Summary: This book assesses the work of John Howard Yoder, author of The Politics of Jesus and the many other noted writings within which he engaged in principled, patient, nonfoundationalist, and unsystematic conversation with the Bible, with his Anabaptist tradition, and with such thinkers as the Niebuhrs and Hauerwas. The book also places Yoder in new discussions, such as with Derrida and Said—and extends the conversation to the 16 insightful Yoder scholars writing in this volume. They include Stanley Hauerwas, Harry Huebner, Gerald Biesecker-Mast, Chris K. Huebner, Peter C. Blum, Thomas Heilke, J. Alexander Sider, Duane K. Friesen, Bethel College, Alain Epp Weaver, Paul Doerksen, Craig R. Hovey, Gerald W. Schlabach, A. James Reimer, Douglas Harink, Willard M. Swartley, Rachel Reesor, and Thomas Finger. Comment: "This
book does exactly what John Howard Yoder did in person
and in his writings by alerting us to how often we do
violence by the way we read—so careful to control
the history of our own minds! Let this book challenge the
way you think, especially about what really matters for
Christians. You probably won’t agree with everything
in these writers’ critiques of Yoder’s vast and
vastly divergent work, but then, if you read as Yoder
taught us, you won’t agree any longer with your
former self either." "Yoder cannot be understood
without the background of the faithful witness of his
Anabaptist forebears. It is, therefore, appropriate that
these essays representing the beginning of the hard work
of receiving Yoder are by ‘his people.’
Hopefully, however, these chapters are only the beginning
of the many we will need to help us understand the what
and how Yoder has to teach us. Only a beginning—but
what a wonderful one." "Here we are confronted, once
again, with Yoder's clarity and precision, his wariness
of method and theory, his calm refusal to allow Christian
doctrine to be domesticated by the dogmas of professional
ethics. Most of all, we are reminded of his patient
insistence on the point of theology in the first place:
to announce the victory of the Lamb that was slain and to
show how this victory frees us to follow Jesus to the
cross and embody his peace in the world." "These essays should help bring
the level of discussion and debate of Yoder's work to a
new level." Market: Scholars and college or graduate students; church leaders and pastors; groups or individuals interested in a thoughtful examination of the work of John Howard Yoder. Shelving: Theology; Ethics; Peacemaking, pacifism, nonviolence; Philosophy; Anabaptist-Mennonite thought. BISAC: Religion, Social Sciences. RTM: 690 Religion/Ethics, 750 Sociology The Editors: Ben C. Ollenburger, Elkhart, Indiana, is Professor of Biblical Theology at Associate Mennonite Biblical Seminary. Gayle Gerber Koontz, Elkhart, Indiana, is Professor of Theology and Ethics at AMBS Publisher: Cascadia
Publishing House (the new name of Pandora Press U.S.)
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