Tag: Harold Bender

Goshen College

Mennonites, Evangelicals, and the Sexuality Debate in Christian Higher Ed (Devin Manzullo-Thomas)

August 12, 2015

Today we welcome back to the blog Devin Manzullo-Thomas, director of the Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan Studies at Messiah College. I’ve asked Devin — whose research often takes him to the intersection between Anabaptist and Evangelical Christianity — to provide some perspective on the decision by two Mennonite members of the Council for Christian … More Mennonites, Evangelicals, and the Sexuality Debate in Christian Higher Ed (Devin Manzullo-Thomas)

Devin Manzullo-Thomas

An Interview with Sider Institute Director Devin Manzullo-Thomas

October 16, 2013

Today I’m happy to introduce readers to Devin Manzullo-Thomas, the new director of the Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan Studies at Messiah College. Actually, frequent readers may already recognize Devin’s name, as I’ve mentioned his work from time to time — including his contribution to the Covenant Quarterly issue on Pietism that I … More An Interview with Sider Institute Director Devin Manzullo-Thomas

Sattler Hall at Fresno Pacific

The Usable Past of Christian Colleges

August 10, 2011

Today I’m starting a new series that builds on a talk I gave at Bethel last spring. It takes up the thesis that Pietism has a “usable past” capable of distinctively and beneficially shaping Christian higher education. Pages and pages have been written on Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran, Anabaptist, and other Christian traditions and how their … More The Usable Past of Christian Colleges

Benson Great Hall at Bethel University

What Pietists Can Learn from the Anabaptist Vision

August 4, 2011

Today we come to the end of a series that has looked at 20th century (neo)Anabaptist critiques of Pietism, starting with Harold Bender‘s influential “Anabaptist Vision” speech and Robert Friedmann‘s famously anti-Pietist “thesis.” After a pause to sum up that critique and look at its continuing influence, we examined how revisionist and post-revisionist Anabaptist historians … More What Pietists Can Learn from the Anabaptist Vision

Memorial to Thomas Müntzer, Stolberg

The Anabaptist Revision

July 19, 2011

This afternoon we’ll pick up our series examining the critique of Pietism bound up in the “Anabaptist vision” promoted by Harold Bender and like-minded Mennonite scholars in the mid-20th century. Last time I noted that Bender’s critique (as substantially developed by Robert Friedmann) continued to influence neo-Anabaptist scholars like the young Mennonite Brethren professors who … More The Anabaptist Revision

Goshen College

Taking Stock: Anabaptist Critiques of Pietism

July 13, 2011

For the third part of my series on (neo)Anabaptist critiques of Pietism, I’d like to pause, sum up the points of criticism, and invite readers’ responses before moving on. In the first entry in the series, we reviewed Harold Bender’s “Anabaptist Vision” speech, then continued in part 2 with the “Friedmann thesis” promulgated by Robert … More Taking Stock: Anabaptist Critiques of Pietism

Amish Children singing Christmas carols

The Anabaptist Vision

June 30, 2011

Now that our series on teaching the history of World War I in Europe (“Over There”) is well underway, I’m starting a new (though somewhat less frequently updated) series stemming from my research into Pietism and higher education, in which we consider some significant (neo)Anabaptist critiques of Pietism. Growing up in suburban evangelical churches, I … More The Anabaptist Vision