Come on guys, let's kick this up a notch! We Mennonites have been waiting 400 years for a little recognition and human affection.
Do please send your bids to:
http://www.logos.com/product/17067/classic-anabaptist-and-mennonite-history-collection
Thanks!
I'm in. This looks like really good value, and a good way of accessing some of the primary sources rather than reading the one-paragraph summaries in some of the history books!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
If you do not bid now, you may never be able to afford this essential resource for understanding Reformation history. You will lack a very important viewpoint in your Bible study. Even if you are Lutheran or Calvinist, get this resource! Hear about Anabaptism from the proverbial horse's mouth! Don't accept secondary sources.
Just do it! Bid now, pay later. [:)]
It's almost down to $20. Just a couple more bidders probably. C'mon, let's do it!
Why should you be interested in Mennonite/Anabaptist history?
1) Because there are nearly 1.5 million Mennonites in 65 countries in the world today. (Wikipedia) And as a denomination it's growing by 10-20% in Africa, not as fast in North America but still growing.
2) Because you have the Mennonites to thank for the best-selling More-with-Less Cookbook, which was "commissioned by the Mennonite Central Committee in 1976 with the goal of 'helping Christians respond in a caring-sharing way in a world with limited food resources'" (Wikipedia)
3) Because Mennonites do some amazing work in peacemaking and restorative justice in a war-torn world, and it behooves us to understand what makes these folks tick.
4) Because then you'll have some resources to help you understand and appreciate the free Martyr's Mirror PB which I'm working on. If you wait until I finish it, it will be too late, because the price of this collection will be much higher. Martyr's Mirror is an awesome history of Christian martyrdom from the time of Christ until the 1600s.
BTW, not all Mennonites are rural folk with women wearing head coverings. In fact, probably most of them today are not. I am a member an urban, educated, progressive, artsy Mennonite fellowship in Vancouver. (But they still make great paskal!) And not all Mennonites are ethnically Mennonite (with names like Kreider, Friesen, Klassen, Neufeldt, Wiebe, etc.). I didn't grow up Mennonite and had never discovered these folks until I stumbled upon them during second semester of my seminary studies. Probably about 3/4 of our congregation have ethnically Mennonite names, and they all play the Mennonite Game (it seems they're all no more than 2 or 3 degrees of separation from any other Mennonite) whenever someone from out of town visits our church, but all of us others (there's no equivalent to "goyim" among Mennonites as far as I know) are welcome additions.
You're right, Rosie, we ethnic Mennos are all too inconveniently related. Which explains the cross-eyed look.
Just joking. I struck out boldly and married a Chinese, much to the joy of everyone in my family. They did not put us under the ban, thank the Lord.
Finally, in this postmodern era, it is becoming "cool" to be Anabaptist. Although I personally haven't gotten into the Menno-hippie movement, maybe sometime we could each share tofu recipes.
ITS DONE!!!! GREAT JORB EVERBODY! [:D]
BTW, not all Mennonites are rural folk with women wearing head coverings. In fact, probably most of them today are not. I am a member an urban, educated, progressive, artsy Mennonite fellowship in Vancouver. (But they still make great ***l!)
Oh, good grief! Why was the name of Mennonite Easter bread censored by the forum software? (Apparently, according to Urban Dictionary, it means the S-word in Finnish.) Even the URL was censored. You'll just have to Google "p a s k a" (without the spaces and quotation marks) yourself, with site:livingtolearn84.blogspot.com in the Google search criteria, to find the link. Wait, no, I think I've got a workaround: I'll make a Bit.ly link out of it: http://bit.ly/y9Ru5G. P.a.s.k.a is related to the Latin word for Easter, pascha, from which we get paschal (as in the paschal Lamb). And that in turn comes from the Hebrew pesach (פסח) which means Passover (Greek: πάσχα).
Finally, in this postmodern era, it is becoming "cool" to be Anabaptist.
It's very "emergent" to be Anabaptist, too, I think. Brian McLaren's book A Generous Orthodoxy has as its subtitle "Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/calvinist, anabaptist/anglican, methodist + catholic + green + incarnational + depressed-yet-hopeful + emergent + unfinished CHRISTIAN."
