Defenseless Christianity: Anabaptism for a Nonviolent Church

Entering a field of ongoing controversy, this book dares to offer a new model or vision-defenseless Christianity-for understanding Anabaptism, both present and past. The authors content that an Anabaptism defined as defenseless Christianity should be seen as a nonviolent Christian movement with a world-reconciling theology even though some first-generation Anabaptists were not pacifists.

Gerald J. Mast is Professor of Communication at Bluffton University and author of Separation and the Sword in Anabaptist Persuasion. His speaking and writing has addressed a variety of topics related to Anabaptist persuasion, including peace rhetoric, the Amish in American culture, martyrdom, and Christian vocation. He serves as vice-chair of The Mennonite magazine board and as editor of Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History. J. Denny Weaver , editor of the C. Henry Smith Series, has written four other books and many shorter contributions, co-edited a book with Mast, and is a frequent speaker in a variety of academic and church settings. His foreign experience includes service with Mennonite Central Committee, Christian Peacemaker Teams, and short-term teaching in Kenya and Congo.