The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith

By Stuart Murray

Click here to read the introduction to The Naked Anabaptist.

In churches and kitchens and neighborhood centers across the world, communities of Jesus-followers are crafting a vision of radical service, simple living, and commitment to peace. Many are finding a home in a Christian tradition almost five centuries old: Anabaptism.

Who are the Anabaptists? What do they believe? Where did they come from? What makes them different from other Christians? And can you become an Anabaptist without leaving your own church?

Follow Stuart Murray as he peels back the layers to reveal the core convictions of Anabaptist Christianity, a way of following Jesus that challenges, disturbs, and inspires. Glimpse an alternative to nationalistic, materialistic, individualistic Christian faith. If you are seeking a community of authentic discipleship, heartfelt worship, sacrificial service, and radical peacemaking, consider this your invitation.

This new edition features:

• Voices and stories from North America and the global church.
• Updated and expanded definition and discussion of Christendom.
• Updated resource section.

Free downloadable study guide available here.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Herald Press
• Release date: Oct 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9780836199840

Stuart Murray

Stuart Murray helps direct the Anabaptist Network in Great Britain, and serves the network as a trainer and consultant with particular interest in urban mission, church planting, and emerging forms of church. He has written several books on church planting, urban mission, emerging church, the challenge of post-Christendom, and the contribution of the Anabaptist tradition to contemporary missiology. He is the author of The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith, Planting Churches in the 21st Century: A Guide for Those Who Want Fresh Perspectives and New Ideas for Creating Congregations, and Church Planting: Laying Foundations.

Book preview

1

Uncovering Anabaptists

Anabaptists All Over the Place

The Anabaptists are back! announced an American author a few years ago in a book with this title.¹ He was intrigued by growing interest in the Anabaptist tradition in North America, where Mennonite, Hutterite, and Amish communities have long been part of the religious scene. Christians from many other traditions were discovering the practices and convictions of these quiet, often withdrawn communities—and finding them surprisingly relevant in contemporary culture. Something similar seems to have been happening in Britain and Ireland. Anabaptists are becoming visible in a society where, unlike in North America, they were not part of the religious scene until recently.

The Anabaptist Network was launched in 1991 to serve Christians from many churches and denominations in Britain and Ireland who had stumbled across Anabaptism and wanted more resources and opportunities to learn together. During the past twenty or so years, many others have joined the network or have contacted us with comments or questions that have become familiar:

I’m so relieved to find others who believe what I do. People in my church think I’m crazy when I go on about these things.

You Anabaptists seem to be popping up all over the place.

What is an Anabaptist?

What do Anabaptists think about …?

Where is the nearest Anabaptist church to me?

Our first attempt to respond to this interest and answer these questions was a collection of stories, published in 2000 under the title Coming Home: Stories of Anabaptists in Britain and Ireland.² Anabaptism is a story-rich tradition, so presenting the stories of about sixty Christians who identified with the Anabaptist tradition seemed appropriate. These stories recount how the contributors discovered Anabaptism and what attracted them.

The theme of coming home emerged so often in these stories that it became the title of the book. It was not that the Anabaptists were back—there had hardly been any Anabaptists in Britain and Ireland for the past four centuries—but that those who discovered Anabaptism experienced this encounter, as I did, as a homecoming. Here were other Christians who shared our convictions about discipleship, community, peace, and mission.

In the past few years Anabaptists have become even more visible—and vocal—in Britain and Ireland. We have continued to organize conferences and study groups in different parts of the country, but there is also now a consortium of a dozen or more Anabaptist-

flavored organizations involved in all kinds of activities, ranging from church planting to training programs, conflict transformation to media work, restorative justice and peacemaking to a political think tank. There is also an emerging network of communities—study groups, emerging churches, and more established congregations—that is drawing on Anabaptist perspectives and learning together. And we have received invitations to contribute an Anabaptist perspective in books and conversations on various subjects, including church and state, the atonement, diaconal ministry, the Alpha course, and the emerging church.

Surprisingly for a tradition routinely accused of being sectarian, interest in Anabaptism today is remarkably ecumenical and boundary crossing. On the Anabaptist Network’s website are stories of Christians from several denominations who have been drawn to Anabaptism. Although many are from evangelical backgrounds, Christians from liberal, charismatic, Reformed, Pentecostal, Catholic, and Anglo-Catholic backgrounds are also represented. This strange ecumenism is worrying to some but deeply attractive to others. Writers from many traditions have spoken warmly of Anabaptism, some suggesting it is a movement whose time has come and a way of being Christian that makes sense in post-Christendom culture.

