Anabaptists have often felt suspicious of American evangelicalism, and in turn evangelicals have found various reasons to dismiss the Anabaptist witness. Yet at various points in the past as well as the present, evangelicals and Anabaptists have found ample reason for conversation and much to appreciate about each other. The Activist Impulse represents the first book-length examination of the complex relationship between evangelicalism and Anabaptism in the past thirty years. It brings established experts and new voices together in an effort to explore the historical and theological intersection of these two rich traditions. Each of the essays provides fresh insight on at least one characteristic that both evangelicals and Anabaptists share-an impulse to engage society through the pursuit of active Christian witness.
Foreword George M. Marsden vii
Acknowledgments xi
List of Contributors xiii
Introduction: The Activist Impulse 1
Part I Intersecting Stories: Historical Reflection on the Nexus of Evangelicalism and Anabaptism
Introduction to Part I 9
1 Activist Impulses across Time: North American Evangelicalism and Anabaptism as Conversation Partners Steven M. Nolt 11
2 Anabaptism and Evangelicalism Revisited: Healing a Contentious Relationship? John D. Roth 45
3 Intellectual Hospitality as Historical Method: Moving beyond the Activist Impulse John Fea 74
Part II Intersecting Challenges: Anabaptism and the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy
Introduction to Part II 101
4 Fundamentalists, Modernists, and a Mennonite "Third Way": Reexamining the Career of Bishop Daniel Kauffman Benjamin Wetzel 104
5 "I Submit": Daniel Kauffman and the Legacy of a Yielded Life Nathan E. Yoder 129
6 A Cord of Many Strands: Reexamining Grace Brethren Identity and the Fundamentalism of Alva J. McClain M. M. Norris 156
7 Misfits and Fundamentalists: The Question of Evangelicalism and Defection among Lancaster and Franconia Mennonites Jared S. Burkholder 185
Part III Intersecting Concerns: Anabaptist and Evangelical Public Witness
Introduction to Part III 215
8 Practicing Peace, Embracing Evangelism: Missional Tensions in the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church Matthew Eaton Joel Boehner 217
9 "Pool Tables are the Devil's Playground": Forging an Evangelico-Anabautista Identity in South Texas Felipe Hinojosa 237
10 Re-Baptizing Evangelicalism: American Anabaptists and the 1970s Evangelical Left David R. Swartz 262
11 The Evangelical-Anabaptist Spectrum: The Political Theologies of Francis Schaeffer, John Howard Yoder, and Jim Wallis Geoffrey C. Bowden 292
Part IV Intersecting Trajectories: Toward an Evangelical Anabaptist Theology and Praxis
Introduction to Part II 323
12 "Go Tell that Fox!" Evangelical Anabaptist Reflections on Religion and the Public Square Timothy Paul Erdel 325
13 Beyond Anselm: A Biblical and Evangelical Case for Nonviolent Atonement Kirk R. MacGregor 350
14 Evangelical Hermeneutics, Anabaptist Ethics: John Howard Yoder, the Solas, and the Question of War David C. Cramer 379
Afterword Sara Wenger Shenk 407
Index 409
Overview
Anabaptists have often felt suspicious of American evangelicalism, and in turn evangelicals have found various reasons to dismiss the Anabaptist witness. Yet at various points in the past as well as the present, evangelicals and Anabaptists have found ample reason for conversation and much to appreciate about each other. The Activist Impulse represents the first book-length examination of the complex relationship between evangelicalism and Anabaptism in the past thirty years. It brings established experts and new...