Transitioning toward historic anabaptism

[MennoSimons1998]

I asked if historical Anabaptists had any love for the Divine Comedy because ironically, it was a quite popular book with German Protestant reformers of the 16th century, the region and era where the Anabaptists originated from and lived in despite their persecutions, its first translation into the German language was by the Lutheran pastor Conrad Lauterbach, who translated it specifically with the agenda of using it as an anti-Catholic polemic.

These Lutheran reformers went as far as to claiming Dante as one of their own and hailing him as a Proto-Protestant hero, given how he portrayed corrupt Popes being tormented in hell, and his overall criticism of the corruptions of the church, even though Dante remained a faithful Roman Catholic his whole life, and his soteriology is firmly synergistic, and at odds with the monergism of the Lutherans and the Reformed of the 16th century.

So Dante's synergism is closer to the Anabaptist and Arminian view, but in the end, let us not go overdrive with the anachronism, and say that Dante fell into binaries and categories that were only formulated centuries after he died.

https://cc.lutherclassical.org/autumn-2 ... ne-comedy/

[cmbl]

cmbl, you can tell me if you want this discussed elsewhere...

It seems to me that some groups of Anabaptists are transitioning towards historic Anabaptism in some ways while transitioning away from it in other ways. I'd even go so far as to suggest that most groups are doing this. Each group picks out a few things they want to focus on that is in harmony with early Anabaptists while doing one or more of the following.
1. adopting from a smorgasbord of other ideas and practices that most early Anabaptists would be quite shocked at
2. trying to freeze certain contemporary or "golden era" ideas or practices that most early Anabaptists would be quite shocked at
3. resorting to maintenance mode which results in the net value decreasing each generation because of energy degradation and dissipation

I think that is worthy of its own thread, not because I want it "off" of "mine," but because it's a subtle and very interesting topic in its own right.

Cmbl, what is the historic Anabaptism you refer to in the title. The first decade?

Not necessarily the first decade. One of the books on my shelf is "Later Writings of the Swiss Anabaptists" up to 1592. But it need not be even that length of time either.

To describe what I am thinking about more generally, things like -
Restoring the Schleitheim and Dordrecht confessions to prominence
Understanding ourselves as part of the Anabaptist movement, instead of "Protestants plus nonconformity and nonresistance"
I think Jaran mentioned a soteriology that is consonant with Anabaptism. So moving back from two-trackism and revivalism toward more Anabaptist understandings and emphasis on new birth and repentance and the amendment of life.

[barnhart]

Not necessarily the first decade. One of the books on my shelf is "Later Writings of the Swiss Anabaptists" up to 1592. But it need not be even that length of time either.

To describe what I am thinking about more generally, things like -
Restoring the Schleitheim and Dordrecht confessions to prominence
Understanding ourselves as part of the Anabaptist movement, instead of "Protestants plus nonconformity and nonresistance"
I think Jaran mentioned a soteriology that is consonant with Anabaptism. So moving back from two-trackism and revivalism toward more Anabaptist understandings and emphasis on new birth and repentance and the amendment of life.

I like the way you think.

[JohnH]

So moving back from two-trackism and revivalism toward more Anabaptist understandings and emphasis on new birth and repentance and the amendment of life.

Isn't this to a large part simply returning to Old Order views on things?

It begs the question of why not simply fully embrace the OO - they were clearly right about a lot of things.

[cmbl]

So moving back from two-trackism and revivalism toward more Anabaptist understandings and emphasis on new birth and repentance and the amendment of life.

Isn't this to a large part simply returning to Old Order views on things?

It begs the question of why not simply fully embrace the OO - they were clearly right about a lot of things.

It certainly does raise the question...but which OO group? Haven't the car Old Orders become transitional by taking in horse-and-buggy people?

[barnhart]

...So moving back from two-trackism and revivalism toward more Anabaptist understandings and emphasis on new birth and repentance and the amendment of life.

Could you explain what you have in mind for the term "two-trackism".

[JohnH]

It certainly does raise the question...but which OO group? Haven't the car Old Orders become transitional by taking in horse-and-buggy people?

Some of the OO groups are transitional, such as the "non strict shunning" Amish (including the Old Order Amish, the biggest gorup). Others are not. It basically comes down to whether or not such a group relies on "recruiting" from other plain Anabaptist groups.

Generally speaking, I think the Bible teaches us to go into all the nations and preach the gospel, not go into all the other plain churches and repeat the gospel. A healthy church seeks to draw in people from the surrounding community who are not already faithful Christians.