonite ... beliefs, and s t ~ ~ d e n t s  in Mennonite high schools ....." 
Subtle q ~ ~ e s t i o n s  of historical adequacy I will leave for the experts; my review 
will deal particularly with the book's potential appeal to students such as those 
1 taught in high school during a 43 year teaching career in Canada and Africa. 



Book Re~~ie\ts 245 

Teachers, who in a semester usually have 20 weeks or less to complete a 
course, will appreciate the structure of the book. It is divided into four sections, 
with 15 sub-sections o f  about 20 manageable pages each. At the end of each of 
the four sections are essays by Carol Duerksen and Elwood Yoder which 
discuss key issues o f  our story. Included in each section is a thoughtfully 
phrased challenge t o  the faith and reasoning power of the student. More study 
questions would have been very helpful. For a thorough study, students need 
the stimulus that interesting study questions provide. This is especially 
important f o r  high school teachers, who may have to teach five or six courses 
each day. 

The book's balance keeps the larger Mennonite constituency in mind. 
Both the Swiss and Dutch origins of Anabaptism are traced through to their 
North American incarnation. The reasons for the many migrations, including 
those to Latin America, are sympathetically analyzed. The authors recognize 
that "the Germanic ethnic element i s  still strong," but they see the Anabaptist 
heritage as a faith and emphasize "congregations in many parts of the world, 
including Asia, Africa and South America."(204) Many illuminating personal 
anecdotes featuring women (such as the steadfastness of Annelcen Hendricks in 
martyrdom) balance the gender lines without the embarrassing self-consciousness 
that political correctness sometimes brings. 

One o f t h e  strongest teaching features of Tlzrozrgh Fire & Water is its use of 
source material. Not only does it have two pages of easily accessible resources 
"for further reading", its text constantly quotes directly from available historical 
sources. The notes range from early writings such as Mrrrtyrs Mirror to modern 
works, such a s  A1 Reimer's edition of A Russia17 Dr~izce ? f ' D e ~ t h .  Rccognizcd 
Mennonite authority such as Bender's Atzabapti.st Vi.sior7 arc quotcd at Icngth 
(IOI), but unexpected connections such as the story of Dostoycvsky's Grand 
Inquisitor and his call t o  return t o  Christ's tcachings arc also linkcd to our 
Mennonite ideal (58). 

A refreshing aspect is the tendency to move away from what James Urry has 
called Mennonite "triumphalist" history. The authors "want to tcll the Mennonite 
story syn~pathetically but fairly" (21), and their personal identification with 
the faith provides a steadying hand t o  the account of events. But they arc not 
afraid to present the ugliness o f t h e  Miinster rising (1 05), or the harshness o f t h c  
ban (1 16). T h e  book opens with one of our heroes (Blaurock) interrupting a 
worship service, but without deinonising the "othcr side": moreover, the pcacc 
position is fairly presented as "treason" in the eyes of a widcr socicty under 
threat of Turkish invasion. At other times moderation is the tonc: our forebears 
were "often better Christians than either Catholics or Protcstants." ( 1  12) 

Will the students be a s  keen about Tlzt-ozrgk Fire & kVrrte/. as most tcachcrs 
will be? Unless it works well with today's students, any history book is 
pointless. We need a history book that will interest and inspire our tccnagcrs. 
Thoughtful s t ~ ~ d e n t s  will appreciate the sectional focus on four distinctivcs of 
their Mennonite faith. In "How do yozr k 1 7 o ~ ~ y o z 1 1 .  chlrt-clz is.fiitl?fill? " s t ~ ~ d e n t s  



will understand the cleansing power of church discipline. They will s e e  how 
important this was to the believers' church as it sought t o  avoid the impurities 
o f  the state churches. They may then better understand the questions raised by 
such writings as Patrick Friesen's TlzeShzrtztzitzg. In i ' I s ~ i ~ z ~ r  life a witness to the 
Spirit, water, and blood?" the Anabaptist story itself becomes a call to 
discipleship. Faith's price is dramatized in the accounts of the cruel deaths of 
Michael Sattlcr and Anneken Hendricks and countless others. Our young 
people will be challenged to adopt a personal peace position in "What does it 
nzearz foryozr to be a peacernaker.7" which brings us into modern times. T h e  
experience of Siegfried Bartel, a Mennonite officer in the Wehrtnacht who 
heard h i s  "enemies" on the Russian Front singing Christmas carols, and the 
experience o f  Jennifer Lindberg, whose poster "100,000 Faces" dramatized 
the human sacrifice of the Persian Gulf War will both serve to move our young 
people toward this classic distinctive o f  the Mennonite faith. In "Wlzere does 
jiozrr citizenship lie? ", which concludes the section on the Russian Mennonites, 
the common pressure in Russia and America t o  move into the secular mainstream 
is addressed. Frcd, a fourth-generation military man, decides that Christ's 
kingdom demands a higher allegiance than his nation-state. The last section 
that asks " D o  yozr see tnanj) metnbers fornzirzg one body in Clzrist? " is the story 
o f  the world-wide rcach of today's Anabaptist churches. And it will reassure 
those young pcoplc who fear their church is some colony o r  ghetto. 

For more casual students, the book provides a lively style-this is no 
costive narrative. Almost every page is lightened by maps, illustrations, 
photographs, or cartoons. Humor is rarely far from the surface. This humor 
may be laconic, as in the reference t o  the 46-verse hymn written t o  honour 
martyr Landis, who could not be kept behind bars! The authors are not afraid of 
corny puns-how did Luther like his Diet o f  Worms? Cartoons such as the one 
dramatizing the personal hygiene problems of Saint Simon Stylites on his 
pillar b r i n g  a smile. A colloquial vocabulary and short units with catchy titles 
("Luther's Red Hot Pen" and "Escaping Across a Frozen River") may awaken 
flagging student attention spans. 

But m y  strongest praise comes f o r t h e  way in which the history is presented. 
It is told through intensely personal anecdotes which then lead to clear and 
concise s ~ ~ m m a r i e s  of their historical importance. Students brought up on 
"Davie Crockett" myth-making history will be fascinated by the story o f  the 
murder o f  Felix Manz in Switzerland, o f  a card-playing Menno Simons as a 
"trickster" on the coach to Emden, o f  the gentle Hans Denck and courageous 
Helen o f  Freyburg in southern Germany, of Jakob Hutter who brought 
Christian communism into our faith. Then these diverse tales about a coterie of 
saints leads t o  a clear summary o f  the distinctive faith these Anabaptist heroes 
bequeathed the world (137). Similarly, the stories of a bandit attack on Jakob 
Hoppner, o f  the ~ ~ p s i d e - d o w n  trees o f  the enlightened dictator, Johann Cornies, 
and o f t h e  bizarre Bride Community o f  Claas Epp are backgro~lnd to a scholarly 
summary o f  "Mennonite firsts in Russia." (21 8) 



Book Reviervs 24 7 

This book will serve well as a text and resource for the teaching of 
Mennonite history in North American schools. 

Wilmer Penner 
Steinbach Secondary Regional School 
Steinbach, Manitoba 

Carl F. Bowman, Brethren Society: Tlze Czilttiral Tr.ansfo~-nzation 
ofn 'Pectiliar People ' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 
1995) 

This book tells the story o f  apeculiar people whose peculiarity was purged, 
and of "plain" people who did not stay "plain." It explains how and why 
members of the Church of the Brethren exchanged bonnets and beards for 
earrings and neckties, unsalaried elders for professional pastors, simple 
meeting houses for modern church structures, and church discipline cnforccd 
by shunning and banning for open and tolerant church policies. 

The organization of the material is broadly historical, but thc intcrprctation 
relies on sociological methodologies and analyses. It is bascd mainly on 
denominational archival materials, and on a qucstionnairc circulated by thc 
author to members o f  Brethren congregations. 

The author first provides an overview of traditional Dunker (rcnanied 
Erethren in 1908) culture before 1850. This is followed by a niorc d c t a ~ l c d  
examination of the paths which took the Brethren away from, or bcyond, thc 
plainness and peculiarities o f  their traditional culture. This factual information 
provides the raw material for a very cogently presented analysis of the radical 
transformation o f  Brethren culture. 

In his analysis, Carl Bowman argues that in the period from 1850 to 1920 
two discrepant religious and cultural moral orders influenced Brethren life- 
the memory of their traditional Dunker heritage and the dynamism of North 
American evangelicalism. There were intense struggles bctwccn the forces of 
resistance and accommodation, with accomniodation gaining the asccndancy 
by 1940. 

Bowman argucs that in thcir attempts to maintain a balancc bctwccn 
change and continuity, Brcthren found it neccssary to cnsurc that a pcrccption 
o f  faithfulness to thc inherited culture bc prcscrvcd whcn changcs wcrc 
accepted. Since the Brethren were non-creedal, they uscd s y ~ n b o l s  to reconcile 
past peculiarities with contemporary diversity and tolerance. Spccifically, he 
argues, symbols were used in two ways. 



First, some important symbols were retained by their moral content or 
meaning was fundamentally altered. Bowman calls this "symbolic bridging." 
Examples cited include the symbols of footwashing and the love feasts. The 
traditional Dunker interpretation of footwashing had emphasized the mutual 
responsibility of bclicvcrs to clcanse, purify and admonish one another in the 
Christian lifc. T h c  symbol was rctaincd whcn Brethren became more tolerant 
o f  rcligious divcrsity, but it becamc a synlbol o f  service whcre once it had been 
a symbol o f  purification and mutual admonition. Similarly, the Brethren love 
fcast (communion) had bcen reserved in traditional Dunker practice t o  those in 
good standing with their church. Great care was taken to judge the worthiness 
o f  participants, but by 195 1 the Brethren abandoned the requirement o f  close 
communion. A symbol o f  love for like-minded Christians committed t o  the 
peculiarities of a separatist tradition thus became a symbol of openness. 

Other symbols and practices of Brethren culture underwent a series of 
subtle changes until they came t o  represent values and commitments q ~ ~ i t e  
different from those of traditional Dunker culture. Bowman refers t o  such 
changes a s  "symbolic translation," and cites as a prime example symbols of 
Brethren non-conformity. Distinctive dress codes and denunciations o f  all so- 
callcd "worldly" social practices, symbolizing the separation of the faithful 
from thc unrcgcncratc outside world, had been a salient feature o f  the 
traditional rcligious culturc of the Brethren. Brethren communities were, 
however, strongly influenccd by religious renewal movements during the 
second half o f  the nineteenth century and this brought them into closer contact 
with other Christians who placed less emphasis on visible symbols o f  non- 
conformity. As a result, the Brethren gradually replaced specific symbols of 
non-conformity with more general admonitions that Christians lead simple and 
unostentatious lives. The old symbols of non-conformity had separated the 
Brethren from all others, while the new emphasis on a simple virtuous lifestyle 
brought them closer to other evangelical Christians. Then, gradually, as 
Brethren became more prosperous, even this approach was abandoned, and 
emphasis was placed on the spiritual dimensions of life, rather than on any 
outward symbols of simplicity. 

T h e  traditional D i ~ n k e r  doctrine of non-resistance underwent a similar 
transformation as the emphasis shifted from the simple refusal t o  participate in 
war t o  a broader form of Christian pacifism and then to an increased emphasis 
on activist strategies of peace-making and reconciliation. 

Another startling manifestation of synlbolic translation pertained t o  Brethren 
concepts o f  Christian unity. Sameness, exclusivity, purity, and the preservation 
of their own peculiarities were the salient features of traditional Dunker unity. 
Increased contact and co-operation with other evangelicals, resulted in an 
entircly ncw concept of Christian unity, focusing on inter-church cooperation 
and an emphasis on the things which united all Christians. This new, more 
tolerant, concept o f  Christian unity shattered the old rules and practices. 
Diversity, subject only to the unity inherent in an individually interpreted 



Book Reviews 249 

commitment t o  a Christ-centered life, became a notable featurc of Brethren 
life. The Church of the Brethren had once s o ~ l g h t  unity in similarity, but now 
seeks it in the acceptance of diversity. 

These examples raise some troublesome questions which the author sccks 
t o  address in his concluding chapters. If the Church of the Brethren has lost its 
distinctive characteristics, what is the justification for maintaining a separate 
denominational identity? This question i s  made more difficult because the 
Brethren reject all creeds and catechisms, insisting instead that the Bible is the 
only creed they need. Theology, therefore, offers no common focus for an 
increasingly diverse religious society whose main symbols of identity have 
been radically transformed. Even the name "Brethren" has problematic gender- 
related connotations.. Clearly the Brethren have been swept into mainstream 
evangelical Christianity, but many still remember a unique, family-like shared 
heritage ofC'otherness," and feel ~lncomfortable with "the tranquilizing whirlpool 
of contemporary 'hot-tub religion'," (p. 417) and market-driven evangelism 
attuned t o  the latest f a d s  and fashions of American religiosity. 

Bowman acknowledges that Brethren and Mennonites have a shared 
religious heritage, but argues that the cultural transformation of Brethren 
Society has developed further and occurred faster than it has for most 
Mennonite groups. He notes that there was a time when Brethren who sought to 
escape Dunker plain-dress regulations could join a more liberal Mennonite 
congregation. Now, Bowman writes, the liberation migration is more likely to 
flow the other way. It can, however, be argued that plain dress and peculiar 
cultural practices are not the most important featurcs of cithcr Brcthrcn of 
Mennonite societies. Bowman admits that his work docs not focus on major 
twentieth century Brethren pacifist and servicc initiatives. Brcthrcn wcrc, 
however, active in such initiatives, and it is these initiativcs, rathcr than plain 
dress or cultural and ethnic peculiarities, which have strcngthcncd Mcnnonitc 
commitments to Anabaptist concepts of discipleship. Bowman tclls thc story 
of Brethren cultural assimilation into mainstream American cvangelical lifc, 
documenting that it was faster and earlier, and perhaps also somewhat diffcrcnt 
than the experience of other Anabaptist groups. 

T.D. Regehr 
University of Calgary 



William Schroeder and Helinut T. Huebert. Meni701zite Histol-icnl 
Atlcrs. Second Edition. (Winnipeg: Springfield Publishers, 1996). 
Paperback, maps, bibliography, index. 

