Anabaptists in the Encyclopedias (via Mowser)

Sermons by Eli Hofer
03/14/01
08/22/01
08/11/02

The Writings of Ulrich Stadler
Volume 1
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The Church and the Narrow Path

Things Hutterite

To Vote or not to Vote

Two Ways

Way of the Lord

Which Kingdom?

Modern views as given in various encyclopedias

The Catholic Encyclopedia: "Anabaptists - A violent and extremely radical body of ecclesiastico-civil reformers which first made its appearance in 1521 at Zwickau, in the present kingdom of Saxony, and still exists in milder forms."
(See www.newadvent.org)

The Reformed Churches: Article 36 of the Belgic Confession, written in 1561, states: "Wherefore we detest the Anabaptists and other seditious people, and in general all those who reject the higher powers and magistrates, and would subvert justice, introduce community of goods, and confound that decency and good order, which God hath established among men." (See www.prca.org)

The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia: "Anabaptists name applied, originally in scorn, to certain Christian sects holding that infant baptism is not authorized in Scripture, but that baptism should be administered only to believers. Prominent in Europe during the 16th cent., they were persecuted everywhere. Their chief leaders were Thomas MüNZER and JOHN OF LEIDEN. MENNONITES and Hutterites are descended from them."
(See www.encyclopedia.com)

The ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA: "Anabaptist also called Rebaptizer, member of radical, or left-wing, movement of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. Its most distinctive tenet was adult Baptism."
(See www.britannica.com)

The Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia: "[Anabaptism] was identified by insistence on discipleship as the essence of Christianity, on the church as a brotherhood, and on an ethic of love and nonresistance. This became the normative description of Anabaptism. In this view, evangelical Anabaptism arose with the Swiss Brethren, and by transmission became part of Netherlands Anabaptism and of the Hutterites. Thus was Anabaptism given unity and clearly distinguished from Catholicism, from Protestantism, and from other 16th-century dissenting groups...."

"Despite the variety of viewpoints among 16th-century Anabaptists, despite important differences of nuance even where Anabaptists appear to be similar, one may hazard to identify some themes held in common following the crystallization of the movement between 1527 and 1540. (1) All shared a basically synergistic view of salvation (human and divine "cooperation"). Justification was seen as progression in holiness; the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount was the guide to it. (2) Baptism was considered to be the sign of lay emancipation from clerical control and the spiritual enfranchisement of lay people (priesthood of all believers). (3) Anabaptists developed a Gemeindechristentum centered on the congregation, in contrast to the clericalized territorial churches, both Catholic and Protestant..."

"Most significant is the integrative rewriting of the history of Anabaptism in the Netherlands. Melchior Hoffman is acknowledged as its progenitor, as the person who gave the movement its basic apocalyptic stamp. The differences that appear along the "peaceful" to "revolutionary" spectrum can be accounted for by differing nuances in the era's widespread apocalyptic expectation (Klaassen, 1986). A clear line stretches from Hoffman to Rothmann, Menno Simons, and David Joris on apocalyptic anticipation. Very similar formulations of apocalyptic views on secular government and on the incarnation are found in Hoffman, Rothmann, and Menno Simons (Voolstra, 1982; Stayer, 1972, 1978, 1986). The work of these scholars has therefore shown that in some important respects there was a single movement from Hoffman to Menno."
(See www.gameo.org)

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