Title: Toward an Anabaptist Political Theology
Author: A. James Reimer
Reimer develops a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between church and society so that the church might more effectively understand its role within “the world.”
Title: Peacemaking: A Community Workbook
Author: Matt Balcarras
This workbook encourages everyday peacemaking around kitchen tables, on the playground and at the PTA, in the pew, and at the poll booth.Peace Catalysts: Resolving Conflict in Our Families, Organizations and Communities
Author: Rick Love
In recent years, attention to peacemaking has been reinvigorated among North American Mennonite Brethren. Rick Love’s Peace Catalysts is a timely resource for two important reasons.Killing Enmity: Violence and the New Testament
Author: Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld
It’s easy to find support for claims that the New Testament endorses violence. Within Mennonite communities, for example, people have suffered abuse, believing that New Testament Scripture requires passive submission, unqualified forgiveness, and compliant obedience. Tom Yoder Neufeld acknowledges that New Testament vocabulary, images, and metaphors can “create space for violence, validating, even enshrining violence,” yet argues that the presence of such language is intended to “subvert and finally ‘murder’ violence.”Ecclesial Repentance: The Churches Confront their Sinful Pasts
Author: Jeremy M. Bergen
Church apologies have made headlines of late. Catholics and Protestants have said sorry for (among other sins) racism, persecution, and sexual abuse….God Is Subversive: Talking Peace in a Time of EmpireAuthor: Lee GriffithGod is Subversive is a collection of seven lectures and less formal talks prepared by Lee Griffith – an author, veteran anti-war activist, and Christian anarchist – for the week-long 2007 Peace Fellow in Residence program at Elizabethtown College, a Brethren in Christ school in Lancaster County, Pa. Written to American university students, the book analyzes and critiques life in the American empire in an effort to inspire a life of nonviolent peacemaking under the lordship of Christ.
- Arts & CulturebooksCrosscurrentsMB Herald
Forgiving As We’ve Been Forgiven: Community Practices for Making Peace
Forgiving As We’ve Been Forgiven: Community Practices for Making PeaceAuthors: L. Gregory Jones & Celestin MusekuraIn recent years, Duke Divinity School Center for Reconciliation has produced resources intended to equip God’s people to be “more faithful ambassadors of reconciliation in a fractured world.” Jones and Musekura’s contribution is a slim book (only five chapters) focused on the subject of forgiveness.
You could almost time the passersby’s reaction to us four teenaged guys dressed in baby-blue blazers (purchased at an MCC Thrift Store) perched in the mezzanine of the Steinbach Regional Secondary School gym: a stare, a smirk, and a shake of the head. Our low-budget crew consisted of Marty behind the VHS camera and rickety tripod, Ken holding a microphone duct-taped to a hockey stick (boom mic), and Chris providing colour commentary to my play-by-play call of the games below.
While my wife and I celebrated my graduation from Regent College with our parents, Prince William and Kate Middleton were married in royal style. While Andrea and I whiled away a Sunday afternoon at Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver with our children, Osama bin Laden was assassinated. And that Monday we, along with other Canadians, engineered a “political earthquake” in the federal election.
In a world where change is the only constant, Mennonite Brethren have repeatedly re-examined and renewed our commitment to youth discipleship. The task of passing on a lasting faith has become particularly challenging in recent years. Pundits note that Western culture is increasingly pluralistic. Christian assumptions are no longer shared by the majority. In fact, Christianity is increasingly regarded with suspicion. Church leaders in particular have categorized this new reality with terms such as “postmodern,” “emerging,” or “post-Christian.”
“Staying on TRAC (trajectory, replenishment, awareness, choices)” was the theme for the March 18–19 gathering of Alberta MB congregational representatives at Sunrise Community Church, Edmonton. Yet the theme might have very well been “A new normal.”
It used to be that some folks – especially Mennonites from other denominations – were of the opinion Mennonite Brethren thought too highly of themselves. Maybe people still think that way. And maybe Canadian MBs are overly impressed with themselves; although, if you ask me, I’m not so sure.
About this issue It’s no coincidence we’re talking about listening to each other as we study Scripture in this issue. The Canadian conference’s biennial study conference – a time to practice hermeneutics in community – will take place in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., Oct. 27–29, and we want to begin preparing hearts and minds for this time of Bible study and fellowship.
The day this issue on suffering went to press, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit Japan, sending a huge wave along the country’s coastal regions. We who confess faith in a loving God who is mighty to save receive this disastrous news as particularly troubling as we await rising death tolls.
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