Many t h o ~ ~ g h t s  course through a person's mind when reading and studying 
an atlas o f  places where Mennonites have lived, established homes, and died 
peacefully with family around them, or from which they too often have been 
roughly uprooted and been forced to, or felt driven to, migrate to other distant 
unfamiliar places. T o  many Mennonites this will be a highly personal atlas. For 
instancc, I find my grandfather's and grandmother's hospital in Waldheim; I 
thinlc o f  Rudy Wiebe's The Blue n/foztrztairzs of Chirzn where the movements 
from contincnt to contincnt surely boggle the minds of readers who know no 
Mennonite history; and I see the farm villages and commercial centres o f  the 
Canadian prairies where many rcadcrs of this journal grew up. Others will have 
thcir own associations. 

The p r i ~ n c  objcctivc of thc two authors, ably assisted by cartographer 
Wcldon Hicbcrt, is to locatc on maps of various scales those places in selected 
parts o f  thc world whcrc Mcnnonitcs have lived, and t o  depict routes they have 
travcllcd in thcir grcat community migrations. The central principle f o r  map 
selcction and broad organization is that profound nexus of Mennonite life, 
South Russia; this includes the movement of people t o  that area, the formation 
o f  communities, settlement distribution in Russia, and then the dispersal of 
Mennonites t o  other parts o f  Russia and distant parts of the world. A cogent text 
effectively tells the story behind tlie maps, and must be studied along with them 
to get the most out of the atlas. 

Much is covered. We start in western and central Europe and the places 
associated with Menno Simons and Mennonite origins, and then continue 
eastward along the North German plain. Next we turn to Russia, later the 
Soviet Union. Half of the approximately 130 maps in the atlas concern 
Mennonite settlements and events in that vast domain. Much of this is a vital 
exercise in information retrieval as the authors turned to various people wit11 
access t o  family and community memory t o  draw maps of particular villages, 
identify w h o  lived on the many lots, and designate institutional, commercial 
and industrial buildings. In many parts of the world, the nineteenth century 
with its railway building, its steam engine, and its increasing commercial 
a g r i c ~ ~ l t ~ l r e  was a time of expansion. No less here, as the maps trace the 
extension o f  Mennonite settlement to many parts of the Russian empire. 
Quickly there follows the heartache of out-migration in the later nineteenth 
century, the horrors of the twentictli century through two World Wars, tlie rise 
and ultimate fall of conlmunism, and the resulting tragedies visited on 
Mennonite communities. Together the maps and concise text provide a sense 
of the ~ ~ t t c r  dislocation and brutality of those tinies in RussiaISoviet Union. 



Book Rei~ie+c~s 25 I 

T h e  migrations from Russia t o  various countries in North and South 
America beginning in the 1870s are clearly depicted and described, including 
the founding of new colonies in Canada and the United States. Within the New 
World, movements o f  many Mennonite comm~lnities, of course, continued for 
a variety o f  reasons, and we learn o f  new settlements in co~lntrics such as 
Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia. Tlie atlas ends with a series of three 
maps locating Aussiedler Mennonite congregations in Germany in 1994, and 
six maps on Hutterian migrations and colonies. 

The complexity of Mennonite movements over the earth, and the ever 
recurring challenges of establishing new settlements in liarsli environments 
(which sometimes proved to be lands o f  lasting difficulty) is driven home in 
this compact atlas. Many years ago, when I was doing field work in Mexico I 
was aslced by some Mennonites, at a time when they were feeling the heavy 
cultural hand of the Mexican authorities, what the settlement capabilities were 
o f  one more possible haven-Greenland. In examining this atlas, I find this is 
one o f  the few major areas in the world that has not been tried. 

In the introduction, the authors make it clear that this is not an analytical 
atlas along thematic lines providing information on population density, fanlily 
size, agricultural production, mission activity, and the many other topics that 
could be pursued. Fair enough: leave that t o  others to map as rcsearch in 
Mennonite studies continues. This compilation, a labour of love in history and 
geography, has accomplisl~ed much and it is appropriate that it remain 
focussed on location and movement. 

In future editions, and I hope they will come, perhaps world maps c o ~ l l d  
show where Mennonite populations were located at sclcctcd critical timc 
periods in the twentieth century. This w o ~ ~ l d  include the cast coast settlements 
in the United States and those in Ontario. The world map at the beginning o f t h e  
atlas, and the map of Mennonites in the Soviet Union about 1870, hint at this, 
and should be carriedfurther. At the same time, at thc other cnd of the scale, the 
authors niigl~t consider showing a few field patterns and land allocations uscd 
in selected villages in Russia, Canada, Mexico and Paraguay, even if only in 
approximate form to indicate how the farm villages functioned. 

Tlie occasion of p ~ ~ b l i s h i n g  this much expanded second edition of the atlas 
in 1996 is the 500th anniversary of the birth o f  Menno Simons, and it is a highly 
worthwhile endeavour. Mennonite history is a story o f  movement, and this is 
an affordable, essential reference source for all students of that history. 

John Warkentin 
York University 



Brian J. Fraser, Tlze Stzidj) ofReligioiz iiz British Colzii?zbin: A Stnte- 
ofl fhe-Art Review Vol. 5 The Stzidy ofReligion in Ccrlzach (Waterloo: 
Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1995). Paperback, 127 pp. 

This little volume is a wcll-written, engaging description o f t h c  history and 
prcscnt statc of the study of religion in British C o l ~ ~ m b i a .  It covers a history of 
just 100 years and is limited t o  institutions in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. 

The survey is offered in three chapters: I )  Origins and Developments; 2) 
Programs and Curricula; 3) Faculty, Research, and Publications. Such an 
arrangement runs the risk o f  repetition but the author generally avoids that 
pitfall. Each chapter deals with the Department of Religion at the University of 
British Columbia (UBC), the conservative evangelical institutions, Regent 
Collegc and Trinity Western University, the Vancouver Scliool of Theology 
(VST), and provides very cursory attention to several other institutions such as 
The Roman Catholic Seminary o f  Christ the King and the Columbia Bible 
Collcge. 

Thc opcning story, both of post-secondary education and the study of 
rcligion in B.C., is sct within thc Canadian context where the differences 
bctwccn Ontario and B.C. arc clcarly identified. Despite its relative institutional 
y o ~ ~ t h ,  thc formal study of religion in B.C. began, as elsewhere in Canada, as a 
programme o f  the church t o  train Christian ministers. These emerged in the 
1890s and ultimately became Union College (United Church o f  Canada), and 
Anglican Theological College in 1927 when both institutions located on the 
UBC campus. These two amalgamated in 1971 as the Vancouver School of 
Theology. 

The "truly critical and objective" study of religion assumed the form of a 
department o f  religious studies at UBC in 1964. The fact that the only 
department o f  religion in British Columbia developed in a secular ~ ~ n i v e r s i t y  
explains in part its relatively minor attention to Christian studies. 

In 1970 Regent College, an energetic theological graduate school for 
conservative evangelicals, came into being on the UBC campus. It, too, had 
anteccdcnt institutions. The last of the four major institutions discussed in this 
survey is Trinity Western University which began its life in Langley in 1962 as 
a theologically conservative, church-sponsored college. In 1979 it received a 
charter with the right t o  grant degrees. 

O f t h e  four institutions only the department at UBC gives major attention to 
religions other than Christianity, and requires no personal religious commitment 
from its faculty. The programines of all the others are designed to train lay and 
clerical lcaders for the churches which support them. While their aims are 
avowedly Christian, a systematic, critical academic approach t o  the study of 
religion is taken for granted by all. The statclnents of faith at Regent and 
Trinity Wcstcrn clearly reveal thc limits within which that study moves. 



Book R e ~ ~ i e w s  253 

The Regent story is by far the most interesting as told by the author, partly 
due to the dynamism of tlie school. It is easily the most successful and visible of 
the four institutions. It is much younger than the VST and represents a modcrn 
version of the shift to a more questioning stancc toward Christian faith which 
the denominations of the VST negotiated a century ago. 

Thus while there is some convergence o f  approach among the theological 
schools, even among them there is very little cooperation, not to speak of the 
department at UBC. All have faculties with graduate training at major North 
American and European universities. The potential for cooperation would 
therefore seem to be great in terms of the variety of specializations and also of 
approach t o  questions of religious phenomena and commitments. Apparently 
theological differences make rapprochement between the VST and Regent 
College difficult, and methodological and philosophical considerations bctwecn 
the theological colleges and the Department o f  Religion at UBC. The descriptions 
also suggest that Regent College and Trinity Western University have far 
clearer ends and means orientation than tlie VST. There is the further 
implication that the theological schools, especially VST, while de jzlre 
graduate schools, are de fcrcto not. That is because many o f  their students come 
with no preparation in religious, specifically Christian, studies, but with a 
variety o f  degrees including professional training. The seminaries are therefore 
required to do catch-up in content and method on what should have been done 
at the undergraduatelevel. Many students therefore begin with new programmes 
instead of building on already established foundations. A truncated version of 
Christian studies is the result, not to speak of anything bcyond that. Thc Roman 
Catholic Seminary of Christ the King is, by coniparison, a truc graduate 
programme of tl~eological studies. 

There are, of course, other institutions whcrc Christian studics havc bccn 
and are being done. Fraser lists a number o f  them such as Columbia Bible 
College in Clearbrook and the Roman Catholic Scminary of Christ thc King 
(1951) now in Mission. The latter school and its preparatory arts faculty arc not 
extensively described in terms o f  their curricula and the publications o f  thcir 
faculty. This appears to be the main gap in this survcy. Okanagan Baptist 
College, which existed in the early years of this ccntury at Summcrland as a 
prep school for tl~eological studies, gets no mention, nor does the existing 
Bible school at Kelowna. Other odds and ends of r e l i g i o ~ ~ s  studies, for instance 
individual courses at Oltanagan University College, are mostly invisible 
because thcy are hidden in other dcpartments such as History and English. Tlic 
author could perhaps not be cxpccted t o  iricludc thcse in this i n s t i t ~ ~ t i o n a l  
survey which makcs it important to mention thcm hcrc. 

This volume, togethcr with the four carlicr volumcs on r c l i g i o ~ ~ s  s t i ~ d i c s  i n  
Alberta (1983), Quebec (1988), Ontario (1992), and ManitobaISasltatcI1c~va1i 
(1993), and, one hopes, anothcr for the Maritime Provinccs, givcs a n  ovcrvicw 
o f  t h e  state of the study of religion in Canada. It adds to thc cvidcncc that 
theological studies still dominate the field. It is by no mcans clcar what the 



significance of this is in a rapidly secularizing society. The author does not 
venture answers. 

Waltcr Klaassen 
Vcrnon, British Columbia 

Anna Ens, In Searclz of Unity: Story of the Conference ofMennonites 
in Mcznitobn (Winnipeg: Canadian Mennonite Bible College 
Publications, 1996). 290 pp. $20.00. 

Harvey Plett, Seeking to be Fnithfirl: Tlze Story of tlze Evangelical 
Mennonite Conference (Steinbach, MB: Evangelical Mennonite 
Conference, 1996). 188 pp. $6.95. 

From the titlcs and introductions, one expects to see methodological 
similarities in these two conference "stories." Harvey Plett's aim is to write "a 
popular but accurate history" for longstanding and new conference members, 
taking "a nontechnical storytelling approach." Anna Ens, presumably writing 
for the average member, presents her information "as much as possible in 
chronological order." But the two books could hardly be more different. 

Ens demonstrates h o w  organizational history can be shaped into a readable 
narrative. She spices up h e r  research with photographs, helpful tables, profiles 
of congregations and comments from individual players in the story, including 
diverse comments from women. She carefully plots the transition from the 
original six Gemeinden (churches made up of several congregations) t o  
today's conference of 52 congregations, tracing the development of institutions 
SLICII as camps, schools, and missions. The book's organization into "structural 
eras" can be frustrating, however, as the stories of particular developments 
keep being interrupted and picked up later in the narrative. 

Plett's book is not the history of an organization, but a rather haphazard 
tale of a small "renewal g r o ~ ~ p "  struggling t o  hold its own against threatening 
forces within and without. Of the 18 chapters, 1 1  deal with beginnings in 
Poland and Russia-the sordid church s q ~ ~ a b b l e s  are presented in a quagmire of 
detail that threatens to implode for lack of context and interpretation. It is not 
clcar whcther Plett's aim is to creatc aLLmyth o f E M C  origins" o r t o  demythologize 
the wholc Russian Mennonite story. Four concluding chapters t o ~ ~ c h  on the 
belicfs and forms o f  the Evangelical Mennonite Conference. One wishes for 
morc. Plett alludes to conflicts over "assurance of salvation" anddispensationalism, 



for example, but never spells them out. The brief dcscription o f  the Holdcman 
division left this reader with many questions. Stcinbach Bible College, the 
conference's major educational institution, is relegated to onc paragraph. 
(Oddly, more space is given to EMC involvement in the public s c l ~ o o l  systcnl.) 

The appendices provide an interesting glimpse of EMC distinctives. The 
"Resolutions o f  1899" have surprising similarities to Old Order Mennonite 
concerns: Sunday schools and "singspirations" are prohibited because they 
"lead away from the simplicity in Christ;" photographs are banned because 
they lead t o  idolatry and " ~ ~ l t i m a t e l y  t o  immorality and L I ~ - C h r i s t i a n  ~narriagcs." 
A 1937 ministerial document urges "a unified headcovering" for women, and 
warns against life insurance and mixed bathing. Unlike most Russian Mennonite 
groups, the EMC continues to include footwashing anlong its ordinances. A 
1995 chart lists the conference's 4 9  congregations in six provinces. ( T h e  
identical chart in the "EMC 1996 Yearbook" lists 53 congrcgations.) 