In some European languages there is no distinction between Christianity and Christendom, but it is vital that we differentiate these terms. Christendom was the way in which the Christian faith was embodied in European culture in the centuries after Constantine made Christianity the imperial religion. It was a historical era, a geographical region, a political arrangement, and an ideology. Within the boundaries of Christendom, almost all were assumed to be Christian and dissent was suppressed. Christendom was a remarkable attempt to Christianize a whole culture, but partnership with the state resulted in collusion with status, wealth, imposition, and violence. This Christendom ideology was exported to other parts of the world, including North America, although it took shape differently in these contexts. Post-Christendom is the culture that emerges as this long era of church history comes to an end and we explore alternative, and perhaps more authentic, ways of being Christians in societies we no longer control.³

We have also noticed that a number of people attending our conferences have had no recent church connection. Indeed, some would not call themselves Christians at all. I had a conversation at one event with an anarchist who was fascinated by the Anabaptist tradition. And one of the stories on the website was written by an ex-atheist ex-Buddhist, who has found through Anabaptism an authentic Christian faith.

So when we hear that Anabaptists are popping up all over the place in Britain and Ireland, we understand why some might think this. But the Anabaptist tradition is still a minority voice here. Some of us are happy to be known as Anabaptists, but many others resist this tag and prefer to talk about the positive impact of Anabaptism on their thinking and practice as Catholics, Baptists, or Methodists. A tiny number of local churches identify themselves explicitly as Anabaptist, but several others have embraced Anabaptist values and introduced Anabaptist processes and resources.

So, if Anabaptists are all over the place, we are spread pretty thinly in Britain and Ireland, and we are often not that obvious. This may explain the diverse comments and questions we receive from some who are relieved to find us and from others who are surprised we exist. There is more chance now of uncovering Anabaptists, in person or in print, but who are we and what do we believe? The Naked Anabaptist is an attempt to answer these questions.

Bumping into Anabaptists

The first edition of this book highlighted many ways in which persons in Britain and Ireland might have unwittingly bumped into Anabaptists. In North America it is much easier to find institutional expressions of Anabaptism—Mennonite churches, schools, colleges, and other organizations; Amish and Hutterite communities; Brethren in Christ and Church of the Brethren congregations; and many other agencies. But Anabaptists in these communities and institutions are not evenly represented across North America, so it is perhaps not surprising that those who are new to the tradition sometimes encounter it in less institutional ways or through organizations or communities that are not explicitly Anabaptist but have been deeply influenced by this tradition.

You might have heard about the activities of Christian Peacemaker Teams as they deploy groups to get in the way and stand in solidarity with oppressed communities in conflict zones. But you may not know that this organization was founded in response to a challenge to go beyond pacifism to costly peacemaking made by Ron Sider at an Anabaptist gathering in 1984. He said:

Over the past 450 years of martyrdom, immigration and missionary proclamation, the God of shalom has been preparing us Anabaptists for a late twentieth-century rendezvous with history…. Now is the time to risk everything for our belief that Jesus is the way to peace. If we still believe it, now is the time to live what we have spoken. We must take up our cross and follow Jesus to Golgotha. We must be prepared to die by the thousands. Those who believed in peace through the sword have not hesitated to die. Proudly, courageously, they gave their lives. Again and again, they sacrificed bright futures to the tragic illusion that one more righteous crusade would bring peace in their time, and they laid down their lives by the millions. Unless we … are ready to start to die by the thousands in dramatic vigorous new exploits for peace and justice, we should sadly confess that we never really meant what we said.⁴

You might have read about the tragic shooting of Amish schoolchildren in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, in October 2006—and the startling response of this very traditional Anabaptist community as its members quickly expressed forgiveness toward the gunman and reached out in compassion toward his family. Or you might have been aware of the Amish already if you saw the 1985 film Witness, starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. But you may have associated this community with buggies and bonnets, not with Anabaptism.

If you participate in what is variously called the emerging church conversation or the missional church conversation, you are probably aware of Brian McLaren’s writings. His book A Generous Orthodoxy includes Anabaptism as one of the traditions he values.⁵ Elsewhere he writes, Anabaptists know things that all of us need as we slide or run or crawl or are dragged into the postmodern world.⁶ He claimed some years ago in an interview that Emergent represents a rediscovery of the Anabaptist spirit. It’s very hard in other Protestant denominations to find people who take Jesus as teacher deeply seriously, and take Jesus’ teachings and the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus’ example of nonviolence, seriously.⁷ Other popular North American writers who have commended Anabaptism include Greg Boyd, Scot McKnight, Brian Zahnd, Shane Claiborne, Bruxy Cavey, and David Fitch.

Greg Boyd’s story has impacted many in North America. The pastor of Woodland Hills, a megachurch in St. Paul, Minnesota, he refused to support the American invasion of Iraq. He ended up preaching a sermon series on the kingdom of God and writing a book called The Myth of a Christian Nation, arguing that the path of military domination is diametrically opposite of Jesus’ way of peace in the kingdom of God.⁸ One thousand members left the church as a result. He has embraced the Anabaptist tradition and is in the process of discerning with his congregation how to connect with an Anabaptist fellowship or denomination. I am grateful to him for writing the foreword to this book.