Although I personally haven't gotten into the Menno-hippie movement, maybe sometime we could each share tofu recipes.
I've never heard of the Menno-hippie movement. One of my housemates makes some great stuff with tofu but I've so far not learned to cook with it. But it doesn't come from any hippie leanings in her case. She lived in Japan for 4-1/2 years.
It's almost down to $20. Just a couple more bidders probably. C'mon, let's do it! ITS DONE!!!! GREAT JORB EVERBODY!
ITS DONE!!!! GREAT JORB EVERBODY!
Woot!
BTW, I didn't get the cultural reference until I googled it. I thought you were using some Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) word.
BTW, I didn't get the cultural reference until I googled it.
Did you find it to watch? Pretty funny. [:D]
Rosie, I was joking, sort, of, about the emergent folks. But I'm cool with them. Some of them are vegetarians. [:)]
Yippie we're down to 20 buckaroos! I just want to thank everyone who has placed a bid for this collection. May it benefit you well!
BTW, I didn't get the cultural reference until I googled it. Did you find it to watch? Pretty funny.
Did you find it to watch? Pretty funny.
Yup, I found it but didn't watch it the first time. Just did now. I liked someone's comment on it: "RIP Steve Jorbs."
Rosie, I was joking, sort, of, about the emergent folks. But I'm cool with them. Some of them are vegetarians.
Just did a search on vegetarian in Logos and found a section on "A Vegetarian Reading" of the book of Job in WBC volume 17: logosres:wbc17;ref=Page.p_l;off=867 [:)]
Here are some excerpts, for your amusement/edification, in case you don't have that commentary:
Like feminism, vegetarianism is an ideology that manifests itself in various attitudes and practices. A simple vegetarianism may avoid meat on purely aesthetic grounds, or even as a matter of taste or preference; but a more reasoned vegetarianism takes as its starting point the nature of animals as living beings, and develops a philosophy of the responsibility of humans to fellow inhabitants of the planet. Since it turns the everyday matter of diet into a set of ethical decisions, and tends to become associated with larger questions about human relationship with the environment generally, vegetarianism is for its adherents a powerful philosophy that influences many aspects of life, including reading. A vegetarian reader will be concerned to see whether the text under consideration uncritically adopts the attitudes of a carnivorous culture toward animals, or whether in any way the text undermines those attitudes by a more positive estimation of animals.
There are three places in the Book of Job where animals are significant. In the first, Job is depicted as the owner and guardian of large flocks of animals...
....
The flocks (the term includes both sheep and goats) are kept for their wool and their milk; the oxen for plowing (they are enumerated as “pairs” or “yoke” of oxen); the camels for riding or for carrying loads; the she-asses for milk, for riding and for various kinds of farm work. There is no eating of meat or “flesh” in the narrative world of the book. That does not mean of course that the author is preaching or assuming vegetarianism, but that an affirmative attitude to animals sits comfortably with the outlook of the book.
...
Animals next appear in the narrative as the material of sacrifice....
The point of most interest, however, from a vegetarian perspective, is that the convention of animal sacrifice, which is taken for granted by the book, is also called into question by the book. For the net effect of Job’s sacrifices on behalf of his children is zero; despite the sacrifices, they are cut off in their youth by a whirlwind, a clear sign in Job’s eyes of God’s displeasure.
The third major reference to animals is the most important of all. In the divine speeches of chaps. 38–41, the existence of animals proves to be the essential clue to the meaning of the universe. It is not the domestic animals of chaps. 1–2 that are here spoken of, but the wild animals that serve no purpose in human economy. Their existence prohibits a wholly anthropocentric view of the world, and confirms to humans that the world does not exist solely for the benefit of humankind. In a sense, wild animals are even more valuable for humans than are domesticated animals; for while tamed animals may serve to magnify humans’ sense of their own importance and mastery over their environment, wild animals serve to impress humans with the fundamental inexplicability of the world as it has been created. The significance of wild animals is even more pointed in the context of the divine speeches, however. For there they function as an analogy to the existence of equally inexplicable elements of the moral order of the world, namely the existence of innocent suffering and of evidence that the principle of retribution is not wholly valid. God has created the world the way it is for his own inscrutable purposes; we can only presume that he knows what he is doing, for there are many things in the world we experience that make no sense to us. In sum, in the view of the Book of Job a proper estimation of the animal creation is essential for coping with certain of the riddles of human existence. This is a far cry from an attitude that ignores animals except as food or as pets for humans.