Conflict i s  also at thc heart of Ens' book, but her sights are f rmly set on 
those impulses leading toward unity and greater tolerance. To this end, she 
wends her way carefully between the aggressive Russlaenderand the intractable 
Bergthalers, trying to find a balance i n  even the most "ugly episodes," such as 
the bitter estrangement of Winnipeg's First Mennonite Church from 1945 until 
1968. Missing is a sense ofthe ferocity andemotional ~ ~ p h e a v a l  that accompanied 
seismic shifts in the conference, such as the dctl~roncment of the Acltcstcr and 
the change from German t o  English. Given Ens' drivc toward unity, i t  is 
surprising that she does not venture farther into intcr-Mcnnonitc relationships 
o r  even the broader Manitoba contcxt. The first chaptcr, "Manitoba, Aboriginal 
People and Mennonites," holds out the promisc of a morc inclusive history, but 
the chapter is really about immigration. Thc relationship, or lack thcrcof; 
between Manitoba Mennonites and their ncighbours-native, Frcnch, Ukrainian 
and Icelandic-may be beyond the scope o f t h i s  book but i t  nccds to bc cxplorcd. 

The EMC story would also have benclilted from more cornmcnt on how 
this small, insular group has related t o  other Mennonites ovcr the ycars. (Tlic 
narrow scope of Plett's story is illustrated by his misleading cquation of 
Manitoba Bergthalers with the Chortitzer Conference, a small scgment of thc 
total group.) Plett does rnention that the Evangelical Mennonite Mission 
Conference sought affiliation with the EMC in the early 1940s, but the EMC, 
"still very cautious about outsiders" after the painful Holdcman split, did not 
invite the visitors to participate in communion. That story nccds updating in 
the light of current cooperation. 

Both thcsc confcrcnce histories cnd in "confessional" pleas to today's 
church, reinforcing tlie sensc of commitment both wriicrs bring to ~ h c i r  
subjects and t o  their story-telling task. 

Margaret Loewen Reinier 
A/ltrlzrzorzite Reporter. 
Kitchener, Ontario 



Piet Visser and Mary S. Sprunger, Merzrio S ~ I ~ Z O I Z S :  Plrces, Portraits arid 
PI-ogerzy (Krommenie, Netherlands: Knijnenberg; Altona, MB: Friesens; 
Morgantown, PA: Masthof Press, 1996). 168 pp. 2 3 ~ 3 0 . 3  cin. 

This is a truly outstanding volume with many virtues and only a few 
wcakncsscs, published scparatcly i n  English, D ~ ~ t c h  and German, in 3,500, 
2,500 and 750 copics rcspcctivcly. It has a good bibliography and a lengthy 
donors list. Although thc book acknowledges tlie wide dispersion o f  the 
Mennonites, it is intentionally limited to the Netherlands, from the sixteenth to 
the eighteenth centuries. 

Part I ,  "In the Footsteps of Menno," begins with an introduction and a map 
of thc Ncthcrlands. In a brief overview the authors offer a few highlights o f  the 
lifc of Mcnno Simons. Realistically, they acknowledge the paucity o f  the 
sourccs. Yct thc story, as thcy tcll it, is rich with mcaning and procccds briskly. 
Ordinarily cach pagc of tcxt is faced with a page, filled with appropriate 
photographs. Thc total impact is powcrful and cxciting. One can read a page at 
a tinic, or browsc t h r o ~ ~ g h  thc cntirc volume, equally appropriate for a coffee 
tablc or a shclf of scholarly books. Thc rcadcrs' general knowledge of 
Mcnnonitc history is assumcd. Such major reformers as Martin Luther, 
Zwingli, and Calvin as wcll a s  "thc hcretic" Melchior Hoffman are not further 
idcntificd; also not spcllcd out is the meaning of "Anabaptism" and the role of 
"Miinstcritc rcbcls" for Menno's life. Menno's life story is outlined in 23 brief 
scctions (14-59) by way o f  reference to locations and dates of significant 
evcnts in Menno's life, such as "Witmarsum, 1496-1523", "Utrecht, 1524," 
and so on. This book tells much about Menno's diligent outreach and the 
territory covered; just noting these locations and the distance between them 
will be not only an experience in geography, but also an eye-opener to Menno's 
inissioi-iary diligence. 

Most sections are introduced with a brief quotation from Menno. Over ii is 
placed a small contemporary photograph of the location under discussion. 
Then follows a short and clear account of the most significant events and 
issues. Although without footnotes, the data are scholarly reliable. Occasionally 
a beautiful sense o f  mystery is added by a too-literal translation from the 
Dutch, such as "the gas is now out of the bottle" (20), "the sudden demise of 
king Jan has deprived tlie first fruit of his pen of any topicality," (28) and 
"having to tie himself in all manner of knots" (48). Care to translate these gelns 
back into tlie original Dutch? 

Mei-ino's life, of c o i ~ i s e ,  was not 8 lighilieai-ied story. Precisely because tlie 
authors do not indulge in praise, allow tlie facts to speak for themselves, and on 
scvcral occasions arc even critical of Menno, the account is somber and deeply 
moving. Givcn tlic state of the historiography, the authors can offer only tlie 
broad-brushstrokc statcmcnt that nlartyred were "tliot~sands" of Menno's 
followcrs." ( 7 )  Indccd, tlic situation was dreadful and as the authors note, there 



Book Reviews 25 7 

was "a fierce hunt for Mennonites." Under such circumstances it i s  not 
surprising that information about Menno is so limited. By disclosing information 
about himself Menno would have facilitated his capture; he was active but 
remained intentionally inconspicuous. Yet while Menno's biography remains 
obscure, we d o  have his numerous publications. I do wish tliat these had been 
not only enumerated, but discussed at greater length; this w o ~ ~ l d  have yielded 
additional biographical information. For example, in his lengthy discussion of 
what it really means t o  preach "at night" (cf. The Cornplete Works, 1956, 634- 
636) we learn a great deal about his faith, courage, and sensitivity. Likewise, it 
would have been in order t o  note Menno's profound knowledge of the Bible as 
well as his remarkable eloquence. 

At tlie same time tlie authors d o  need to be praised tliat their story moves 
rapidly. Occasionally this means that some technical terms remain unidentified: 
Schieringers a n d  Vetkopers (14), sacramentarians ( 1  8) and incarnation (42 
and 48). O n  a few occasions, as noted above, the rather literal translation 
from the Dutch has not provided for greater clarity. Less serious is the 
awkward phrasing o f  the opening sentence, claiming that Menno "was the 
only Reformer native t o  the Netherlands" (7). Something must have been lost 
in the translation or printing. If the authors did not want to include Desiderius 
Erasmus o f  Rotterdam and David Joris, at least Dirk Philips should not have 
been left out. 

I must note, however, that I felt disappointed only at three points in this 
section. First, the authors have not proven that initially Mcnno had "to prcscnt 
a clean slate, bleached of all Munsterite stains and dirt" (1 I). I think tliat thc 
authors are in error when they condescend: "Out of sympathy for him we grant 
Menno the benefit of the doubt a s  an informant" ( 1  1 ) .  Abraham Fricscn, whosc 
work is cited in this book, has carefully shown that Mcnno ncvcr sharcd thc 
Munsterite position. Hence Menno had nothing to "bleach out"! 

Secondly, the authors certainly have a point tliat in thc c o ~ l r s c  of timc thc 
issue o f  discipline did become divisive. But it is inaccurate to gcncralizc that 
"The movement is craclting on all sides" (54). After all, thc movcmcnt did 
survive. Moreover, tlie authors condemn without a scliolarly reflection: " I n  
some letters Menno endeavors t o  rationalize his inability to stay within his own 
boundariesV(56). Which letters? What boundaries? I n  changing circumstances, 
is it necessarily wrong to adjust, even t o  change, one's position'? Thc authors 
criticise, i t  seems, all-too-knowingly: "The always compromising lcader has 
little remaining time. With a gnawing consciencc lie will rcalizc tliat his roll 
[sic!] has been nearly played out" (56). 

Thirdly, the authors offer an evaluation which nccds to bc intcrprctcd. Tlicy 
write, "He has given liis followers their own voicc, but thc reward of his work is 
that his Mennonites have outgrown hini."(58) If Menno is sccn as a pastor and 
teacher o f  liis flock, then these arc words of praise. Howcvcr, Mcnno's ministry 
also had a prophetic dimension. He was a faithful and c l o q ~ ~ c n t  proclaimcr of 
tlie Word of God. Can all this have now been "o~ltgrown"?! 



In addition to their beautiful and valuable text, the authors have also 
supplied an immense number of pictures. In addition t o  the contemporary 
photographs, already noted, the authors provide a truly magnificent spread of 
ancicnt engravings and prints as well. These include title pages of books, maps, 
photos of important buildings, commemorative plaques, portraits and many 
othcr illustrations. While onc can thank the authors for including the only 
cxtant lcttcr in Mcnno's handwriting (47) it is reduced in size ( 8 . 5 ~ 1 3  cm), and 
difficult to read cven with a magnifying glass. 

Thc second section of this book is entitled "The Many Faces of Menno" 
(6 1-105) and contains 147 portraits o f  various sizes, several in colour. The 
introduction by Daniel Horst (62-63) bravely faces the problem ofidentification. 
Namcly, the carliest "likeness" is an engraving by Christoffel van Sichen, done 
45 ycars aftcr Menno's death. As one loolcs over the additional Menno "types" 
by different artists the best that can be said has been noted by Horst: 
increasingly "Menno" looks more and more distinguished. Horst explains, 
"This promotion to church reformer keeps pace with what was then a fairly 
general social elevation of Mennonites in the Netherlands." Thus the image of 
Mcnno's hcad is engraved in our memory and we can say every time, without 
Iicsitation, 'yes, this is Menno Simons"' (63). 

Thc third, final, and most colourful section is entitled "The Changing 
lmagc of Mcnno and the Mennonites in Dutch Art, ca 1535-1740" (107-153). 
Initially the Mcnnonitcs were cruelly persecuted and therefore also ridiculed 
without mercy. In this early period what predominates are engravings of 
torture and executions. This is followed by an age of tolerance. Now art 
celebrates mutual tolerance and begins t o  pay positive attention to the lives of 
ordinary Mennonites. The concluding period (123-153) attests to the great 
social and financial success of Mennonites. The faces of the portraits are 
invariably dignified, the clothing expensive and the colours beautiful. A brief 
and eminently readable summary statement of Mennonite religious life (123) 
is followed by attention to these men-mainly men-who could afford the 
commissioning of their own and group portraits. Indeed, "whatever generated 
the market was painted-heads were money" (142). It is from such aperspective 
that the authors pay virtually all o f  their attention to those who were painted 
rather than to those who did the painting. This is even true in the case of 
Rembrandt (1 606-1 669). His painting o f  the Mennonite merchant and preacher 
Anslo (147) is described in some detail. Inexplicably, the authors do not note 
that in the Genialdegalerie Berlin the painting is entitledG'DerMennonitenprediger 
Anslo ~ i n d  seine Frau, 1641 ." More significant is the omission of any discussion 
concerning Rembrandt's faith. They d o  not develop the observations in The 
hle~zno~zite E~zcyclopedin and Robert Wallace's The Worldof Rernbr-atzdt that a 
very close association had developed between Rembrandt and the Mennonites. 

Howevcr, minor criticisms do not detract from the truly magnificent 
accomplishment which is this book. In story and portrait, quickly and simply 
for those in a hurry, yet with many wonderful references and clues for those 



Book Re~>ie>cls 259 

who want t o  read with care, this volume is a notable contribution t o  thc 
understanding o f  Menno's great accomplishments. 

Egil Grislis 
University o f  Manitoba 

Albert W. Wardin, Jr., Evnrzgelicnl Sectni-inrzisnz in tlze Rrtssinrz 
Enzpir*e nrzd tlze USSR: A Bibliogi-aplzic Gziide (Lanham, M D :  
American Theological Library Association and Scarecrow Press. 
1995). 867 pp. 

This bibliography is the result of many years of tedious work and i s  truly a 
landmark in the evolution of religious scholarship on a country which has had 
such a fascinating, though often tragic, religious history. With the end o f  the 
Soviet Union and its very repressive religious policies in 1990, it is particularly 
fitting that this bibliography covers the entire period o f  Russian and Soviet 
sectarian Christianity until 1990. 

T h e  bibliography is divided into three major sections: I .  Pietistic influences 
and Protestant Missions (1693-1917); 11. Evangclical Sectarianism, (1855- 
1917); 111. Evangelical Sectarianism in thc USSR and Adjoining Tcrritorics 
(1917-1990). Each section begins with a brief foreword and contains Inany 
topical and chronological subdivisions. Various groups (such as thc Mcnnonitcs), 
institutions, societies and individuals are dealt with scparatcly. The bibliography 
lists published works (including many articles in ncwspapcrs and journals) as 
well as unpublished manuscripts, dissertations and othcr matcrials. Scctions 
two and three also identify the major archives in thc formcr Sovict Union and 
the one western collection, the Southern Baptist Historical Library and 
Archives in Nashville, which is identified as "thc most cxtensivc collection of 
materials outside the Soviet Union on evangelical scctarians of thc Russian 
Empire and the USSR." The listing of Russian and related language sourccs is 
extensive. T h e  annotations are also very useful. 

Mennonites slioi~ld, by and large, be very plcased with this additional tool 
for research. Thc listing of Mennonite related material is cxtcnsivc. This is 
particularly true for the Mcnnonitc Brctlircn, wliosc kinship with cvangclical 
scctarians and Eaptists clearly places them within thc main scopc of this 
reference work. In fact, Wardin indicates that tlicrc arc about 200 spccilic 
works cited on thc Mennonite Bretlircn (65), many of which w o ~ ~ l c l  not bc 
found elsewhere. 

The placc o f  Mennonites in the scope o f  s ~ ~ c l i  a rcfcrencc work, howcvcr, 
also creates a dilemma for Wardin. In his Preface (xxiii), Wardin givcs his 



definition of evangelicalism and then states that his "work will therefore, by 
and large, exclude Lutheranism, the Reformed church, and traditional 
Mennonites ...." Such a distinction between traditional Mennonitesand evangelical 
Mennonites is often difficult to maintain and, indeed, if Wardin errs h e  errs on 
tlic side of including more than might be expected. The difficulty, however, is 
that SLICII definitions weave in and out o f  denominational boundaries over time. 

