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An Anabaptism that engages culture

James N. Pankratz

Artists, Citizens, Philosophers: Seeking the Peace of the City Duane K. Friesen. Waterloo, Ont./Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2000. 352 pp. $25.29.

This important and valuable book by Duane Friesen, professor of Bible and religion at Bethel College in Kansas, is a strong argument against the common belief that Anabaptists reject culture. It builds a Christ-centred and Trinitarian theology of the church as an alternative culture, and then describes how Christians can engage culture in the spirit of Jeremiah, who advised the exiles to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you . . . for its welfare is your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7).

Those who are involved in “seeker” churches, trying to engage our culture and avoid being seduced by it, will be helped greatly by the description of the “focal practices” of the church as an alternative society (ch. 5). Those seeking practical suggestions for being “in and not of the world” will appreciate the “Guidelines for Christian Citizenship” (ch. 7). Those interested in the “Christ and Culture” debate that has gone on for the last 100 years will find that material here (chs. 2 & 7). Chapter six discusses the artistic imagination and the life of the Spirit, and chapter eight deals with how we can be discerning in our response to the human “wisdom” that surrounds us on all sides in other people’s religions, in science and in ethics.

Nearly all of our daily lives are deeply intertwined in our culture through our neighbours, our work, our entertainment, and our involvement in civic life. Most of us don’t have a very good theological or ethical framework for how we live. Many of us have a nagging feeling that our Anabaptist identity requires us to be more separate from the world than we really are. We feel vaguely uncomfortable (guilty) about this, but we’re unsure of what the problem is and how to fix it.

This book addresses all of those issues theologically and practically. This is a book for pastors, teachers, and those who have been waiting for a fresh word on this subject.

James N. Pankratz is academic dean at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in Fresno, Calif.

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Last modified May 17, 2001.

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