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CURRENTLY IN BOOKS
Anabaptism primer outlines core beliefs, values

David Giesbrecht

From Anabaptist Seed: The Historical Core of Anabaptist-Related Identity Arnold C. Snyder. Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora Press, 1999. 54 pp.

As the title indicates, this book distills core beliefs and values of the Anabaptist faith. Two major doctrines (knowing God’s will and finding salvation), four ordinances (baptism, church discipline, the Lord’s Supper, footwashing) and three discipleship values (truth-telling, economic sharing, pacifism) are outlined. The format is distinctly user-friendly with numerous sidebars citing documentary sources and scriptural references. Questions are appended to each section, facilitating discussion and practical application.

The Mennonite World Conference commissioned the author, who is a faculty member at Conrad Grebel College in Waterloo, Ont., to write this book as a means of stimulating theological discussion within the global Mennonite community. Anyone who is searching for material that simply and accurately identifies some basic components of historic Anabaptism will be well served by this primer. As the author succinctly reminds his readers, Anabaptists have “thought and struggled much with issues of faithful living. It is this [experience] that the Anabaptist tradition brings . . . to the common Christian table.”

David Giesbrecht is a former librarian at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C.

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Last modified April 26, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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