Spring 2021 · Vol. 50 No. 1 · pp. 116–118
Book Review
Nonviolent Word: Anabaptism, the Bible, and the Grain of the Universe
J. Denny Weaver and Gerald Mast. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2020. 182 pages.
J. Denny Weaver, emeritus professor of theology at Bluffton University, and Gerald J. Mast, professor of communication also at Bluffton, have published a book that builds upon their earlier works, but now with a wider scope and surprisingly ecumenical sensitivity.
The position taken by Weaver and Mast can be summarized as a Christocentric approach to the biblical witness, centered not in a Pauline understanding of Christ but in the Gospel narratives of Jesus, in whom the Word of God reveals itself and through whom we come to understand God’s intentions for creation. It is through his presence, through his everlasting endeavor to communicate the Gospel of peace in words and deeds, that Christ reveals to us the Kingdom of the Father.
Nonviolent Word is made up of two parts. In part 1, “Early Anabaptists and the Nonviolent Word of God,” the authors investigate three sources of early Anabaptist theology: the writings of Menno Simons, the writings of Pilgram Marpeck, and The Ausbund. It is surely an original choice to start with The Ausbund as a primary source for investigating how early Anabaptists reflected on the way Christ as the Word of God expressed a spirituality of nonviolence. The Ausbund, the authors claim, stresses that the Word of God does not impose itself. Thus, the Word of God reveals itself as nonviolent. {117}
The writings of Pilgram Marpeck, discussed in the second chapter, stress the nonviolence of the Word of God over against the Lutheran position that Christians were called by God to wield the sword. Taking Marpeck as an example and point of reference demonstrates that the authors are well-informed about the growing interest in the writings of Marpeck as representative of early Anabaptism and an important source for an Anabaptist reading of Scripture that takes Jesus Christ, understood as the nonviolent Word of God, as its starting point. The chapter also discusses Trinitarian theology and the position Marpeck adhered to, making this chapter a fine contribution to the reception and scholarly interpretation of the theological heritage of Marpeck.
The attention the authors spend on the incarnational theology of Menno Simons is surely relevant in this context, as they demonstrate how Menno’s understanding of the undivided divine nature of Christ leads to the rejection of the Lutheran Two Kingdom theology. So, in all three chapters on the sources of Early Anabaptism the authors are able to identify strong arguments for the position that during the early years of Anabaptism Jesus has clearly been regarded as witnessing to the nonviolent Kingdom of God.
Part 2, “Anabaptists and the Contemporary Believers Church,” investigates how current Anabaptists can build upon the insights and the hermeneutical understanding we find in the early Anabaptist sources. The authors advocate a narrative theology instead of a theology that is presented in dogmatic statements, remembering that theological insights always need to be understood as resulting from a particular context.
The chapter “Anabaptist and the Contemporary Believers Church” investigates complex issues such as how to deal with Old Testament texts that seem to witness to a violent God. It offers an open view and relativizes the Anabaptist position as the ultimate understanding of the Word of God to a point that some readers might be disappointed, but which to other readers might be a sign of a refreshing openness to ecumenical dialogue. It also offers a firm basis for a critique of the whiteness of the church, calling upon white Anabaptist churches to become more aware of their own “white privilege.” However, at this point the authors clearly betray their own American context. It would be interesting to listen to the African Anabaptist churches and hear to what extent the categories of whiteness and blackness contribute to their understanding of being an Anabaptist church in their context.
The book’s last chapter is a challenging one. It asks in what way and to what extent the theology and practices of the early Anabaptists can provide a hermeneutic for the contemporary church. For example, when the authors describe adult baptism as a form of civil obedience, one might {118} wonder if they are not making a category mistake. Civil obedience as a strategy of nonviolent resistance has a different motive. Adult baptism or believer’s baptism was understood as a biblical command rather than as a strategic act of nonviolent protest. Nonetheless, in this chapter the reader is challenged to reflect on this idea of an Anabaptist hermeneutic that witnesses to Jesus as “the grain of the universe” and make up his or her own mind.
Connecting theology and quantum theory in their concluding chapter, Weaver and Mast once more demonstrate their openness to new insights and their willingness to offer a vision that is open to further dialogue. The book is instructive and challenging and could well be offered in classes at the undergraduate level. A trained pastor might consider using the book for discussion in the congregation, but it would probably require a lot of extra work to provide community members with further background information on the wide variety of topics the book covers.