Wardin rightly observes that Mcnnonite Brethren have, until recently, 
made inadequate use of German Baptist and Russian sources (65). With greater 
access to archives in the former Soviet Union that circumstance niay gradually 
be changing, but even the materials that have been available in the West have 
not been used extensively enough. 

Thc work also includes other significant features, such as two extensive 
indices, one on individuals and the other on topics and places. These will be of 
trcmcndous help to scliolars. T h c  individual listings also usually indicate 
where the items can be found, although the list is not comprehensive. Eight 
Mcnnonitc libraries/archives are listed, only one of which is in Canada 
(Mcnnonite Heritage Centre). Abbreviations arc not always consistent (e.g., 
Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives appears either as TNSB 
[xxxv] or SBHLA [68]). Also, a number of items have certainly been missed 
(c.g., I-lcinrich Braun, Bzlndes-Statistic d e r  Vereinigten, Tazfgesinnten, 
n/tennonitisc/7en Brzreder-Getneinde itz Rzrssland, 1905 and 1906). 

One o f  the results of the method used by Wardin is that many items have 
multiple listings and annotations. This creates some redundancy (e.g., Walter 
SawatskylsSoviet Ei~angelicals Since World War / I  is listed at least 3 1 times in 
various sections, each time with complete title and publication details and 
often with annotations). Although this makes the work more user-friendly, 
eliminating the need for cross-referencing, it also makes the work much more 
bulky. Indeed, the binding already showed signs of weakness in the reviewer's 

COPY. 
A I I  in all, this work is without question a very valuable resource and should 

be in the reference section of every Mennonite library. 

Abe D ~ ~ e c k ,  Director 
Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies 
Winnipeg, Manitoba 



Book R e i i e ~ v s  261 

Ernest Sirluck, First Genei-atiorz: An Azitobiogr-aplzy (Toronto: 
University of Toronto Press, 1996). Hardcover. 409 pp. $35.00. 

On the surface, a lengthy autobiography by a Jewish ~lniversity professor 
and controversial administrator o f  the University of Manitoba is hardly a 
subject to arouse the interest o f  a Mennonite reading audience. However, the 
opening chapter entitled simply, "Winkler, 191 8-1935", awakens our interest. 
The chapter is devoted to Sirluck's growing up in the southern Manitoba 
Mennonite town of Winkler and sprinkled throughout the book are additional 
references t o  the benchmarks established by this experience. 

Sirluck grew up Jewish in a prairie town where, as he says, "the doctor, the 
bank manager, the station-agent, a n d  the druggist were of British descent; 
there were eight or nine German Lutheran and as many Russian Jewish 
families; the rest were Mennonites."(3) The extended Sirluck family were 
Jews from Russia and although the numbers of Jews in Winkler were already 
declining during his adolescence, Sirluck still remembers the two-room 
synagogue and the Jewish classes after the "public-school day ended and other 
schoolchildren played baseball o r  hockey."(6) The Sirlucks owned numerous 
enterprises in the community including a store and, after the 1920s, a farm 
bought from Mennonites moving t o  Mexico. 

Through the sensitive Sirluck's eyes we see how Mennonite culture lookcd 
t o  an outsider. When he was five, children on the playground surroundcd him 
and accused him of being "a dirty Jew who had killcd Christ."(S) Morc likcly 
attributable to his petulant nature than his Jcwishncss wcrc thc f r c q ~ ~ c n t  
encounters with the physical p u n i s h ~ n c n t  mctcd out by Mcnnonitc tcachcrs. 
His image of Mennonites is appropriately sum~narizcd by thc dcscription of 
area farm folk. Shopping trips t o  Winklcr were, hc says, "cpitomizcd by thc 
characteristic family procession o f  the area farmcrs comc to town-man 
walking in front, wife in loose floor-length skirt covering lapscd bclly ncxt, 
and the three or four youngest children who had helpcd to brcak hcr body 
trailing behind."(25) Sirluck's adolescence coincides with the rise of Nazi 
Germany and although he suggests that he made hirnself "too much a part of thc 
c o n l n ~ u n i t y  to be really lonely," clearly the 1930s wcrc difficult for him.(I 7 )  
Winkler was a "fertile ground for Nazi propaganda."(20) Mis scnsitivity and 
the lessons "about how precarious the friendship of a Gcntilc for a Jew can be" 
strained his relationships with Mennonite friends. The cntrancc to University 
in 1935 marked thc end of a formal connection to Winltlcr a n d  Mcnnonitcs, 
altlioilgli iliere were sporadic visits to his parcnis and the iiin~ily siorc ihat 
remained in Winkler. 

Even a cursory reading of S i r l ~ ~ c k ' s  Winklcr ycars rcvcals thc complexity 
o f  inter-ethnic relations in a prcdon~inately Mennonite town. Clearly his 
childhood memot-ies reflect the necessity for both Jewish and Mennonite 
parents t o  establish a basis for boundaries between 'LIS' and i t h c n ~ . '  It is also 
apparent that the c o ~ ~ j u n c t u r e  of adolescence and Nazism intensified young 



Sirluck's sensitivity. Sirluck also shows how Mennonitc youths exliibitcd 
contradictory responscs to Nazism. Jack Funk, for instance could claim tliat his 
prcsidency of thc local organization of a pro-Nazi party had "nothing personal 
in it, and I hopc we can stay f r i e ~ ~ d s . "  (22) 

Sirluck's Image of Mennonites rctains a monolithic character. Except for 
thc local Mcnnonitc doctor and mcmber of thc provincial legislature, C.W. 
Wicbc, S ~ r l ~ ~ c l <  rctains an imagc o f  Mennonites as a narrow-minded, religious, 
agrarian pcoplc. The combination o f  their Gcrman and Christian identity 
disposes them to tlie anti-Scmitism. 

Dcspitc his rather negative portrayal of Winkler, Sirluck refers to this past 
throughout thc biography. He reads Srrrcih Binks and is pleased that the author, 
Paul Hiebert, "was a Mennonite,"(41) He refers to Mennonites in Winklcr in 
his coming to t c r ~ n s  with the war. He was touched t o  see many Winkler 
Mcnnomtes" at his father's l'unera1.(263) Sirluck lived most of his life far from 
Winklcr, but he scems unable t o  escape its grasp. He is forced to admit that the 
farm in this Mcnnonitc community "has remained something of an anchor for 
mc and my family." (396) 

Hans P. Wcrncr 
Department of History 
Univcrsity of Manitoba 

Diane Zilnlner~nan Umble, Holding the Line: Tlze Telephone iiz Old 
01.cz'er.Menrzorzite nndAnzish Life (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University 
Press, 1996) Hardback; 192 pp., 35.00 U.S. 

The car, the internal combustion engine, the tractor, electricity, the radio 
and television, computers, nuclear power, birth control, pasteurization, the 
pneumatic tire, fluoride, and the telephone, all technologies thought by many 
t o  increase productivity, leisure, health, and the wealth of the nation, have been 
the subject o f  contentious debate and resistance. Luddites saw in technology 
the very source of their oppression. Marxists have celebrated the emancipatory 
potential o f  technology. These debates, seldom conclusive, are often elevated 
t o  tragic proportions, and find their full expression in such epochal events as 
the Cult~lral Revolution in China o r  Pol Pot's Kampuchea. Utopians, left and 
right, struggle with technology. Tlioreau wrote tliat "Our inventions are wont 
t o  be pretty toys, which distract our attention froni serious things. They are but 
improved mcans to an ~lnimprovcd end." And rcligious communities, like 
cxpcrimcntal socialist statcs, have similarly ennoblcd and chastened tlie 
innovators and uscrs of tcclinology. 



Book Reirieujs 263 

It can be a r g ~ ~ e d  tliat the Anabaptists, Hutterites, Mennonites, and Aniish 
are a barometer of modernity. They are a kind of test market for both the limits 
and potential of technological innovation and diffusion. They stand opposed 
and they embrace. Tliey are both inside and outside the projects of modernity. 
Tliey define the limits of menibersliip by degrees of teclinological innovation; 
tliat is, the civil society starts and stops with technology itself or wliat is made 
possible by it. Hutterites, clearly among the most technologically sophisticated 
in the history o f  farming, marvel at the simplicity of the Old Orders and their 
"English-speaking neighbors." From automated kitchens to factory hog production, 
these colninunal peoples took the covenant seriously. They built a kingdom 
with sweat and technology, lots of it. A senior minister among the Hutterites 
once told m e  tliat "if Joseph had had a Lear Jet, he'd never have taken a 
donkey." A Hutterite farmer quipped, "technologically, the Old Orders are 
wliat we are not, though we do like to visit them." They become the exotic 
"other" in tlie Anabaptist mix. 

For the Old Orders, the Hutterites may b e  seen as tergiversators. For the 
"modern" Mennonites, these are communities o f  dissenting distant cousins, to 
be occasionally visited; they are the sacred sites, where one can experience 
authenticity. O r  perhaps they are merely a means to spice up a dull dish. One 
can even imagine a kind of technological teleology running from the yeoman 
households of tlie Old Order Mennonite and Aniish to the industrial farming of 
tlie Hutterites. And there are certain ironies. The Hesston Corporation, for 
example, a giant farm implement manufacturer now owned by multinationals, 
was brought into being by technology and c o m n ~ ~ l n i c a t i o n s  wary conscrvativc 
Church of God in Christ (Holdeman) Mennonites. Onc could writc the history 
of Anabaptism a s  an Armageddon for o r  against tlic cvcr expanding and 
encroaching means of production: thc thrcc-ficld systcm, tlic tractor, thc 
telephone-from farm field to d o ~ n i c i l c .  

T h e  metaphor is apt, but in tlie Anabaptist cottage industry crcatcd by Johns 
Hopkins University Press, Holding the Litle: The Tele/~/10t1e it7 0 1 1 1  Ot.det. 
Mer~tzo~zite nrld Arnish L f e ,  by Diane Z i r n ~ n e r m a ~ i  Umblc, is a disappoirltment. 
She sets herself tlie task o f  providing a ncw account, not just of the tclcphonc 
among conservative Anabaptist con~niunities, but a more general attcnipt to 
c r i t i q ~ ~ e  conventional understandings of technology diffusion, acceptance, and 
resistance. Umble seeks to c a p t ~ ~ r e  the c o m m ~ ~ n i c a t i v c  process, what she calls 
the "web o f  c o r n m ~ ~ n i c a t i o n , "  in the quotidian acts of ritual. She writes that 
habitual comnlunication among the Old Order Amish and Mcnnonitcs was 
s t r ~ ~ c t u r e d  by the rituals of worship, of silence, of work, and of visiting, and was 
anchorcd in the home. Tlicsc pattcrns of communication built and maintained 
strong, primal-y relationships within tlic circlc of church l i k .  Evcn whcn Old 
Order people interacted with tlicir "English" neighbors, their drcss, dialect, 
and identification with the church rcniinded tlicm wlicrc they belonged. 

These everyday acts create, maintain, and transform tlic borders within and 
among communities and with the "outside" world arid, most important, 



instantiate cultural identity. For reasons not altogether clear, perhaps convenience 
o r  acquaintance, she picks the Old Order Mennonite and Old Order Amish in 
Lancaster County, PA. Indeed, the book's strength-the use of comparative 
cascs-bccomcs its ccntral weakness. Though a comparative method is implicit 
in tlic sclcction of two groups-the Old Order Amish and Mennonite-we are 
ncvcr trcatcd to an explication of its logic, design, o r  clear application. Tlie 
first chaptcr, an attclnpt at providing a coherent theoretical framework or 
argument, rcads like a literature review from a doctoral dissertation. Here we 
arc Icd through a labyrinth of anthropology, communication theory, sociology, 
and liistory, all in an effort to tease out a framework that will allow for tlie 
examination of "tlie telephone in the context of social practices and shift the 
thcorctical focus to questions about the meaning oftlie telephone. An emphasis 
on tlic meaning of thc telephone provides the theoretical space for the analysis 
o f  adoption of thc instrulnent and resistance to i t "  (19). Thereafter theory 
makes only camco appearances that cling on the narrative like gypsy moss. 

What is missing in tlic narrative are the myriad ways that the telephone is 
niadc meaningful in everyday lifc. There are no voices and no conversations. 
T h c  focus of thc narrative is on church schism and internal disputes over the 
adoption of tclcplionc technology. And though important gaps in church 
history may havc bccn fillcd by this study, the everyday use of the phone, and 
thc construction o f  mcaning and idcntity around it is a project unfulfilled. For 
those socialized into the canon of Anabaptist ethnography and history, chapters 
two and three can be skipped. These are the all too familiar tropes, almost 
liturgical, presenting the canonical ethnos from the Reformation t o  the present, 
the struggle with modernity, potentate, nature, war, and religious orthodoxy. 
Tlie rest of the story, embellished with anecdotes from church histories, 
newspapers, occasional interviews, and local publications, is a thoughtfill 
account of schism. And for those interested in schism, tliis book is worth a good 
read. For those interested in the telephone, the construction of meaning and 
identity around and through it, tliis will be a great disappointment. 

Jeffrey Longhofer 
Department o f  Sociology/Anthropology 
University o f  Missouri-Kansas City 



Book Re~de>c~s 265 

David Bergen, A Year- of Lesser (Toronto: Harper Collins, 1996). 
Paperback, 2 15 pp., $16.00 Cdn. A novel. 

This arresting first novel by David Bergen marks a radical dcparturc from 
the more traditional forms of Mennonite novel we have grown accustomed to. 
Although t h e  village of Lesser is situated in the heart of Mennonite country 
(Steinbach/Landmark/Grunthal) in south-eastern Manitoba, it deals with 
Mennonite characters and lifestyles which Mennonite readers over forty will 
have trouble accepting as "Mennonite" or relating t o  as a Mennonite world. 
Within an atmosphere of charisniatic Christianity that seems too contrived at 
times t o  be believable, this cast of Mennonite characters, from teenagers to the 
middle-aged, g o  their sinful ways, smoking pot, drinking heavily and fornicating 
with casual abandon. 

