Transition from North American to global scholarship envisioned

The first Mennonite historical library celebrated its 100th birthday this year.

When it was founded in June 1906 at Goshen (Ind.) College, the Mennonite Historical Library took up only a few shelves. Today, the collection devoted to Anabaptist–Mennonite history holds nearly 65,000 volumes.

At the centennial celebration in May, John A. Lapp, coordinator of the Global Mennonite History Project, reflected on changes in Anabaptist–Mennonite studies in the last 100 years.

In 1906, he said, there were only two North American Mennonites with graduate-level education who had done academic research and writing in Mennonite history: C.H. Wedel and C. Henry Smith.

Today, nearly all Mennonite colleges and seminaries have on faculty a scholar trained in Anabaptist and Mennonite history, and there are at least 90 centres for collecting, studying, and promoting Mennonite and Anabaptist studies in the U.S. and Canada in addition to the schools.

Lapp said one of the biggest changes is the growing impact of electronic media. Mennonite demographics have also changed significantly; there are now 1.3 million Mennonites worldwide.

“One of the major tasks for Mennonite studies in the future will be to find creative ways to broaden our tradition and to welcome new ways of expressing the tradition within the context of the new global majority,” he said.

MHL curator Joe Springer agreed. “We need to learn better how to track and acquire publications produced by Mennonite populations outside of Europe and North America.”

—Goshen College release