Quiet and Peaceable Life: People's Place Book No.2

By John Ruth

          John L. Ruth, a Mennonite storyteller/historian, captures the spirit of Old Order Mennonite and Amish groups in his essays, along with photographs, poetry, and quotations. If the "plain people" of North America are to be understood in terms of their own concerns, we must consider sympathetically their own expressions and the biblical cadences they echo.           Having maintained, with the tolerance of their society, a simple life as "the quiet in the land," these folk still prize such passé virtues as modesty, humility, and obedience to God's will, as interpreted by a disciplined community of faith. Their values, difficult to appreciate in a world bemused by progress, are seldom if ever articulated, except as curiosities, in our mass media. --John L. Ruth, in A Quiet and Peaceable Life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Books
• Release date: Sep 1, 1997
• ISBN: 9781680992625

Book preview

Cover Page of Quiet and Peaceable LifeTitle Page of Quiet and Peaceable Life

Acknowledgments

Page 3, material from The Simone Weil Reader, edited by George Panichas, copyright © 1977 by George Panichas, reprinted by permission of David McKay, Inc. Page 45, material from I Wish I Could Give My Son a Wild Raccoon, by Eliot Wigginton, copyright © 1976 by Reading Is Fundamental, reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Co. and the National Audubon Society Expedition Institute. Page 51, material from The Mennonite Encyclopedia, edited by Cornelius Krahn, copyright © 1955 by Mennonite Publishing House, used by permission of the publisher. Page 63, material from Living More With Less, by Doris Janzen Longacre, copyright © 1980 by Herald Press, reprinted by permission of the publisher. Page 82, quotation from The Humility of God, by John Macquarrie, copyright © 1978 by John Macquarrie, Student Christian Movement Press and Westminster Press, used by permission of the publisher.

Photograph Credits

Cover Credits: Fred A. Curylo (C.P.S. Photo Productions, Kitchener, ON, Canada), front; Kenneth Pellman, back.

Richard Reinhold: 11, 30, 33, 37, 42, 44, 57, 58, 66 (bottom), 70, 79, 84, 89 (bottom); Toledo Blade (Tom O’Reilly): 5, 69; Dr. Schafmeister: 6; Burton Buller: 9; David Hunsberger: 12; Stephen Scott: 14, 89; Stephen Scott collection: 29; Frances Woodruff: 17; Jeff Sprang: 19; Lorena Buch: 20; Beth Oberholtzer: 23, 87; Peter Michael: 24, 61; Louisville Courier-Journal (Barbara Montgomery): 27; Paul Jacobs: 34; Harry Gibbel: 38, 41; Fred J. Wilson: 46-47, 73; George Reimer: 49; Merle Good: 50; Kenneth Pellman: 53; John Ruth: 54; Melvin Liechty: 62, 74, 83; Toronto Globe and Mail: 65; Mennonite Central Committee: 66 (top); Gary Emeigh: 76; Des Moines Register (Carl Voss): 80; James Hertel: 90.

A QUIET AND PEACEABLE LIFE

Copyright © 1979, 1985, 1997 by Good Books, Intercourse, PA 17534

International Standard Book Number: 978-1-56148-232-0

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 85-70284

Originally published, 1979

Revised edition, 1985 (ISBN: 0-93-4672-25-3)

REVISED EDITION, 1997

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner, except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, without permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A quiet and peaceable life / by John L. Ruth.—Rev. ed.—Intercourse, PA: Good Books, c1985.

96 p. : ill.; 22 cm.—(A People’s Place booklet ; no. 2)

Bibliography: p. 92-93.

ISBN 0-934672-25-3 (pbk.)

1. Plain People—North America. I. Title.

BX4951.N7R87   1985      289.7,73—dcl9   85-70284

AACR 2 MARC

Contents

Preface

A Biblical Theme

Not That Outward Adorning

Simple, Substantial, and Beautiful

Humus and Humanity

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Salt and Light

Notes on Photographs

Readings and Sources

The Author

Preface

If the plain people of North America are to be understood in terms of their own concerns, we must consider sympathetically their own expressions and the biblical cadences they echo. Having maintained, with the tolerance of their society, a simple life as "the quiet in the