cover image Through Fire and Water: An Overview of Mennonite History

Through Fire and Water: An Overview of Mennonite History

Harry Loewen. Herald Press, $15.99 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-8361-9015-1

In 1536, Dutch priest Menno Simons renounced his connection with the Roman Catholic Church and joined the Anabaptists to form his own congregation. Practicing baptism by immersion, the autonomy of the local church and the priesthood of the individual believer, Simons's new Christian sect, called Mennonites, soon spread from the Netherlands to the rest of Europe and, eventually, to America. Out of the Mennonite church grew other Christian sectarian movements like the Moravians and the Amish, who retained the Mennonite emphasis on pacificism but diverged in other important ways from the theological doctrines of the Mennonites. This marvelous book traces the history and teaching of the Mennonite church from its roots in New Testament Christianity through the emergence of Anabaptism in the 16th century and the settlement of Mennonites in North America to the contemporary work of Mennonites around the world. In accessible prose sometimes spiced with cartoons, the authors recount the struggles and successes of Mennonites to establish their religious traditions in an often inhospitable world and provide a balanced and humorous overview of Mennonite history. (Aug.)