Andrew Martin

Old Order Mennonites do not write many books so when they do it is worth paying attention. Urias Weber’s first book makes a significant contribution by providing details of the growth and expansion of new Old Order Mennonite communities in Ontario. Urias grew up in the established Waterloo district, where pioneering Mennonites have lived since the early 1800s and Old Orders were founded in the division of 1889. However, in 1968, the young Weber family was one of several founding families to begin a new Old Order community in Mount Forest. At the time, this was a contentious and risky venture, far from the mother community (about 65kms/40 miles). The concern about new communities was probably due in part to the history of the past seven decades, when virtually all Old Order communities in Ontario had become extinct except for the flourishing Waterloo district. [First paragraph

Andrew C. Martin * Abstract: Historical interpretations regarding the spiritual state of Mennonite church in the nineteenth century have varied over the past century. In a seminal essay of 1983, historian Theron F. Schlabach argued that the traditional, and authentically Anabaptist, emphasis on suffering among Mennonites in North America was supplanted during the course of the nineteenth century by a new focus on humility, thanks largely to Pietist influences, by examining the deeper history of the humility motif in the western monastic spiritual tradition, and the way it was absorbed in early Anabaptism, this article challenges the view that there was a shift from suffering to humility and offers an alternative interpretation of nineteenth-century North American Mennonite spirituality.

This paper was presented at "Wondrous Fear and Holy Awe," a meeting of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality (SSCS) at University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN: June 29-July 2, 2013. It traces some similarities in the spirituality of Old Order Mennonites to the early monasticism of St. Benedict. This presentation is based on a larger body of research published as, "Echoes of Ancient Wisdom: Old Order Mennonite Spirituality in Monastic Perspective" in the Journal of Mennonite Studies, Vol. 31, 2013.

Revivalism and fundamentalism were significant forces that greatly influenced the life and theology of North American Mennonites during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After World War II, the (Old) Mennonite Church began to made a significant shift away from fundamentalism. The Conservative Mennonite movement began in the 1950s in protest against the theological and sociological changes taking place in the Mennonite Church, particularly the loss of fundamentalist doctrines. This thesis traces the influences of fundamentalism as they were adopted early in the twentieth century by the Mennonite Church and came to fulfillment in the founding of the Conservative Mennonite movement.

By looking at the history of the (Old) Mennonites in North America and the development of Protestant fundamentalism, this thesis provides a theological analysis of the influence of fundamentalism on the Conservative Mennonite movement.

This PhD thesis claims that Old Order Mennonite spirituality is predominantly ascetical with some mystical elements and that it reflects numerous noteworthy similarities to medieval monastic spirituality, particularly Benedictine spirituality, as well as marked differences. To test and illustrate this thesis, chapter one identifies key spiritual themes primarily from the Rule of Benedict (RB) and their relationship to the ascetical-mystical dynamic. The selected themes include obedience, humility, community, contemptus mundi (rejection of the world), conversio morum (change of life), the fear of God, service, Gelassenheit (resignation and detachment), divinization, eschatology, compunction and rule/order. Special attention is also given to certain specific spiritual developments and themes in the late medieval reforming movements which were influenced by monasticism, and in some cases, had a direct connection to Anabaptism, like those of Hans Denck and the Theologia Deutsch. The spiritual themes identified in chapter one are fundamental for analyzing the spirituality of Anabaptist-Mennonites and the Old Orders in the following chapters.
Chapter two examines the spirituality of Anabaptist-Mennonites, primarily the beginning of the movement within the context of the preceding monastic spirituality. It briefly considers some aspects of Protestant spirituality before focusing on the ascetical-mystical shape of Anabaptist spirituality with its emphasis on the penitential life defined by Gelassenheit, contemptus mundi and leading to conversio morum. This was an embodied spirituality that required an actual change of life (divinization) and which had both sacramental and mystical implications.
The next two chapters investigate the continuity of ascetical (chapter three) and mystical (chapter four) spiritual themes in the Old Order Mennonites. An examination of Pietism and its relationship to the spirituality of Old Mennonites in America is undertaken to identify and define some of the new insights that this dissertation provides regarding current and preceding Mennonite traditions. Pietist and Anabaptist-Mennonite spirituality exhibit some ascetical and mystical late medieval similarities and display some inter-connected influence on each other. The ascetical foundation of Old Order spirituality is identified in chapter three in the central place given to Ordnung (order/rule) as well as humility, suffering, raising children, and the importance of labour and resistance to wealth. The Old Order encounter with God (mystical) is identified in chapter five through inner dimensions; the way they “feel” their religion in humility and compunction. It is also identified in the sacramental role of the Ordnung and sacred rites, the power of the Word, the Old Order detachment from the world and their aim to embody Christ in daily life, and in the stories that Old Orders tell.
Old Order Mennonites are not contemplative or mystical in a formal sense, but they have mystical elements in their spirituality. Their spirituality is firmly grounded in asceticism, however, and the ascetical-mystical paradigm points to the many ways that their spirituality reflects similarity to specific themes in medieval monastic spirituality, especially the RB, and in late medieval reforming movements, as well as marked differences.