The central character is Johnny Fehr, a thirtiesh, rather hapless feed supply 
salesman whose compassionate nature has led him to set up and run, in his 
spare time, a youth centre for Lesser adolescents. Johnny's own life is 
complicated by a king-sized libido which drives him in and out of relationships 
with women, including Charlene, his alcohol-ridden wife whom he still loves, 
and Loraine, a widow who runs her own chicken farm and becomes his obliging 
mistress. Johnny's other obsession i s  spiritual and takes the form of a strong 
lust for conversion and redemption, the more dramatic the better. Thc point, of 
course, i s  that his sexual and spiritual needs are intertwined with each other and 
together keep him on a self-obsessed quest t o  expcricncc the ultimatc high. As 
he says t o  his wife at one point: "I've known joy. Not all thc tinic and niaybc 
never f o r  very long, but I've known joy." 

Beneath his thougl~tlessly exploitative ways and sclf-indulgent lifcstylc, 
Johnny Fehr i s  that familiar figure in litcraturc, thc beautiful loscr o r  dcspiscd 
Christ figure, the holy fool who is liatcd prcciscly bccausc hc is at hcart 
innocent, loving, compassionate and utterly lacking i n  pridc o r  worldly 
dignity. In the words o f t h e  novel, "Hc is easy, a likable and gulliblc fool." The 
trouble is that tlie holy fool, because o f  his vcry innocence, his lack o f  
guardedness, his vulnerability to others, not only gcts hurt by othcrs but is 
himself the cause of others being hurt and defeated. 

The first t o  g o  down is Charlene, the wife, who through her alcoliolic haze 
still loves Johnny even as the bottoni drops out of her world when she discovers 
that Johnny lias gotten Loraine pregnant. Unable to havc a baby hcrsclf, which 
she desperately wants, Charlcne, in effect, is consumcd i n  thc firc of hcr own 
unhappiness. Loraine, who is tougher and a survivor, lias Johnny's baby and 
trics to domesticate him, but ultimately shc too has troublc tbrgiving Johnny 
for who and what he is. Therc arc younger victims as wcll. Lorainc's tccn-agc 
son Chris also gets his girlfriend Melody pregnant. When shc turns to Johnny 
for help in getting a secret abortion, he responds and drivcs hcr to Fargo, across 
the American border, on tlie very day, it turns out, that Loraine gives birth to 
her child. In the end, Melody turns into a kind of religious zombic under tlic 



care o f  Phil, the evangelist, while young Chris disappears, feeling embittered 
and betrayed. 

David Bergen is a fine young writer with a promising career ahead of him. 
Like all good writers of fiction he knows how to bring his fictive world alive 
through vivid imagery, carefully observed details and narrative situations that 
point with prccision and incvitability t o  meanings larger than themselves. The 
novel is fill1 of shrewd insights and wise observations on the human condition. 
Bergen's Mennonite sensibility asserts i t s e l f t h r o u g h o ~ ~ t  in its ~ ~ n c o m p r o m i s i n g  
honesty and lack of pretentiousness, in its gritty sense of realism that never 
fakes glamor, and above all in its affirmation of the beautiful loser who 
snatclics greedily at the joy o f  redemption and the gift of grace. 

And yet, it is as a "Mennonite" novel thatA Year oflesser is at its weakest. 
The charismatic Christianity, as embodied by Phil Barkman, is not quite 
believable as growing out o f  Mennonite religious roots and practices. I n  spite 
o f  his Mennonite Brcthren ministry (baptism by immersion) Phil lives a little 
too serenely in a world of teenage pregnancies and backsliding, drinking and 
philandering sinncrs like Johnny Fehr. It is left to a non-Mennonite academic, 
Michael the physicist, to expose for Johnny's benefit, the spiritual posturing 
and hypocrisies practised in this Mennonite community. But there is never a 
rcal scnsc of this Mennonite world having grown out of a more traditional one. 
Instcad, it seems somehow culturally and spiritually disembodied from what 
most of us would recognize as a Mennonite community with a Mennonite set o f  
values and beliefs. And yet, David Bergen is a writer of such searing intensity 
and naked honesty that one hesitates t o  dismiss his fictive world as having no 
counterpart in the actual world. Perhaps this talented young writer simply sees 
more deeply into our current culture than the rest of us do. 

A1 Reimer 
Phoenix, Arizona 

Gloria Neufeld Redeltop, Tlze Wor-k of Tlzeii- Hands: Merirzonite 
Wor7ieii 's Societies irz Cnnnclcr (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University 
Press, 1996). Paperback, xvi + 172 pp., $24.95. 

Historically, women have responded in three ways to thcir exclusion fro111 
rolcs and institutions reserved for men. Some woliien chose to acquiesce t o  the 
barricrs placed before them. Sonic actively resisted the fact that some doors 
were closcd to thcm by v i r t ~ ~ e  of their sex. A third group of women created their 
own organizat~ons and structi~res in which they could carry out activities and 
exhibit abilities that were disallowed in the Inale domain. 



Book Reijie~vs 267 

It is this third response which is explored in Gloria Neufeld Rcdckop's 
historical study of Mennonite women's societies i n  Canada. Redckop's main 
proposition is that women's societies (Ver-eir~e in G c r ~ n a n )  functioned as a 
"parallel church" for Mennonite women who were dcnicd lcadcrship roles in 
the church. In this gendered context, women could "speak, pray, and creatively 
give expression to their own understanding of the biblical message" (1). 

Although the title is general, Redekop limits her investigation to women's 
societies of the two largest denominational groups of Russian Mennonite 
background, namely, those of the Conference of Mennonites in Canada and the 
Canadian Mennonite Brethren. Her findings are based in large part on a 
detailed survey sent t o  304 women's groups in 1988, with a notable return rate 
o f j u s t  over 6 0  per cent. Redekop's conclusions are thus founded on s ~ ~ b s t a n t i a l  
quantitative analysis o f  her surveys, supplemented by published histories of 
women's groups, c h ~ i r c h  records, and periodical literature. 

Redekop offers interesting descriptive detail on the changes over time in 
the naming of organizations, their stated purposes, chosen biblical mottoes, 
and primary activities. She follows the emergence of women's societies 
beginning i n  the 1870s, their "flowering" in the 1950s and 1960s, and decline 
from the 1970s t o  the present. Well informed by the fields of Canadian 
women's a n d  church history, this study shows that Mennonite societies 
experienced an evolution similar to that of other Protestant wornen's societies. 

Especially interesting is Redekop's attempt to understand changc in 
women's societies in the context of the evolution of womcn's rolcs in 
Mennonite society. Thus, she attributcs thc flourishing of womcn's groups i n  
the fifties a n d  sixties in part to an ideological cmphasis on "homemaking, 
motherhood, and subordination in church and homc" ( 6 1 )  that rcstrictcd 
women's roles in the church. Siniilarly, Rcdckop rclatcs thc dcclinc of 
women's societies in numbers and activity in rcccnt dccadcs t o  womcn's 
increased e ~ n p l o y m e n t  o ~ ~ t s i d e  the homc as well as their gradual acccptancc 
into traditionally male-dominated aspects of c h u r c l ~  lifc. 

While there is substantial evidence of both change and continuity in 
women's societies, I wish that Redekop had pushcd at the analytical cdgcs a bit 
harder. O n e  wonders particularly about the relationship bctwccn women's 
societies a n d  the churches they served as auxiliaries. What are thc implications 
o f  the fact that some church buildings were constructed in largc part using thc 
financial resources generated by womcn's work? tlow wcrc womcn's socictics 
affected by the decreasing cmphasis o f  Mennonite relief organizations on thc 
material aid produced by women? And how was Mcnnonitc nonrcsistancc 
understood by women who scwcd and knit for soldicrs ovcrscas during both 
world wars'? Waslis there anything s ~ ~ b v e r s i v c  a b o ~ ~ t  Mcnnonitc womcn's 
societies, as some theorists o f  womcn's c u l t ~ ~ r e  and separatc spaccs would 
argue? 

Redekop is t o  bc commended for her pioneering work on this topic. A n  
important addition to the growing canon o f  Mennonite womcn's history, this 



book raises, if not always explicitly, a range of intriguing q ~ ~ e s t i o n s  regarding 
women's religious experience and the place of women's work within the 
institutional structures of Mennonite relief and fundraising. 

Marlcnc Epp 
University of Watcrloo 

C. Arnold Synder, Anabaptist H i s t o ~ y  and Tlzeology: An Introdziction 
(Kitchener, Ontario: Pandora Press, 1995). Paperback, 434 pp, 
$35.00 US/$38.00 Cdn. 

C. Arnold Synder, A t z ~ b ~ z p t i s t  Histoy) and Theology: Abridged 
Stzidetz t Edition (Kitchener, Ontario: Pandora Press, 1995). Paperback, 
269 pp, $25.00 US/$28.00 Cdn. 

S c l f - p ~ ~ b l i s h c d  by thc author, this is a useful textbook on the history and 
thcology of Anabaptism. The larger edition is intended for the academic 
community, while the abridged edition is suggested for college students, 
church study groups, and lay readersgenerally. Thelargeredition is comprehensive, 
detailed, and well written. To this reviewer it is not clear why an abridged 
student edition is needed. Surely, students and other educated readers can 
appreciate and benefit from the larger edition. 

This book, according t o  the author, seeks t o  synthesize Harold S. Bender's 
so-called "normative Anabaptism" and the later revisionists, the "polygenesis" 
historians who argued that Anabaptism originated in various European centres 
independent of the Swiss Brethren. As Snyder states in the Introduction: 
"...this text is an attempt at a new synthesis and organization of the historical 
and theological material, and an attempt to integrate insights from different 
(and sometimes antagonistic) historical methodologies"(3). Quite appropriately, 
Snyder uses the quilt analogy t o  illustrate his methodology. He wishes to 
weave (111 the appropriate threads o f  Anabaptist life and thought into a "word 
tapestry." In doing so Snyder claims t o  ignore the old quarrel between the so- 
called "secular" historians and the theologians. Instead lie seeks t o  emphasize 
the many and vario~is factors-social, political, economic and re!igio~s- 
which shaped the Anabaptist movement. Taking into account the recent work 
o f  scholars s ~ ~ c h  as Joyce Irwin and Linda Huebert Hecht, Snyder also i n c l ~ ~ d e s  
in his nan-ativc thc significant roles women played (or were not allowed to 
play) in the Anabaptist story. This is a w c l c o ~ n c  and long overdue corrective in 
Anabaptist scholarship. Regrettably, these sections are significantly shortened 



~ o o k  Re~ie\vs 269 

in the abridged edition, to the detriment, no doubt, of the importancc of this 
subject of study. 

While Snydergenerally succeedsin writinga balanccdhistory, he ncvcrthclcss 
tips his hat in the direction of the "secular" historians and tcnds to cxcludc, or 
just allude to, the work of historians who like Bender stressed an "Anabaptist 
vision" for Mennonites today. For example, Thomas Miintzer (who w a s  not an 
Anabaptist and was criticized by the Swiss Brethren as early as 1524, and 
whose militarism was rejected by the South German Anabaptists) i s  treated in 
great detail as one who had a great influence on the Anabaptist movement; 
indeed, he almost appears as its veritable father. Snyder appears to go out of his 
way to "correct" Bender on this point. Ironically, Snyder's (and the revisionists') 
interpretation of Miintzer and Anabaptism is as old as Luther's and Bullinger's, 
historically incorrect, view of the Anabaptists as thc progeny of Miintzer and 
the Zwicltau Prophets. The work of scholars such as Abraham Friesen, who 
interpret Miintzer less sympathetically, and in my opinion more accurately, is 
more o r  less ignored in this text. 

Menno Simons, on the other hand, i s  portrayed as a weak leader, dominated 
at times by fellow-elders, and vacillating in his theological views. Moreover, 
Menno is shown as one obsessed with the idea of "purity" which, according to 
Snyder, led t o  legalism among Mennonites (346-47). While Menno may 
appear legalistic, especially through late twentieth-century lenses, many of his 
writings, including his letters t o  individuals, breathe a spirit of humility, love 
and concern for the survival of Anabaptist-Mennonites. Snyder i s  cspccially 
harsh in his discussion o f  shunning (the ban) in Mcnno's ministry. Without a 
shred o f  evidence, in fact contradicting Menno's own words, Snydcr statcs: 
"Altho~lgh Menno denied that such shunning was a 'divorce' ... thc distinction 
was a fine o n e  indeed: marital shunning was ade.fnc/o diiloi.ce - a divorcc in all 
but name" (286). We know that the practice of martial avoidance occupicd 
Menno to the end of his life and was most painful to him. Neverthelcss, he 
believed that h e  acted scripturally and in his writings hc cmphasizcd that 
shunning ought to bring the sinning member back t o  congregational fellowsl~ip. 
In Menno's thinking marital shunning was certainly no divorce. 

There are important recent studies that portray Menno's concern for a "pure 
church" more positively than this book does. Egil Grislis of the University of 
Manitoba, f o r  example, has written numerous articles on Mcnno Simons, 
including articles on Menno and Pauline theology, on Mcnno and "good 
works", on Menno's concern for New Testament moral purity, Menno and thc 
Lord's Supper: and on Mcnno's rnonophysitc views concerning Christ's 
incarnation (see Jozir-nnl of Mei~i~oizite Stzrdies, Vols. 5, 8, 9, 10 and 1 I ). Thcrc 
is no reference t o  thesc articles i n  the text nor arc tlic articlcs and thc journal in 
which they appear included in Snydcr's bibliography. Morcovcr, cvcn Mcnno's 
strict puritanism has been shown as an aspect in Menno's thcology which 
attracted especialIj~ women both to Menno and to Anabaptism (see, for 
example, Adela D. Torchia, "Purity and Perscvcrancc: Mcnno Simons' 



Understanding of Practical Holiness and Early Anabaptist Women," JMS. Vol. 
12). All this is not to say that Menno and other Anabaptist leaders were above 
reproach. It is t o  say, however, that their "weaknesses" and "failure" need t o  be 
dcscribcd fairly within the context o f  their time and stated intentions. 

