Dutch Anabaptism: Origin, Spread, Life, and Thought. By Cornelius Krahn. Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Herald Press, 1981. xii + 303 pp. $18.00.

Abstract

264 CHURCH HISTORY remains a useful reference work. His thesis that the concept of the church (GemeindebegrijJ) was central to Menno's theology has never been seriously challenged. The doctrine of the church is central to most Anabaptist studies today. How Menno's ecclesiology, in turn, shaped his understanding of ethics, Spirit, and eschatology, including his harsh use of the ban, is carefully demonstrated. The author's analysis of Menno's heavenly flesh christology has been significantly helpful for the later studies by Keeney, Deppermann, and Voolstra. In 1936 this book was one of the early ingroup writings to move away from apologetics to relative objectivity. A rather critical review of it by John Horsch, published posthumously in the Mennonite Quarterly Review 21 (1947): 229-232, illustrates the resistance this methodology evoked.