You might be aware of, or have participated in, events organized by the Missio Alliance, an interdenominational evangelical movement that is "seeking to launch an initiative that offers in-depth theological and practical direction for the many pastors and leaders attempting to navigate the challenges of ministry in a

Reviews for The Naked Anabaptist

[gdill-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Naked Anabaptist is indeed a great book that lifts the veil of modern day perceptions about the Anabaptist tradition and see what the Anabaptists truly believe. It allows its reader to look past the Amish family riding a horse-drawn carriage in Pennsylvania and see why they live the way they do based on Biblical principles. The same can be said for the Mennonites and Hutterites too.In principle, the Anabaptist tradition is in my view perhaps the closest thing we have to true Biblical and Kingdom Christianity; and the closest thing to the teachings of Christ. I don't agree with all of the Anabaptist tradition and theology for some of the reasons the author addresses in the last chapter of this book. However, in most part the Anabaptist tradition is what Christ taught and something I want to be a part of.Although this book is addressed to anyone interested in learning more about the allusive Anabaptist traditions, it is clearly written primarily to those in Great Britain and Ireland. As an American I would have loved it if the author addressed some issues relating to contemporary Anabaptist traditions and communities in America besides the Amish communities of Pennsylvania. It seems our only choices are the Amish and the Mennonites. If only there are more progressive and contemporary versions of Anabaptist thought in America.It saddens me that the author takes liberty in joining the Emerging Church with Anabaptist tradition even though they are diametrically opposed on major theological issues. The Emerging Church certainly has a lot to offer to Christianity, especially in light of the dismantling of institutional Christendom. But, the Emerging Church also has a lot of red flags that need to be weeded through before Christians truly embrace it.When all is said and done, The Naked Anabaptist is a wonderful book that offers a lot of great insight into Anabaptist traditions and beliefs both in the past, present, and what it may look like in the future. Great book that I recommend to anyone who sees what Anabaptist thinking can offer to a failing Christendom.

[clif_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is written from the view point of a neo-Anabaptist. That is a person who comes from a background of main-line Christianity, has witnessed the slow demise of the traditional world view of imperial Christendom, and has concluded that the heart of true Christianity can be found in the Anabaptist tradition. The neo-Anabaptist may appear to embrace their discovery of Anabaptism with an enthusiasm of a new convert which those of us who were raised within the Anabaptist tradition may find surprising, but gratifying. However, the neo-Anabaptists are not necessarily lining up to join the churches that trace their ancestry to Anabaptist origins. Many are willing to go by titles such as Methodist/Anabaptist, Catholic/Anabaptist or even Agnostic/Anabaptist. The title of the book traces its origin to frustration with the traditions that many traditionally Anabaptist churches, such as Mennonite or Amish, have picked up over the years that have little to do with the basic concepts of Anabaptism. Thus, this book attempts to define Anabaptism that is "naked" of cultural or ethnic traditions. There are some shades of differences in core values between neo-Anabaptists and those of historical Anabaptists. It's interesting to compare the core values stated in this book with those of the Schleitheim Confession of 1527. However, the spirit of first loyalty to a Jesus-centered faith over that of cultural, national and/or political obligations remains. The differences are a result of changed cultural circumstances over the past 500 years. For example, the issue of pastors and leaders having high ethical standards was important in 1527 because of prevailing immorality among the state church clergy of the 16th Century. Such an issue is still important, but it's an issue that neo-Anabaptists are not likely to included in core values of today. The neo-Anabaptists of today are more likely to emphasize the community of believers working together to determine how a Jesus-centered life is lived in the context of the 21st Century post Christendom world. And this, of course, is still consistent with the overall spirit of the 1527 Schleitheim Confession. I won't take time here to list the seven core values of Anabaptism as listed in this book; you can read the book for yourself. But I will discuss two statements with which some Anabaptist may be surprised. The first is the issue of nonviolence. The author acknowledges that the peace tradition, and pacifism or nonviolence has been one of the distinguishing features of the Anabaptist tradition. But he goes on to state that, "... not all Anabaptists today are pacifists." Well, technically he is correct, but many within the Anabaptist tradition would maintain that the peace emphasis is a central distinguishing feature of Anabaptist thinking, and that not accepting that feature is a compromised version of Anabaptism. The second is the practice of adult baptism. The author indicates that he seriously considered not including adult baptism as an important practice for today's Anabaptists. That is ironic since the name "anabaptist" originated from the practice of 16th Century believers who asked to be baptized again as adults because they didn't think their baptism as a baby was legitimate. The thinking of the author is that since western society no longer considers failure to baptize infants as a sign of treason against the state, that its significance as a religious symbol is diminished as well. But in the end the author included adult baptism as a traditional symbol that remains important to Anabaptists of today. The author is willing to recognize that there are weaknesses and limitations inherent with the Anabaptist tradition. There's even a section titled, "Anabaptism--Warts and All." But the author remains generally optimistic about the future of Anabaptism. He sees a future in which traditional Christianity will become increasingly marginalized. The author believes the fading influence of Christianity to be a positive change because it frees Christians from the inferred obligation to be a signification player within western culture. Thus freed it can become what the Christian Church should have been in the first place. The author sees the Anabaptist tradition as an unusually helpful lens through which to look at Scripture and discern the genuine heart of Christian faith and belief.