Snyder's book includes a useful index, a fairly extensive bibliography of 
primary and (sclcctcd) secondary works, maps, and copies of pictures of 
pcrsons and places. However, both tlie type and the black and white pictures 
arc o f  poor quality. Throughout my review copy therc are lines that are 
smudged and hard to make out, and in Chapter 4 endnotes 32 to 38 (i.e. pages 
65-66) are missing. There are also numerous typos and spelling errors. This 
otherwise useful text should have been published by an established press, 
which might have prevented many o f  the above deficiencies. 

Harry Loewen 
tielowna, British Columbia 

David T. Priestley, ed., Menzory und Hope: Strnizds of Cnizndiniz 
B ~ p t i s t  History (Waterloo: Canadian Corporation for Studies in 
Religion, 1996). Paperback, viii + 21 1 pp. 

A Baptist Heritage Conference at the North American Baptist College in 
Edmonton in 1990 brought together leaders and scholars from all but one o f t h e  
dozen or so national Baptist bodies in Canada. The 14 essays that make up this 
volume resulted from this gathering. T h e  bulk of the papers deal with the 
various movements and structures that have linked, and divided, Canadian 
Baptists over their 200 plus years in what is now Canada. T w o  prominent 
"strands" that occur in numerous essays are ~ ~ n i t y  and identity. 

That these two issues should persist is not surprising, given the dual 
European origins of Baptists in the Puritan movement of seventeenth c e n t ~ ~ r y  
England and the continental Radical Reformation of the sixteenth. This gave 
rise t o  t w o  distinct theological orientations in tlie Calvinist (Particular) and 
Armenian (General) Baptist groupings. In North America, including the 
Maritime region of Canada, Baptist origins were closely linked to the Great 
Awakening. This provides an on-going inciination toward current American 
evangelicalism. 

Caught LIP in the fitndamentalist-modernist controversy of the 1920s, 
Canadian Baptists cxpcricnccd major scliismsovergeneral theological orientation 
rather than over Baptist distinctives, such a s  regenerate c l i ~ ~ r c h  membership 
and believers baptism. One stream thus moved in thc ecumenical, mainstream 



Book Reviews 2 71 

Protestant direction, publishing a hymnal in 1936 that was virtually identical to 
that of the United Church, and joining the CanadIan Council of Churches in 
1944, the very year of its formation. That connection faltered over the 
development of the United C I ~ L I ~ C I I ' S  IICW Sunday School curric~llum in the 
1960s. The Baptist withdrawal from the Canadian Council of Churches and 
affiliation with t h e  Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in thc 1980s signaled the 
latest direction. 

Like Mennonites, some Baptist groups have retained North American 
denominational connections which, t o  a considerable degree, counteract 
national Canadian ties. The body with most parallels t o  Canadian Mennonite 
experience is t h e  North American Baptist Conference (formerly German 
Baptist Conference), the focus of two essays in this collection. In western 
Canada especially, the character oftliis group was shaped by German immigrants 
of the 1870s and prolonged by the large new immigration of ethnic Germans in 
the 1920s and the years after World War 11. As its title indicates, the NABC 
remains a North American, rather than a Canadian body. 

O f  particular current interest is the recent formation of a Canadian 
Convention of Southern Baptists. It resulted from dissatisfaction in some 
Canadian Baptist circles "over the powerful interdenominational para-church 
groups which recruited Baptist young people and financial resources for their 
projects, yet refrained from supporting denominational programs" (1 00). It is, 
thus, seen by its current champions a s  symbolizing doctrinal rather than 
national loyalty. 

Mennonites will find in Baptist history many themcs that parallel their 
own: a struggle between congregational and denominational autonomy; a 
balance between ecumenical opcnncss and courageous sharing of uniquc 
denominational distinctives; the role o f  the Canada-US border; and, perhaps 
most of all, the challenge of living in a fanlily of a dozen siblings that are not 
ready to unite. 

Adolf Ens 
Canadian Mennonite Bible College 
Winnipeg, Manitoba 



.? 72 J O I I I . I I N /  oi'h4et111011ite Studies 

Elizabeth Bloomfield, Wczterloo T o ~ ~ n s h i p  Tlzrough Two Ceizturies 
(Kitchener, ON: Waterloo Historical Society, 1995). 

Jacob Guenter, et.al., Hagzre-Osler Metzizoizite Reserve, 1895-1995 
(Hepburn, SIC: Hague-Osler Reserve Book Committee, 1995). 

Contrasting historical circumstances enabled Mennonites to establish 
largc, rclativcly compact settlements in both Waterloo Township, Ontario and 
the H a g ~ ~ e - O s l e r  Mennonite Rescrve of Saskatchewan. Anniversaries associated 
with each o f  these settlements have produced two historical volumes, Waterloo 
Towrzslzip Tlzroziglz TWO Cerztziries and Hague-Osler n/leizizoizite Reserve, 1895- 
1995. 

T h c  Mennonite settlement in Block Nunlber Two of the Six Nations Indian 
lands on the Grand River, renamed Waterloo Township in 18 16, is sometimes 
referred t o  as the first Mennonite bloc settlement in Canada. A syndicate o f  
Mennonites from Lancastcr County, Pennsylvania, purchased 60,000 acres 
from a land speculator, Richard Beasley, in 1805 and resold s~lbdivided lots to 
settlers. Dr. Elizabeth Bloomficld describes three eras of development and 
changc that followcd that purchase, culminating in the dissolution of Waterloo 
Township a s  a political cntity in 1972. 

Most o f  the founding settlers of Waterloo Township were Mennonites, but 
some were River Brethren (also known as Tunkers o r  Dunlcards, and later 
Brethrcn in Christ). Other families belonged to the Amish, United Brethren, 
Moravian, Schwenkfelder, Swedenborgian, Quaker, Methodist and Lutheran 
churches. T h e  first Roman Catholic settler is believed to have arrived in 1829. 
By 1861, almost 20 percent of the total population in Waterloo Township was 
Roman Catholic. Another 29 percent were Lutheran and 22 percent were 
~ e n n o n i t e .  T h e  Mennonite share remained relatively constant until the 1930s 
when it gradually dropped, reaching 19 per cent in 194 1 , 1 3  percent in 1961 and 
1 I percent in 1971. Waterloo Towizslzip Tlzrozrglz Two Ceiztzrries is a fascinating 
and attractive illustrated study of all the groups o f  people who lived in 
Waterloo Township during thc period of Bloomfield's s t ~ l d y .  

The Hague-Osler Mennonite settlenient on the South Saskatchewan River 
in Saskatchewan was a group movement of Mennonites from Manitoba ~ ~ n d e r  
the auspices of the Old Colony Mennonite c h ~ ~ r c h .  Bishop Johan Wiebe and 
Superintendent Franz Froese met with the Canadian Minister o f  the Interior in 
1894 in Winnipeg, and r e q ~ ~ e s t e d  the reservation of land in the west to establish 
daughter settlements. This led to the creation of a reserve of four townships by 
ordcr in council early in 1895, to which was added a fifth township by order in 
council on 24 .lunc, 1898. Another five townships adjoining this reserve to the 
east werc sct aside by order of the C o n ~ n ~ i s s i o n e r  of Dominion Lands on 19 
August, 1898, in ordcr to a c c o m ~ n o d a t c  more Mennonite settlers. Later i n  the 
same year an area of 1 1 townships adjacent to the northern edge of the original 



Book Rel~ieb~s 2 73 

reserve was set aside for Mennonite homesteaders for five years. The Hague- 
Osler Mennonite Reserve Book Committee provides short histories of somc 34 
villages and "agglomerated settlements" that wcrc established by 1905. The 
Committee provides longer histories o f  the "trading ccntrcs" of Warman, 
Hague, Osler and Martensville. 

The pioneer families of the Hague-Osler Mennonite Reserve were almost 
exclusively Mennonite and this book is written for their descendants. T h e  
Book Committee gathered "stories o f  our people" (669) and photographs that 
would encourage readers "to examine their past, to reflect upon their current 
condition and to reaffirm their faith" (702). These stories include pressures t o  
assimilate, imposition of secular education, difficulties confronted by pacifists 
during the two world wars, tlie drought and deprcssion of the 1930s, changes in 
farming technology, and "temptations of affluence" (iii). 

Both IYater-loo To~vrzslzip and Hngue-Osler are products created within 
distinct contexts for specific rnarkei,~. The Waterloo Historical Society, which 
sponsored the Waterloo book, is an establislied secular organization with 
limitedMennonite membership. Accordingly, the Society hireda non-Mennonite 
with strong academic credentials t o  write a detached, analytical study in the 
context of Ontario history. T h e  resulting work appeals to a cross-section o f  
people interested in Ontario political, religious, social and genealogical 
history. It received the Scadding Award of Excellence from the Ontario 
Historical Society in 1996. 

The Hague-Osler Boolc Committee, on the other hand, is a grass-roots 
organization of Mennonite local historians without outsidc institutional s ~ ~ p p o r t  
o r  financial backing. Accordingly, the Comniittcc uscd tlicir own talcnts and 
networks t o  assemble anecdotal storics and photographs from many contributors 
relating narrowly to Russian Mennonite history. I was s ~ ~ r p r i s c d  to notc, for 
example, that there was no mention of Louis Ricl or Almighty Voicc. The 
resulting pictorial history has limited appcal to pcoplc without roots in thc 
Hague-Osler community. its strengths lie in uniquc dctails of oral history 
which are recorded here for the first time, and tlie photographs which documcnt 
many aspects o f  Russian Mennonite life. I found the i n c l ~ ~ s i o n  of many 
photographs of physically challenged persons especially interesting. One 
rarely sees this side of Mennonite life in Canada. 

Both books have been well received in their respective communities. 
Waterloo To~jrzship is sold out and will be reprinted. Hagzre-Osler has already 
been reprinted. 

Reg Good 
Historical Research and Writing 
Archival Management 
Waterloo, Ontario 



The P~.eser.vings. Steinbach, M B  : Hanover-Steinbach Historical 
Society. Biannual Newsletter, 1993- 1996. 

T h e  efforts of the Mennonites in the Hanover Steinbach Historical Society 
of Manitoba, Canada, have produced some noteworthy results, including their 
ncwslettcr,Presei~tings, now underrcview here. Begun in 1988, the organization's 
purpose is "to research and write the history and heritage of the R.M. [Rural 
Municipality] of Hanover and the Town of Steinbach. The emphasis i s  on the 
period 1874- 19 10. Through p ~ ~ b l i c  meetings, writings and publications it seeks 
to foster an understanding and respect for the rich heritage of the community." 
(loose sheet, Dec. 1995) 

This clearly stated focus is on the Russian Mennonite immigrants of the 
1870s, the so-called "Kanadier" Mennonites, who came t o  the Manitoba East 
Reserve as two distinct groups. The Bergthaler were from near the Sea o f  Azov, 
a daughter colony of the Chortitza o r  so-called "Old Colony" settlement in 
Southern Russia, now Ukraine. Today this group is primarily represented by 
the Sommerfelder and Chortitzcr groups. The second immigrant group was the 
Klcinc Gcmcindc, a small reform movement in the Molotschna Colony in 
southcrn Russia. Today in Canada this group i s  called the Evangelical 
Mcnnonitc Confcrcncc. 

This publication, thc rcsult of current interest in local history, is growing 
rapidly. From the modest first issue of January 1993 (6 pp.) t o  the two-part 
behemoths o f  June (1 24 pp) and December 1996(148 pp), the term "newsletter" 
appears inadequate to describe the size o f  this publication. Although under the 
impetus and sway o f  editor Delbert F. Plett, a lawyer and historian in 
Steinbach, Manitoba, these issues contain pieces by many persons. A serendipitous 
conjunction of Plett's interests, computerized word processing, graphics 
software, and the writing abilities of contributors has resulted in a commendable 
legacy. W e  also learn (June 1996, pt. 2 , 2 )  that the publication is funded in part 
by the "D.F. Plett Foundation Fund." 

Many o f  the pieces are biographical-written by descendants, but other 
topics help broaden the appeal. Examples are "Researching Pioneer Families" 
(June 1996, part 2, p. 39), "Mennonite Burial Customs" (June 1996, pt. 2, 48). 
A few articles are by university-based historians (eg.: Royden Loewen, 
"Elisabeth Rempel Reimer: Immigrant Woman," Dec. 1995, 2). Apparently 
Mr. Plett has reserved the translations of primary source docunlents for his 
equally hefty monographs, for one finds few of these in the newsletter. One 
discovers the u s ~ ~ a l  tidbits of information: reunion announcements, the fact 
that pop music star John Denver has Kleine Gemeinde ancestors (June 1996, pt. 
1, 30), tours to the Russian homeland of the Kleine Gemeinde led by Delbert 
Plett (June 1996, pt. 1, 1 I ) ,  book reviews, and numerous illustrations. 

Scholars, especially those in the areas of social history and follclore, will 
gain benefit from p ~ ~ b l i c a t i o n s  such as this newsletter-empowered by the 
forces o f  genealogy and local history. Such scholars should remove any 



Book Rei~ierts 2 75 

blinders of disdain in order t o  utilize the rich treasures which are exemplified 
in Preseivirzgs. In turn, the editor of the newsletter could broadcn its usc by 
making some alterations. For example, tlie long-tcrni i ~ s c f i ~ l n c s s  ofthe periodical 
is comproniised by tlie lack o f  a thorough table of contcnts for each issue, or 
any stated plans for a subject andlor name index. Of course, a good index could 
be produced at any tinie. Also, the identification and description of primary 
sources could be published on a regular basis as an aid to scholars. 

Higher editorial standards could widen the readability and appeal beyond 
the in-crowd of descendants of the "Kanadiers." So, too, c o ~ l l d  the translation 
o f  numerous German words, including some words in article titles (eg. 
"Aeltester Gerliard Wiebe (1 827-1 900): A Father of Manitoba," Junc 1995, I). 
Some of the longer articles have an annoying habit of "meandering" throughout 
the issue rather than focussing a compact presentation on consecutive pages 
(eg.: "Education in the East Reserve: 1874-1920," Junc 1996, pt. 1, with 10 
interruptions). Certain illustrations could be more fully described, such as tlie 
valuable niap of Chortitza, Russia, in 1830 (June 1996, pt. 1 , 5 9 ) .  The inclusion 
o f  multi-generational outlines, conceivably reaching back t o  seventeenth 
century Poland-Prussia, could provide the advantage of visualizing links 
among many generations in a compact space. 

