A Stanley Hauerwas Weekend Reader
Having completed the majority of assigned historical readings in my independent study of Anabaptist Theology, my wise theology professor saw fit to expose me to Stanley Hauerwas works.
Stanley Hauerwas is United Methodist theologian, Christian Ethicist, and Professor of Law. Hauerwas’s work is characterized by a dedication to non-violence, anti-nationalism, and a serious disregard for Biblical interpretations and/or the hermeneutic methodologies of the liberal left and fundamentalist right. He’s all about the Gospel. It is a dedication that resonates. His mentor was Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder; thus his Anabaptist tendencies in the UMC setting. So, this weekend, I’m reading Unleashing the Scripture: Freeing the Bible from Captivity to America, and The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics. I’m a little shy of halfway through each, at this point. So far, I’m saying a lot of “Hallelujahs!” Hauerwas hits the mark often, and sometimes pretty bluntly too (his thoughts on ethics are really making me think). The following are a few excerpted examples of his accuracy in the aforementioned texts: Read More »
The Anabaptist Approach and Expressed Uniqueness
The Anabaptist approach to the Bible is historically Christocentric, and staunchly so. Christocentrism is still the hermeneutic of choice. I believe this dedication to Christocentrism has everything to do with the expression’s uniqueness. Anabaptism is different from Catholicism and most Protestant expressions. Too, Anabaptism seems to me to be a much “fuller” expression of that toward which contemporary Evangelicalism merely points, especially in this present USAmerican context of very, very tired red & blue religious discussion(s). There is an alternative! Anabaptism! Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, Brethren in Christ (my pond), and Hutterites carry on the historical tradition of trekking toward something, or someplace, well beyond Christendom, and for good reason too. There is something incredibly sacred there … Read More »
Christus Victor in Anabaptist Christology
Personal Notes & thoughts on Christology (re: how Jesus saves), taken while reading p.329-365 Thomas N. Finger’s “A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology” (Thomas N. Finger, A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology: Biblical, Historical, Constructive. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004).
On Formal Christology: Formal Christology often distinguishes Jesus’ person from his work. Formal Christology usually begins with the person of Christ and a focus upon his divinity and then moves toward his divinity’s connection to/with humanity. This approach to Christology only moves toward the examination of soteriology - or what Jesus did to usher in salvation (i.e., his life/work) - after the person of Christ and his divinity is established. This approach to Christology actually mirrors that of systematic theology, generally speaking. Systematic theology, in other words, begins with God and then moves toward what God actually means for humanity. Read More »
Self-Willed Disobedience and Alienation from God
My readings in Classic Anabaptist theology have led me to the following articulate statement re: Christian Soteriology offered by C. Arnold Snyder in a work titled Following in the Footsteps of Christ: The Anabaptist Tradition. It says, simply: Read More »
The Story of Dirk Willems
In the year 1569, a pious and faithful brother by the name of Dirk Willems was apprehended at Asperen, Holland, and charged with the crime of being re-baptized as an adult. Concerning his apprehension, it is stated by trustworthy persons that when he fled, he was hotly pursued by a thief-catcher. There had been cold weather the night before and Dirk took a shortcut over a frozen pond. However, when the thief-catcher tried to follow him, the thin ice gave way and the thief-catcher broke through. Dirk perceived that his would-be captor was in danger of his life, so he quickly returned and helped him out of the water, thus saving his life. Read More »
The Schleitheim Articles: February 24th 1527
A historic document titled The Schleitheim Articles: Brotherly Union of a Number of Children of God Concerning Seven Articles represents the first systematic articulation of Swiss Anabaptist theological positions. The Schleitheim Articles also represents an organizational peak within the Swiss Anabaptist movement. Read More »
Schleitheim Article I: Concerning Baptism
Baptism shall be given to all those who have been taught repentance and the amendment of life and [who] believe truly that their sins are taken away through Christ, and to all those who desire to walk in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and be buried with Him in death, so that they might rise with Him; to all those who with such an understanding themselves desire and request it from us; hereby is excluded all infant baptism, the greatest and first abomination of the pope. For this you have the reasons and the testimony of the writings and the practice of the apostles (Mt. 28:19; Mk. 16:6; Acts 2:38; Acts 8:36; Acts 16:31-33; 19:4). We wish simply yet resolutely and with assurance to hold to the same.
Schleitheim Article II: Concerning The Ban
We have been united as follows concerning the ban. The ban shall be employed with all those who have given themselves over to the Lord, to walk after [Him] in His commandments; those who have been baptized into the one body of Christ, and let themselves be called brothers or sisters, and still somehow slip and fall into error and sin, being inadvertently overtaken. The same [shall] be warned twice privately and the third time be publicly admonished before the entire congregation according to the command of Christ (Mt. 18). But this shall be done according to the ordering of the Spirit of God before the breaking of bread. So that we may all in one spirit and in one love break and eat from one bread and drink from one cup.
Schleitheim Article III: Concerning The Breaking Of Bread
Concerning the breaking of bread, we have become one and agree thus: all those who desire to break the one bread in remembrance of the broken body of Christ and all those who wish to drink of one drink in remembrance of the shed blood of Christ, they must beforehand be united in the one body of Christ, that is the congregation of God, whose head is Christ, and that by baptism. For as Paul indicates (1 Cor. 10:21), we cannot be partakers at the same time of the table of the Lord and the table of devils. Nor can we at the same time partake and drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. That is: all those who follow the devil and the world, have no part with those who have been called out of the world unto God. All those who lie in evil have no part in the good. Read More »
Schleitheim Article IV: Concerning Separation
We have been united concerning the separation that shall take place from the evil and the wickedness which the devil has planted in the world, simply in this; that we have no fellowship with them, and do not run with them in the confusion of their abominations. So it is; since all who have not entered into the obedience of faith and have not united themselves with God so that they will to do His will, are a great abomination before God, therefore nothing else can or really will grow or spring forth from them than abominable things. Now there is nothing else in the world and all creation than good or evil, believing and unbelieving, darkness and light, the world and those who are [come] out of the world, God’s temple and idols. Christ and Belial, and none will have part with the other. Read More »