Owentkost
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| (c) Ian W. Scott -- Mausoleum scene - Dinner Party ca 25-1 BCE |
I could image having had a wonderful dinner the other night with an assortment of professors from mixed disciplines. The food would be amazing – asparagus, Levantine couscous, pork shoulder and four other courses. The conversation – exceptional. As usual, I would expect to be grilled as to who the Mennonites are, why I care about their social history and why others should be interested as well. Then would come the kicker – Who can one read to better understand our ideas, our culture and our theology?
“Um, well, no-one really – I mean there is Stanley Hauerwas – he’s not exactly ‘not’ Anabaptist, and the American Mennonites seem to like John Howard Yoder a lot. We don’t actually have anyone from our side – I mean, we normally just take our cues from American Evangelicals like Dobson and Jerry Falwall – but American Evangelicals don’t tend to be pacifists – they er, um tend to be pretty heavy into politics – more so than Mennonites have been.” Humiliation in the intellectual sense.