The focus on the period from 1874-1 91 0-the immigration of the Kanadier 
Mennonites-is probably a useful and sensible restriction in the early years of 
the historical organization. One hopes for a future broadening of the scope to 
include the Russian Mennonite immigrants of thc 1920s to the East Rcscrve, 
tlie so-called Russliinder Mennonites. Certainly the historical intcrdcpcndcncics, 
either in conflict o r  cooperation, of these two s t r c a ~ n s  of Russian Mcnnonitcs is 
an important enough theme t o  cause an eventual widcning of tlic scopc of this 
local historical society. If broadened in this way, evcn more pcrsons could 
benefit from the inspiring nurture o f  heritage themes which this periodical 
fosters. 

David Rempel Smucker, editor 
Pennsylvania Menrzonite Heritage 
Lancaster, Pennsylvania 

Cornelius J. Dyck, ed. and trans., S'iritunl L f e  iiz Aiznbnptist~~ 
(Scottdale, PA and Waterloo, ON: Herald Press, 1995). Paperback, 
31 1 pp. 

Daniel Liechty, ed., trans., and intro. E u ~ . l j ~  Aiznbc~ptist Spir.itzlulitj~. 
Selected Writings. (New YorkIMahwah: Paulist Press, 1994). 
Paperback, 304 pp. 



Writers on the Anabaptist tradition in the last few decades have tended to 
emphasize tlie movement's ethics rather than its spiritual life. In contrast t o  tlie 
inwardness o f  pietistic evangelicalism and the dogmatic sacramentalism of 
mainline c h ~ t r c h e s ,  Anabaptism was seen as a social protest movement, calling 
for human justice in thc face of religious and political oppression. 

T w o  rcccnt collections of Anabaptist spiritual texts come a s  a useful 
complcmcnt and corrective. Lieclity's volume in the excellent Clcrssics of 
bJt.stet-tz Spit-itzicrlity series includes a preface by Hans Hillerbrand and then 
prcscnts complete texts by Felix Mantz, Balthasar Hubmaier, Hans Hut, 
Leonhard Schiemer, Hans Schlaffer, Hans Denck, Peter Walpot, Dirk Philips 
and Menno Simons. There are also six early songs from the Ausbutzd and an 
Appendix with 10 illustrations from the n/lnrtjrs' Mirror. The texts are 
accompanied by introductions and annotation. 

In his collection C.J. Dyck puts forward atlicsis about Anabaptist spirituality, 
distinguishing i t  from tlie monastic religiousness of the Middle Ages. it was 
activc rathcr than passive, he argucs, emphasizing community, following the 
example of Jesus in active service and becoming involved in tlie social world 
round about them. Dyck writes: "If there is a difference between the medieval 
vicw and Anabaptism, it i s  in the latter's rejection of a long sacramental- 
liturgical tradition, in intense small-group Bible studies, a sense o f  mission, 
and in a ncw awarcness o f  the meaning o f  free will for discipleship, among 
other non-monastic themes" (21). 

T h e  b o o k ' s  c h a p t e r s  a r e  organized by subject rather than by author: an 
interpretation o f  t h e  A p o s t l e s '  C r e e d ,  t h e  conversion o f  Menno, t h e  new 
birth, W o r d  a n d  S p i r i t ,  discipleship, p e a c e  a n d  justice, lifestyle, faith a n d  
encouragement, t h e  c h u r c h ,  prayer and meditation f o r  spiritual discernment. 
S e l e c t i o n s  a r e  t a k e n  f r o m  t h e  f o l l o w i n g  writers: Leonard S c h i e m e r ,  
Michael Sattler, Felix M a n z ,  Hans Hut, Balthasar Hubmaier, H a n s  D e n c k ,  
Piigram M a r p e c k ,  Tvienno Simons, Dirk Fhilips, David joris, H a n s  d e  
Ries, Peter R i e d e m a n n ,  Lijsken Dirks, Anna Jansz, Andreas E t h r e n p r c i s ,  
Margarete Endris, Maeylcen o f  Deventer, Maeyken Wens, Hans S c h l a f f e r  
and Pieter Pietersz. A c c o r d i n g  t o  Dyck, "Perhaps the c r o w n  o f  t h i s  
volume i s  Pietersz' T h e  W a y  t o  the City of Pence in chapter 1 3 .  It is a 
s e r i o u s  chnlletzge a g a i n s t  t h e  g r o w i n g  social permissiveness, w e a l t h ,  a n d  
l u x u r i o ~ ~ s  l i v i n g .  M o s t  interesting a l s o  is his strong reaction a g a i n s t  
s m o k i n g ,  which h a d  recently come t o  t h e  Netherlands" (25). Indeed, 
Pietersz' c o n c e r n s  are an example o f  how Anabaptist-Mennonite spirituality 
related t o  e t h i c s  a n d  m o r a l i t y .  

Both v o l ~ ~ m e s  are generally well transiated into clear Engiish from the 
original languages. They make important texts available to a wide audience. 
Scholars may wish for clearer annotation regarding tlie editions used and 
otiicrs that arc available, as for example tlie classic Vor? der wnhr-erz Lieb by 
Hans Denck, which has been translated several times, while tlie Pieter Pietersz 
Wegh na Ifredetz-Stadt appears in English for tlie first time. 



Book Reiiews .? 77 

T h e  two collections are complementary in their content and parallel in their 
attractive format. Though relatively free of errors, there are a few wrong 
numbers in Dyck's edition which should be noted: the decree issued by Anna of 
Oldenburg was in 1544, not 1545 (41); the reference to thc Pipkin-Yodcr 
edition of Hubmaier should be pp. 235-36, not 12-13 (65): the letter is from 
Menno to Bouwens, not the other way around (1 59). 

Harry Loewen and Victor Doerksen 
ICelowna, BC 

Migratioi~ _North: Meniioizites Fronz Mexico (Winnipeg: Mennonite 
Central Committee, 1995). Video, 40 mins. 

A4igratioii Nortlz depicts the culture, values and spiritual beliefs of the Old 
Colony Mennonites o f  Mexico. It is an orientation tool for educators, health 
care professionals, employment councilors and o t l ~ c r s  who provide social 
services t o  Mexican Mennonites migrating to Canada. As such it sceks to 
provide a better understanding between the social serving agencies and the 
recipients of their services. As well, the video has attracted a wide viewing 
audience o f  Canadian Mennonites who fecl a scnsc of kinship with the 
conservative Mennonites of Mexico. 

T11e video begins with a historical overview of thc Mcnnonitc move to 
Mexico. Beginning in 1922, approximately 6000 Mcnnonitcs from Manitoba 
and Saskatchewan migrated south following a loss of their right to maintain 
private Germail language schools. The vidco thcn presents the vicws of present 
day Mexican Mennonites on such issucs as education, family planning, 
employment opportunities for youth, e c o n o n ~ i c  conditions and the largc return 
migration (c. 27,000) to Canada where employment and better living conditions 
beckon. The video ends by exanlining the experiences of Mennonites who havc 
"retrace[d] the steps of their ancestors and move[d] North," with a view of how 
they have adapted to a new life in Canada. 

Much of the video is shot in Mexico where the videographer had access to 
a n  ~ ~ n u s u a l l y  wide spectrum of Mennonite lifc. Rarc sccncs from thc ordinary 
and everyday life of Old Colony Mennonites, which to outsiders is thc lifc o f a n  
extraordinarji group of Mcnnonitcs, is thc great strcngth of blig:.a!io:7 i\!o:.!!z: 
woman busy with d o n ~ c s t i c  taslts, farmers working irrigation cquipmcnt, stccl- 
wheeled tractors at work, horse-drawn vchicles kicking up dust, girls posing in 
wide brimmed hats trimmed with matching black bows, childrcn at school and 
even people attending church. A rare find, indeed, is the clip ofhym11 singing at 
church. 



Excerpts from interviews with these "extraordinary" people are featured 
throughout the vidco. For a society that wishes to remain isolated, an impressive 
range of individuals consented to be filmed. Among them are a traditional 
niedicallniidwifery, husbandlwife team as well as a licensed Mennonite 
medical doctor; a minister who gives the classically evasive answers to 
questions about Old Colony faith to an outsider, as well as a minister who 
discloses his departure from traditional teachings; a young cheese factory 
labourer who plans to move to Canada because lie cannot make ends meet to 
s ~ ~ p p o r t  his family, as well as a successful apple grower and c o m ~ n ~ ~ n i t y  leader. 

This wealth o f  information is presented through the eyes o f t h e  scriptwriter1 
narrator whose grandparents chose not t o  move t o  Mexico in 1922. Although 
personable, this approach makes A/figratiorz Nor-tlz the narrator's story rather 
than tliat o f  the people t o  whom it belongs. The potential which is apparent in 
tlic footage, tliat o f  the Old Colony Mennonites presenting their o+vrz struggle 
as their traditional life is threatened and rapidly changing, is not fillly realized. 
The vidco, in the main, deals with why a people would choose to leave their 
homeland t o  face the hardships of a transitory life in Canada; the narrator's 
interpretive grid results in the viewers' encountering Old Colony Mennonite 
life from a Canadian perspective rather than from an authentically Old Colony 
one. This is unfortunate. The directedness of the interview questions, pursuing 
a specific purpose, also leaves tlic viewer feeling that more and other information 
might have been fortlicoming if tlie questions had been more open-ended. 

In spite of these weaknesses, Migration North provides a useful and 
informative overview o f  life among Old Colony Mexican Mennonites both for 
its intended audience as well as a more general one. 

Rosabel Fast 
University o f  Manitoba 

Leo Driedger, Multi-Ethizic Cnizndn: Identities aizd Iizeqzinlities 
(Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996). 352 pp., including 
references and index. 

When you pick up this book and get tlie feeling that you liave seen this 
before you probably liave. It is really a revised edition of Driedger's The Ethrzic 
Factor-: Iderztity in Diversity p ~ ~ b i i s h e d  by 'NicGraw-Hill Ryerson in i 989. The 
~ ~ p g r a d e  involves incorporating tlie 1991 Census data, acknowledging new 
sources and removing older sources, using more politically-correct l a n g ~ ~ a g e  
(e.g. Aboriginals instead of Natives, French Q u t b t c o i s  instead of French 
Canadian), refining tlie index, adding key events s ~ ~ c l i  as the Quebec referendum 
1995, and drawing in new research findings. 



Book Reviebvs 2 79 

The author takes the position that Canadians must view their society as 
"unabashedly multi-ethnic and pluralist". T h e  analysis is framed in 12 chapters 
divided into five parts. Part I identifies a theoretical focus by looking at what 
classical, American and Canadian sociologists have written about ethnicity. 
Weber's conception o f  ethnic identity based on race, culture, tribe, nationality, 
and religion is selected t o  guide the analysis. Six theories of ethnic change and 
persistence are used t o  develop a conformity-pluralist model intended to 
reflect the various experiences endured by ethnic groups in Canadian society. 
The balance o f  the book is devoted t o  comparing the ethnic groups identified in 
the different dimensions of the model. 

T o  support this analysis the author provides, in Part 11, an empirical look at 
the diversity o f  tlie Canadian population using census data from 187 1 to 1991. 
Immigration trends and origins of immigrants are traced. F O L I ~  ethnic types 
emerge from the immigration patterns: the Aboriginals, the cliarler-Europeans, 
tlie non-charter Europeans, and the visible Third World minorities. The data 
also show that the distribution of the ethnic groups i s  very uneven across six 
Canadian regions. 

Part I11 focuses on voluntary ethnic identity and solidarity. Tlie significance 
o f  a language symbol system i s  shown by examining the French Qudbtcois 
experience. Other sociocultural and symbolic dimensions s ~ ~ c h  as territory, 
institutions, culture, history, ideology and charismatic leadership are assessed 
by comparing findings involving a variety o f  ethnic groups. The role of the 
"sacred canopy" in shaping identity is illustrated by the Aboriginal food- 
gatherers, Hutterite agriculturists and Jewish urbanites. 

The stratification of Canadian society in terms of political powcr, social 
prestige, socio-economic status, ecological scgrcgation and racial incqualitics 
i s  explored in Part IV. The author concludes tliat ethnic stratification is 
essentially involuntary, and that it may be both a rcsourcc and a drawback 
when it comes t o  social mobility. Tlie segregation of minorities is shown to 
vary enormously by cities and by groups. Studies of Blaclts, Chincsc and 
Japanese in Canada provide ample evidence of apartheid segregation and 
racial inequality. 

Evidence in Part V suggests that Canadian attitudes show considerable 
goodwill toward a variety of ethnic expressions that support pluralism. At the 
same time data show that ethnic origin, race and religion lead to differential 
and unfair treatment. The recognition o f  some aboriginal and ~ n u l t i c u l t ~ ~ r a l  
rights by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) is highlighted to 
show the need for minority rights t o  limit f i ~ t u r e  injustices such as tlic 
expulsion o f t h e  Acadians, undermining o f t h e  Mdtis nation, unsettled Aboriginal 
land claims, and hostilities toward thc Jcws. 

This book brings together a wide range o f  empirical and analytical work 
pertaining to etlinicity in Canada. For s o m e  readers the cxtcnsive theoretical 
references and the liberal use of statistics will be distracting and overly 
academic. Others hoping for more theoretical insights in a field tliat necds 



some consolidation may be disappointed. The conformity-pluralist model is 
helpful as an organizing framework for the book but adds little t o  theory 
devclopment. A concluding chapter evaluating theory construction in a polyethnic 
society and suggesting further research and policy directions would have been 
wclcome. 

A careful proof-reading of thc tcxt and tables would have eliminated 
typographical errors and repetition o f  material. My guess is that the book will 
bc a difficult rcad for undergraduate students but it will stand as a good 
refcrencc book. It makes a clear case for a multi-ethnic view of Canada again. 

Jacob Peters 
Department o f  Sociology 
The University of Winnipeg 

Miriam Toews, Sz~r?zr?zer ofMyAnzazirzgLz~clc(Winnipeg: Turnstone 
Press, 1996). 192 pp., $16.95. 

