On The Road 42

Earlier this year I took on the job of editing the journal of the Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand, On The Road. This month my first issue came out!
You can download it here. It contains some a paper on Ephesians 4, an article about smacking and family values, a reflection on Gandhi and [...]

Trouble in Amish paradise

Last night ABC showed an interesting British produced documentary about two Amish families in Pennsylvania who were shunned by their church (/community/ family) after they started studying the Bible (in English rather than old German) and questioning some of the rules of the community.
It was a well made documentary, which showed faith in a positive [...]

2009 Anabaptist Conference : New Monasticism

I was at the Anabaptism and New Monasticism conference in Melbourne from 23-26 January. The speakers were all associated with intentional Christian communities and ‘New Monastic’ to lesser or greater extents; the term isn’t one any of the groups had consciously adopted.
I want to share my impressions of four Melbourne communites who spoke (there were [...]

Staying put: vow of stability

Some interesting things in the new issue of On the Road, the journal of the Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand.
In a lengthy article, Mark Hurst explores the common threads of Anabaptism and New Monasticism. He quotes at length from Schlabach’s essay “The vow of stability : a premodern way through a hypermodern [...]

Footwashing, rituals and the monarchy

12When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, [...]

Anabaptism for Baptists: a historical legacy and a theological challenge

This is a talk I gave to a Baptist denominational distinctives class yesterday.
Introduction
We could look at Anabaptism in two ways.
Firstly, as a historical movement in the sixteenth century – the radical reformers. That history is a helpful counterpoint for Baptists as Anabaptists are as important to the Baptist heritage as Luther or Calvin, and yet [...]

‘Two lists’ theology

I’ve been re-reading some of Tom Finger’s Contemporary Anabaptist Theology ahead of a talk I’m giving on Anabaptism, and I was struck by his discussion of the ‘two-lists’ approach to Anabaptist theology.
In the two lists approach, Anabaptists share the standard distinctives of evangelicalism you might find for any evangelical organisation (like the Australian Fellowship of [...]

Why the church must be attractional: an Anabaptist critique of the emerging missional church via Milbank

A few weeks ago, Hamo wrote an interesting post called ‘Why the missional incarnational church is screwed’. He quoted at length from the postliberal theologian John Milbank:
The church cannot be found amongst the merely like-minded, who associate in order to share a particular taste, hobby or perversion. It can only be found where many [...]

Body life #1 : Baptism is entry into a new people

This is the first in a series of six articles first published in Oikos. They are a simplification of John Yoder’s Body Politics Simplified – this time with a specifically house church audience in mind.
Our life together as a church is an important part of the good news we announce to people. This good [...]

The baptist vision blog / meetings for a house church

James McClendon’s work is so important, and I feel ignorant for only having read some of it years ago summarily. I think his idea of a ‘baptist vision’ is good for Anabaptists, as it puts us in touch with our brothers and sisters in similar traditions like the Baptists (capital B!) and the Churches of Christ.
Recently, [...]