Wer War Menno Simons?

Wer War Menno Simons?

 

Who was Menno Simons? by Isaac Peters (1911)

    He was one of the great reformers of the Christian church in the 16^th century at the time of the great Reformation, the time of Luther, Calvin and Zwingli in Holland.  From the pulpit, all three attacked the secular authorities, and the secular church of Rome while taking shelter in their own state churches to avoid severe persecution.  Menno Simons and his associates made a decisive break with these Reformers.  They determined to base their faith on the rock or foundation of Jesus Christ, testifying as their motto, “No other Foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, that is Jesus Christ.”  I Cor. 3: 11.  For this, Simons was willing to risk everything – loss of property, life and exile.  For this risk, he found plenty of opportunity, facing persecution not only from Rome but also from the other more newly-established state churches who were just as quick to stain their hands in martyrs’ blood. 

    Luther, the main Reformer, called these simple, quiet followers of Christ swarms (Schwärmer), of which he wrote to Duke Albrecht of Prussia:  “Wherefore do I have to ask why it pleases your highness to suffer such people in your country.  Why would you allow such factious spirits and suffering?  Prussia’s conscience should complain against this credible threat against Her soul, lest this swarm seduces the Holy Church (of Luther), against which their leader preaches.  It is not just I who fear this swarm, but all emperors and princes fear them.  Suffer just a little of this heresy and you will see what comes of it.”  Luther further advised Albrecht to overcome this monstrous threat with fire and sword.  All this was in pursuit of Menno and his companions in their following of the Lord’s leading.  But Luther wanted to please man, not God, to re-establish Rome, not God’s Truth.

Henderson, Nebraska, ca 1876

    These are images of the early Petersgemeinde (EMB or Bruderthaler) and Mennonite Brethren pioneer settlements in Henderson, Nebraska. Henderson includes Mennonite settlements five to twelve miles north/northeast of Sutton.  The images easily invoke an aura of Courier and Ives -- note the windmills and buggies.  The images are from Daniel Kauffman's archive at the Mennonite Church USA Archive in Goshen, Indiana.  Note that all images are (c) copyright to the Mennonite Archive and may not be republished without their express written permission.

    For those of us from a Bruderthaler heritage, these are the villages of Isaac Peters, Bernard Kroeker and Cornelius M. Wall, just to name a few early leaders.  This would have been the time that the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren or Petersgemeinde were being incorporated into the Nebraska and Minnesota Conference of the Mennonite Church.  The Petersgemeinde or EMB joined the English-speaking American Mennonite conference rather than affiliating with their fellow German-speaking Russlander refugee-immigrants.

Some thoughts regarding Pietism:

  It is not entirely clear that Pietism predated Anabaptism – in as much as Zwingli is considered to be an Anabaptist antecedent, and Dirk Philips is considered an Anabaptist founder, so would any reformer that displayed the key ingredients of the pietist theo-philosophy be by definition worked into the Radical Reformation as an Anabaptist or at least, heavily and perhaps fatally suspected of significant Anabaptist-leanings.  Just as the Mennonite and Hutterite Anabaptists built on the traditions of Zwingli, Huss, and the Waldenses, and even, for that matter, on Luther and Calvin, the Pietists represent a distinctive moment in time, separate but probably heavily influenced by Anabaptism – especially the Anabaptist strains from the Netherlands and Danzig.

  Most notably, Spener was, and remained, a Lutheran born about 100 years after the death of Menno Simons.  Of the Pietist precedents, none shines out more clearly than Johann Arndt.  In The Pietist Theologians, Carter Lindberg puts forth a pretty strong case that while Arndt was definitely a contributor to Pietism, he was not in the end a true Pietist and that the honorific of  “Father of Pietism” should remain on the faithful shoulders of Spener and his Pia Desiderata.  Arguably, both Arndt and Spener contributed significant personal and new content to the shaping of Pietism and peculiar approaches to the combined influences of the Luther Reformation, the Dutch-German Mystical traditions dating back to the Middle Ages, and the spirited Anabaptism that those men saw around them.  In fact, we know from his biographical narrative that Arndt was acquainted with and probably influenced by Mennonite neighbors and business connections.  Interestingly, his exclamatory exclamation contra his Mennonite neighbor leaves room for being both influenced by the Mennonites as well as sharing a new discovery with them  -- that they, the Mennonites, would want to keep such a wonderful things to themselves.

Here I Raise Mine Ebenezer

    One of my favorite authors has published a nifty little Postmodern religious primer on what those of us in the Evangelical world coyly refer to as Protestant Latin.  Protestant Latin is perhaps not as different perhaps as traditional Russländer Plautdietsch, but infinitely more complicated.

    In Amacing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, Kathleen Norris takes Protestant Latin head-on, detailing her vocabulary of faith, while expounding on why those definitions are pertinent to her rich spiritual life.  One of the terms that she explores, Ebenezer, comes to her from a popular hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” which begins the second stanza, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer; Hither by thy help I’m come,” (Norris, p. 251).  While many would recognize the term Ebenezer as the Christian name of Charles Dickens’ most memorable Christmas character, Ebenezer Scrooge, Norris reveals its deeper pedigree:  “The word Ebenezer is found in a passage in First Samuel, one of the historical books of the Hebrew scriptures.  It describes an event, the celebration of Israel’s victory over the Philistine army, a victory that came against the odds, when the thundering voice of God threw the troops into confusion, and they fled.  The passage reads: ‘Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us’ (1 Sam 7:12, KJV),” (Norris, p. 251).

Are We an Ethnicity or a Religion?

    Does the term Mennonite refer to a religion or to an ethnicity?  This question regarding religion versus culture assumes greater significance as those who self-identify as Mennonite increasingly move away from their traditional clusters of farms, congregations, and colonies.  People have coined many terms to deal with this question -- Patrick Friesen, the noted poet and teacher of Mennonite descent, refers to himself as a “Recovering Mennonite.”  Many of my fellow Mennonite students at Georgetown University, a well-known Jesuit university of the Catholic faith, referred to themselves not as Mennonites but as having Mennonite grandparents -- in the same manner that Philip Landis, the controversial “Mennonite” cyclist, would later identify himself not as Mennonite but as of Mennonite descent.  In a former Mennonite Brethren church in Minneapolis, Minnesota -- we all celebrated one communion and a single fellowship, but identified ourselves as Bruderthaler-Mennonite, Old Mennonite, General Conference Mennonite, Hutterite, and Mennonite Brethren -- all the same, but all different.  Obviously, we retained distinct cultural differences -- the proverbial alphabet soup of Mennonite identities, that had no affect whatsoever on our shared spiritual understanding.  In an informal conversation, Carolyn Fauth, a Mennonite journalist and historian from Lustre, Montana, shared in conversation that until the 1940s, you could tell the Mennonite groups of Lustre-Volt apart by the pattern of ribbons on the bonnets worn by the women -- the Bruderthaler, the Mennonite Brethren, and the General Conference women all ascribed to a distinct style.  Furthermore, you use the same criteria to distinguish between the Old Mennonite churches, the Amish Mennonites, and the Hutterites.  Yet, I am aware of no written understanding that any of the Mennonites ever believed that God preferred or mandated a specific pattern for bonnets in His Church (though I am aware of stories where certain hairstyles and clothing fasteners are mandated by formal church instruction).  Though originally grounded in a religious understanding, many of these practices would seem to have become cultural norms and traditions rather than religious dogma.