Get ready for some rollicking picaresque fiction in the maternal mode. This 
i s  part Don Qzii.xote part Lzinatic Villas, and the unlikely combination is one o f  
the things that makes Miriam Toews' debut novel so delightfully humorous, 
subversive, and naughtily clever. "It's a nutty life when ~ O L I  try t o  combine 
romance and taking care of little kids," comments Lucy, wide-eyed 1 X-year- 
old narrator and single mother, bewildered to find herself suddenly plunged 
into the life of the poor and the outcast, in public housing and on the "dole" 
(1 32). It's the nuttiness o f  single welfare mothers' lives in a society that treats 
them like semi-criminals and cons, instead of honouring their 24-hour-a-day 
exhausting work, performed for the most part, despite the lousy wage and job 
conditions, with devotion, pleasure, and certainly love, that Toews chooses as 
her main subject here. "Paternity i s  a legal fiction," wrote James Joyce, and 
Toews' parody of our society's ongoing obsession with fathers as the only 
proper sanction for human reproduction, despite their ephemeral role in the 
reproductive process, and the well-known unreliability of fathers' social 
s ~ ~ p p o r t  for their offspring (some o f  whom they may not even know about), 
takes the Joycean play on genealogy t o  a new level of revision here. 

The success ofthe narrative hinges on being able to convince LIS simultaneo~~sly 
that on thc one hand, the women at Have-a-Life Housing, or Half-a-Life as the 
residents likc to call it, arc tlicrc b e c a ~ ~ s e  of unfortunate and often violent 
circumstances in their pasts, and on the other, that their lives are interesting, 
that thcy posscss desires and hopes for themselves and their loved children, 



that their lives have intrinsic and social worth, whether or not they're on their 
way t o  improved circumstances. (And even, occasionally, that they are able t o  
enjoy life in a particularly spontaneous and joyous way hecrrrtse o f t h e i r  lack o f  
place in the symbolic order.) The success of the text depends on Toews' ability 
t o  sustain the crazy comic pace she sets for herself, jampacked with whaclty 
coincidences, a dizzying array of characters, wonderful wordplay and other 
assorted tricks, and through all this, an interesting plot line that is neither 
overwhelmed by tliebr-icolage texture, nor so strong as to render this patchwork 
world as secondary t o  the action. This i s  a difficult thing to pull off: in picturing 
the single welfare mother as semi-outlaw, as fun-loving adventurer, as temporarily 
incarcerated drifter with a pack of fatherless children in tow, Toews not only 
challenges the traditional stereotype of tlie mother as absent, or silent self- 
sacrificing homemalter secondary to a Inore powerfill father, but also sets our 
whole notion o f  home and road (and who belongs ro which) on edge. The novel 
succeeds m a r v e l l o ~ ~ s l y  on both counts. The narrative energy never flags; and 
by t h e  time Lucy decides t o  accompany her friend Lish on her road trip in a 
borrowed van to find her long lost boyfriend (wlioni Lucy has been impersonating 
in t h e  form o f  postcards sent from various bogus American locations t o  cheer 
up h e r  friend), accompanied by their five young children, we have been drawn 
s o  f a r  into the carnivalesque logic of Half-a-Life that, like Lucy, we think this 
i s  an exciting, marvellous, even important plan. 

One of tlie many pleasures in reading this novel is the detail with which 
T o e w s  documents the daily heroism involved in raising young children on a 
low income. Getting strollers and wagons through revolving doors bcconics a 
major carnival feat; coping with the vicissit~ldcs of croup in tlic night and 
mosquito bites and spilled juice becomes a g l o r i o ~ ~ s  challcngc. It's alniost 
impossible t o  write the kind of interrupted, hilarious multifacctcd d i a l o g ~ ~ c  
that occurs around young children. Toews docs it better than anyone I've sccn. 
Here's an excerpt: 

"Letitia was crying a bit because she'd pced on licr dress, her f a v o ~ ~ r i t e  
dress. Alba, in lier bossiest voice, was tclling lier, 'Wcll, you should liave 
spread your legs farther apart and lifted your dress high, right mom? Right 
m o m ?  RIGHT MOM? M O M ,  MOM, LETITIA SHOULD HAVE SPREAD 
HER - 

'YES ALBA! She should liave. Drop it already. She's already forgotten 
about it. Good grief. Lucy, Lucy, I'm sorry this has all gotten so. ..GET IN THE 
VAN,' she yelled, 'YOU'LL FALL IN T H E  DITCH LEAVETHATGARBAGE 
ALONE. Geez Hope, Maya, haul Alba and Letitia into tlic van,' Lish s a ~ d .  

'Ugh, she's covered i n  pee, I ' m  not touching licr,' said Hope. 
'ALBA HELP YOUR SISTER RIGHT NOW FOR GOD'S SAKE HER 

DRESS IS ALREADY DRY.' 
' I  always liave to do everything, why can't Maya..."' (148) 



After you've left those sensuous, high-spirited, incredible early years of 
parenting, you forget how complicated and fast-paced and engaging it all was. 
Toews' novel with its close-up lens on that very undernarrated segment of our 
collective and individual lives reminds us with humour and panache. 

An incidental pleasure for Manitoba readers will be seeing our recent 
tribulations with flooding and bugs documented here in all their true horror. 
None o f  LIS will forget the summer of the rains, which brought to life seven 
years' worth of drought-delayed mosquitoes all at once. The only consolation 
that year brought was its storymaking potential. Toews uses the legendary 
summer's crisis-filled trajectory to great effect, a sympathetic backdrop, as it 
were, t o  the crisis-filled lives of the women at Half-a-Life. When the sun 
finally comes out for a few hours, the whole community celebrates. 

Those Mennonite readers looking for overt Mennonite content in the novel 
(after all there have been s o  few novels written by Mennonite women and we 
are all hungry for fiction about ourselves), will at least initially be disappointed. 
This is a portrait of contemporary Canadian urban life below the poverty line, 
and tlic c o m ~ n u n i t y  it portrays is a mixed one, both racially and culturally. On 
the other hand, what i s  Mennonite under these circumstances? Certainly 
Toews' relentless interrogation of fatherhood a s  the only legitimate access t o  
the symbolic order, when so many fathcrs are in fact absent or unreliable, and 
vcry fcw participate in the intense hands-on responsibilities of parenting 
young children to the cxtcnt that mothers do, is a timely Mennonite (as well as 
non-Mennonite) theme. I like t o  think o f  Lucy and her mother's ability t o  laugh 
a lot as a Mennonite trait, though it i s  surely true that the reason they can 
indulge themselves in it s o  freely, given their unortliodox lives, is because they 
are not circumscribed by a judging Mennonite community, just as Toews' 
narrative derives most o f  its permission for parody and the carnivalesque (it 
seems t o  me) from non-Mennonite sources. 

I don't want to discuss the outcome o f  the novel here (you should all go out 
and buy the book and find out for yourself), except to say that there is a 
satisfying climax and resolution t o  the dilemmas facing our undaunted heroines 
Lucy and Lish, and thc many social questions raised here; the kind of trick 
ending that leaves you feeling surprised into joy. There is even, forthose of you 
worried about the fate of fatherliood in a story like this, a kind of redemption, 
t h o ~ l g h  not without its respective price, for a few select and willing fathers. 
Brava, Miriam Toews. 

Di Brandt 
University of Alberta 



Book Reviel.vs 2 83 

Ar~nin Wiebe, Tlze Second Coi?ziizg of Yeeat Slzpaizst (Winnipeg, 
Manitoba: Turnstone Press, 1995). Soft-cover, 298 pp., $17.95. 

This, tlie third novel from Armin Wiebe, combines his distinctive vision o f  
Mennonite life in rural Manitoba with an overarching apocalyptic tone. The 
influences of t h e  outside world threaten the rural community of Gutenthal with 
an onslaught o f  television media and unfamiliar fashions. Further more, 
m ~ ~ l t i n a t i o n a l  capitalism, encroaching American culture, and irreconcilable 
constitutional debates threaten t o  tear apart the entirety of Canada in a 
whirlwind o f  identity crises. Things seem fairly bleak. The novel itself is even 
at risk in these last days, as Koadel ICehler, the teacher's son, warns, "A person 
going t o  write a posthole modern style book should hurry it along before 
Generation X decides to help the neo-conformatives to propel L I ~  forward into 
the past." 

Yeeat Shpanst, tlie vanishing politician from the final pages of Tlze 
Sah~atiorz of Ynsclz Sienzeizs, reprises his elusive role. His return and ensuing 
disappearance remain a mystery, while in his new absence, those who witnessed 
his curling rink address repeat and multiply his words. The Tales o f t h e  Land o f  
Them and the Land of Us, read from Yeeat's notes, bring a new voice to the 
narrative. These nationalistic fables, together with the parodically rewritten 
Prime Minister's speech, anda stining manifesto-"1 see millions ofbeetweeders, 
witli hoes sharpened, descending on our choking fieldsv-conj~~rc the colloquial, 
well-intentioned voice o f  grassroots politics. 

Contributing to the complex, sometimes confi~scd structure of thc novcl, 
Wiebe has found a surrogate author in Oata Siemens. Writing all tliat she secs 
with a carpenter's pencil in a Farmers' Union notebook, she hclps groi~rid the 
novel, often sprawling under its excess. With hcr decision to "Write her way 
out of this blac!< and white summer all by herself," Oata records a pcrsonal 
vision, an exploration o f  her own past which parallels thc larger, apocalyptic 
call for change in these troubled times. Oata views this epic action tliro~igli her 
own imaginings and watches them on tlie television, but when slie hears licr 
own words broadcast, the source of the visions bccomc confused-the lines 
wliicli separate politics and the pastoral world of Gutcnthal tangle inseparably. 

Considering the recent announcement of the closing of Roger's Sugar in 
Winnipeg, and witli it the apparent demise oftlie Manitoba sugar beet industry, 
The Secorzd Cor7zilzg of Yeeat Slzpnrzst arrived, in retrospect, as an appropriate 
harbinger. By depicting tlie concerns o f  rural life and kecnly dramatizing thc 
Low German language and culture, Arniin Wicbc has opcncd a spacc for 
writers from this tradition. With tliat, his work also brings humour to a litcrary 
tradition oftentimes guilty of being overly earnest. 

Glenn Bergen 
Altona, Manitoba 



284 Journal o f ' M e ~ i t i o ~ i i t e  Stlrdies 

C. Arnold Snyder and Linda A. Huebert Hecht, eds., Profiles of 
Alzabaptist Wonzen: Sixteenth CentzuyRefor7~zingPioneers (Waterloo: 
Wilfrid Laurier Press, 1996). xxii + 438 pp, maps and 10 blw plates. 
Paper $28.95 

One of the most interesting results of feminist scholarship in religious 
history has been to demonstrate how the inclusion of women's experience by 
its nature leads to a revised and more nuanced understanding of the traditional 
narrative. By drawing on recent Reformation and feminist scholarship, and by 
its sensitivity to the specific Anabaptist context, this attractively presented 
collection of over seventy group and individual profiles by Canadian,American, 
Dutch and German Anabaptist scholars makes an important contribution to 
that endeavour. 

Assuming as their orginizational pattern the familiar polygenesis approach 
t o  sixteenth-century Anabaptism, the editors have divided their selections into 
three geographical areas: Swiss, GermanJAustrian, andGermanJDutch Anabaptists, 
each prefaced by a map and a brief but helpfill introduction. With only a few 
exceptions, the focus is on the developmental stage o f t h e  Anabaptist movement, 
the late 1520s to 30s, a period, it is argued, when, despite certain gender 
limitations on the activity of women, there existed enhanced opportunity for 
egalitarianism as "Spirit-elected" women leaders assumed a variety of roles 
withn their communities. What follows is an astoundingly rich tapestry of how 
women o f  different socio-economic backgrounds were able to integrate the 
experience and the propagation of the new Anabaptist religion into the 
demands of day to day life. Such a focus on women's largely private world calls 
for a skillful reconstruction of limited sources. John Oyer, for example, draws 
on court records to reconstruct the activity o f  nine women leaders in Augsburg, 
who during the briefperiod 1527-28 quietiy, b y  offering hospitaiity to refugees 
o r  through bible reading in spinning and sewing circles, were able to hold the 
movement together in the face of persecution. Lois Barrett is able to tease out 
of published pamphlets and local records the remarkable prophetic visions and 
leadership activity of Strasbourg's Ursula Jost and Barbara Rebstock, both of 
whom had a deep impact on Melchior Hoffman. The range of topics and 
experiences covered is extensive, and generally eschews a hagiograpliic 
approach. Thus Linda Huebert Hecht offers insight into the motivation and 
context o f  a n ~ ~ m b e r  of Anabaptist women in the Tirol who recanted, while 
Marlene Epp and Julia Roberts explore sexual attitudes by examining the 
unusually benign reception given to victims of rape b y  the early Hutterite 
communities. 

Though the volume contains a few minor flaws (most notably the idiosyncratic 
decision to relegate contributors' names alphabetically to the back of the 
book), it offers considerable potential for both teaching and fi~rther research. 
Especially useful for teaching purposes is the inclusion of excerpts of printed 



Book Revie~vs 285 

texts in a number of articles, such as "Anna Jansz of Rotterdam"' by Werner 
Packull, a n d  Arnold Snyder's "Magdalena, Walpurga, and Sophia Marschalk 
von Pappenheim". Instructors in search of texts which do justice to both t h e  
larger narrative of Reformation history and to women's religious experience 
will also welcome the editors' clear introductory exposition of Anabaptist 
belief and practice. And, while the book's thrust is in the first place to recover 
women's stories rather than t o  offer a gendered approach to Anabaptist history, 
by showing t h e  intersection of women's domestic and religious roles and by 
drawing attention to points o f  contact with feminist studies of medieval 
spirituality, these profiles offer tantalizing glimpses into the way the inclusion 
of gender into religious history deepens our understanding o f  continuity a s  
well as o f  change. 

Marguerite Van Die 
Queen's UniversityIQueen's Theological College