David J. A. Clines, vol. 17, Word Biblical Commentary : Job 1-20, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002).
Twenty is fabulous! [<:o)] [B]
As a Calvinist, don´t know if God preordained it to go as low as 15? [;)]
We still got one more day (till noon Friday) for people to freely jump on board.[:D]
As a Calvinist, don´t know if God preordained it to go as low as 15?
Only if people freely choose to sign up. [:)]
As a Calvinist, don´t know if God preordained it to go as low as 15? Only if people freely choose to sign up.
Only if people freely choose to sign up.
[:D]
We will soon see if God grants them the power they need to choose the best thing.[:D]
Granted the best thing may be to not bid at all and save the 20 dollars for something better. [;)]
We will soon see if God grants them the power they need to choose the best thing.
[Y][:)]
I am in. As a Wesleyan Methodist I sure would appreciate it if we can get some more bids on the Charles Wesley collection.[Y]
Now it is even cheap enough for cheapskates to bid. So, where are all you guys? [;)]
Wow, you just took me back to my community college days. [:D]
Last chance for the people to "freely choose" the collection for 20$
You may now freely place your bid! [;)]
Secured mine at 20.00. If I were to read half of these resources, will I be converted to the Mennonite faith? [*-)] [:)]
It is still in community pricing. Get on board before this train leaves the station.
Secured mine at 20.00. If I were to read half of these resources, will I be converted to the Mennonite faith?
It's not a different faith -- it's still the Christian faith. It's just a particular perspective on that faith. Here's the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. I doubt you'd find much that you currently disagree with in it. Article #22 (Peace, Justice, and Nonresistance) is probably the main thing that distinguishes Mennonites/Anabaptists from other denominations, and which some people have issues with and might fight Mennonites over (ironically, the Mennonites wouldn't fight back; they'd turn the other cheek)! [;)]
But no, probably reading half or all of those resources wouldn't turn you into a Mennonite. You'd need to change your last name to Krehbiel or Friesen or Suderman or Epp or some such, learn to sing in four-part harmony, learn Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German), help your neighbors with a barn-raising, or grow a beard without a mustache, before you could be confused for a real Mennonite. It's really very much a community thing; not an individual set of beliefs that one adopts. I was welcomed into the Mennonite community of Point Grey Fellowship, even being an outsider by birth.
Ouch - my Mennonite anthropology professor wouldn't fit in despite being raised in India by Mennonite missionary parents and leaving the UW for a Mennonite college in California (?) ....[:(]
P.S. one strand of my family hails from Lancaster County PA and has a good Swiss-German last name.[Y]
Ouch - my Mennonite anthropology professor wouldn't fit in despite being raised in India by Mennonite missionary parents and leaving the UW for a Mennonite college in California (?) .... P.S. one strand of my family hails from Lancaster County PA and has a good Swiss-German last name.
Ouch - my Mennonite anthropology professor wouldn't fit in despite being raised in India by Mennonite missionary parents and leaving the UW for a Mennonite college in California (?) ....
P.S. one strand of my family hails from Lancaster County PA and has a good Swiss-German last name.
Well, I tried to cast a wide net by posing my list as an "OR" not "AND" list, but perhaps that wasn't enough. I should have added some other things such as:
take up quilting
Not kidding. It's a major Mennonite pastime, at least among the ladies. Google mennonite quilting. There's a big MCC Relief Sale in Abbotsford (BC) every year, and it includes a quilt auction. Some amazing work there.
Incidentally, I don't meet any of the criteria I listed, except I can read music and sing harmony. But I would have been welcomed at my church anyway! They're a pretty ecumenical bunch of Mennonites. They had allowed me to lead worship and even preach before I'd become a formal member of their congregation.
Thanks to everyone who bid on this! Now I wonder how long we'll have to wait for it to be produced....
[:)] Please tell them to type faster and more accurately.
