Who's Who

Christian ethics and theology with an Anabaptist perspective
MaxPC
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Re: Who's Who

Post by MaxPC »

Heirbyadoption, can you give us some input from a Brethren perspective?

Bill Rushby, what about the Quakers re this query?
MaxPC wrote:With the mention of so many notable personages both past and present in the history of Amish, Brethren, Mennonite, Hutterite, etc. I thought it would be interesting to see the list come together in one thread.

If you don't mind, would you share about those who you feel have had a considerable influence on your church? They can be past or present.
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Max (Plain Catholic)
Mt 24:35
Proverbs 18:2 A fool does not delight in understanding but only in revealing his own mind.
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God
lesterb
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Re: Who's Who

Post by lesterb »

Most of the names I would have given 25 years ago have let me down. Humans tend to do that. I'm supposing that there are people out there who would say the same about me. My wife and I have both discovered the hard way that the only way to remain stable emotionally and spiritually is to get our eyes off men and onto Christ.

So I honestly don't know what to say. If I dig back into history, probably my number one hero would be Michael Sattler. When you go further back in history, there are enough personal details available to make me feel comfortable with giving any nominations. The people that I tend to admire, for some reason, have mostly come from the fringes of history.
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Bootstrap
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Re: Who's Who

Post by Bootstrap »

I'd probably add this: I think one of the reasons there's little response on this thread is that Max is asking the question as though Mennonites were fundamentally more like Catholics than we are. We don't have saints or popes or orders founded by particular people. We don't have a Blue Army and a Charismatic Renewal and a large Marriage Encounter movement and Agnus Dei and other such groups.

I don't we tell our story the same way that Catholics might tell theirs among themselves.

It's not that we don't have important formative personages. But you probably have to ask the question a different way to get a straight answer from us.
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lesterb
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Re: Who's Who

Post by lesterb »

lesterb wrote:Most of the names I would have given 25 years ago have let me down. Humans tend to do that. I'm supposing that there are people out there who would say the same about me. My wife and I have both discovered the hard way that the only way to remain stable emotionally and spiritually is to get our eyes off men and onto Christ.

So I honestly don't know what to say. If I dig back into history, probably my number one hero would be Michael Sattler. When you go further back in history, there are aren't enough personal details available to make me feel comfortable with giving any nominations. The people that I tend to admire, for some reason, have mostly come from the fringes of history.
Note correction above.
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MaxPC
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Re: Who's Who

Post by MaxPC »

lesterb wrote:
lesterb wrote:Most of the names I would have given 25 years ago have let me down. Humans tend to do that. I'm supposing that there are people out there who would say the same about me. My wife and I have both discovered the hard way that the only way to remain stable emotionally and spiritually is to get our eyes off men and onto Christ.

So I honestly don't know what to say. If I dig back into history, probably my number one hero would be Michael Sattler. When you go further back in history, there are aren't enough personal details available to make me feel comfortable with giving any nominations. The people that I tend to admire, for some reason, have mostly come from the fringes of history.
Note correction above.
I'm pretty much on the same page as you, Lester re mortal personages. At the same time I like the contributions of Michael Sattler, Martin Luther, Jakob Hutter, etc.

I think there are moments of inspired influence from many individuals who helped the Anabaptist vision. I hope I'm not confusing this: I'm not wanting to crown these men as heroes or saints. I'm interested only in how they've influenced that vision.
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Max (Plain Catholic)
Mt 24:35
Proverbs 18:2 A fool does not delight in understanding but only in revealing his own mind.
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God
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Bootstrap
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Re: Who's Who

Post by Bootstrap »

MaxPC wrote: At the same time I like the contributions of Michael Sattler, Martin Luther, Jakob Hutter, etc.
How would you describe their contributions? What do they mean to you as a Catholic?
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Bootstrap
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Re: Who's Who

Post by Bootstrap »

lesterb wrote:My wife and I have both discovered the hard way that the only way to remain stable emotionally and spiritually is to get our eyes off men and onto Christ.
Exactly. And if it can't be explained in fairly simple terms as a way of putting your focus on Christ and following him, someone is probably overthinking something. Most of the time, we aren't all that accurate in our understanding of the church between the time of the Bible and the time of Constantine, and we often mung our Anabaptist history too, but the real problem is that we are in danger of giving these things more importance than the early Anabaptists did.

Lots of people have done a great job of pointing us toward Christ and showing us good examples of discipleship. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. But they are all witnesses to Christ.
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MaxPC
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Re: Who's Who

Post by MaxPC »

MaxPC wrote: I think there are moments of inspired influence from many individuals who helped the Anabaptist vision. I hope I'm not confusing this: I'm not wanting to crown these men as heroes or saints. I'm interested only in how they've influenced that vision.
Are there others who would care to share their personal perspective (as opposed to an academic discussion)?

What about Brethren, Quaker, Amish in addition to Mennonite?
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Max (Plain Catholic)
Mt 24:35
Proverbs 18:2 A fool does not delight in understanding but only in revealing his own mind.
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God
RZehr
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Re: Who's Who

Post by RZehr »

There are living people that have influenced me, and my church. But I have a problem with your question. 'Who's Who' has a smell of lifting these people up. I'm uncomfortable lifting up our peoples names as someone great. While I doubt the men I could mention read MennoNet, this type of thing can stoke other mens ambitions. It gives men someone to compare themselves, a way to measure our 'greatness'. We like to see our name in print. We all want to be somebody. I'd rather not provoke or fan these tendencies.

Having said that, I suppose had you framed this in a little different way, I may not have the reaction I have.
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Wade
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Re: Who's Who

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