Tongue Screws and Testimonies, a book of essays, poems and artwork reflecting on the Martyrs Mirror, is written by insiders for insiders. In the introductory essay, Kirsten Beachy, the editor, states that this volume reflects a wide variety of opinions and attitudes to the role that the Martyrs Mirror has played and is playing the Anabaptist community.
Enough with trying to save the world – that’s an impossible and thankless job. Our real task is to save Baby Jaguar. As I sit on the living room couch with my youngest child nestled on my lap and a “Dora the Explorer” book in my hand, I’ve concluded that we can accomplish this task with God’s help. Then there will be some peace in the world.
This highly detailed and comprehensive biography of Wilhelm H Falk (1892-1976), founding bishop of the Rudnerweide Mennonite conference, is an important addition to the history of Mennonites, particularly in southern Manitoba. It provides a rich account of that era with an acknowledged bias in favour of the subject—Bishop Falk.
It's not clear whether the police chief considers himself a Mennonite.
Small Town Murder Songs is a Canadian movie with a Mennonite connection, first shown at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. The story, set in what is supposedly a small Mennonite town in Ontario, deals with a local police chief who tries to solve a distressing rape and murder case.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who spoke out against the Nazis, has been a controversial figure. Mennonites have valued him for his book, The Cost of Discipleship, but many people don’t know how to interpret his involvement in the plot to kill Hitler.
Nightwatch is a gentle and introspective book, written by an outsider who has chosen to live within a Hutterite community. This outsider perspective reveals different facets of the culture and community than books written from within (such as I am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby).
Soltan Somjee
Just released in Canada Chanting Denied Shores by Tariq Malik is a book I have been waiting for. This is an historical novel based on the true story of the Komagata Maru, a ship carrying 376 Indian immigrants who were denied permission to land in Canada.
Despite the polarizing rhetoric that's flowing in the media and on the Internet, McDonald never actually says in her book that evangelicals and other religious conservatives aren't free to pursue their political goals in a democratic country. --Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun
I am not exactly a fan of the Christian Right. I was therefore surprised at my growing negative reaction as I read McDonald’s engaging description of the rise of the Christian Right in Canada.
In a culture that places a high premium on the consumer marketplace, U.S. churches have become too willing to embrace a "market mentality" in trying to attract followers, says a new book by a journalist who is an ordained minister.
About Those Reimers vividly demonstrates how much of one’s life is determined by factors outside one’s control. Elizabeth Reimer Bartel begins her memoir, not with her birth, but with the Mennonites, their movements, and a view of the city of Steinbach in the East Reserve of Manitoba, where a group of them settled in the 1870s.
Late in his life, Guy F. Hershberger reflected that 1944 had been a watershed year for the Mennonite Church. That year Hershberger’s book, War, Peace and Nonresistance, was published as was Harold Bender’s essay, “The Anabaptist Vision.”
The document that helped lay the foundation for the historic reconciliation in July 2010 between Lutherans and Mennonites is now available as a downloadable document.
"Depicting the sojourn of a man--who happens to be a pastor"
This is a jewel of a book: its structure, seamless use of metaphor, the powerful quest motif and the humour make it a captivating and stimulating read.
The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith. Stuart Murray. Herald Press, 2010, 191 pages.
To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. James Davison Hunter. Oxford University Press, 2010, 358 pages.
Mennonite German Soldiers: Nation, Religion, and Family in the Prussian East, 1772–1880, by Mark Jantzen. University of Notre Dame Press, 2010, 384 pages.
The Gift of Difference: Radical Orthodoxy, Radical Reformation. Chris K. Huebner and Tripp York, eds. Canadian Mennonite University Press, 2010, 240 pages.
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home. Rhoda Janzen. Henry Holt and Company, 2009, 241 pages.
My sister lent me her copy of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress saying, “You’ll hate it, but you’ve got to read this book!” I sat down to read it that afternoon and was surprised that I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would.
