A mind patient and untamed. That ascription would be mistaken if it suggested Yoder’s mind was either indifferent or undisciplined. Anyone who engaged him in conversation or has read anything he wrote would recognize that Yoder possessed a mind and heart deeply committed, fiercely engaged, and severely disciplined. At the University of Basel, he studied (1954-57) with Walter Baumgartner, Walther Eichrodt, Oscar Cullmann, Karl Jaspers, Ernst Stahelin, and Karl Barth, arguably the strongest theological faculty in Europe or anywhere else at the time. His doctorate from Basel was in historical theology, and he devoted numerous studies to Reformation history, theology, and historiography—in German, English, French, and Spanish. Yoder respected the academic disciplines, including his own, and the disciplined expertise each required. But no single academic discipline could tame his mind, nor could the academy itself. Today, John Howard Yoder may be known most widely as a Christian (social) ethicist and proponent of pacifism. Contributing to that reputation was his The Politics of Jesus. Three points regarding that book: First, its focus is neither church history nor social ethics, but the New Testament’s witness to Jesus. Second, Yoder’s "method" comprises serious exegesis of the text and critical conversation with then-prevailing interpretations of the New Testament. Third, in Politics as elsewhere, Yoder takes seriously the views he challenges: He assesses them not by the degree to which they depart from his views but by the criteria they claim for themselves. The first two points suggest the untamed quality of Yoder’s mind, the third its patience. Yoder’s was predominantly a minority witness voice. Because of this, and because he declined to relativize the particularities of Israel, Jesus, and the church to higher orders of abstraction or more general foundations, some dismissed him as sectarian. Yet few Christian theologians of the past century were more genuinely ecumenical. Not only did he participate, over four decades, in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogues both formal and informal, he undertook with patience what Hans-Georg Gadamer called the "art of strengthening"—stating in their strongest form convictions and arguments in conflict with his own. He exercised with patience his role as a Mennonite theologian in the University of Notre Dame’s theology department and as a member of its Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. For many years he conducted a friendship and voluminous correspondence with Rabbi Steven Schwarzchild, to whom Yoder’s most recent (posthumous) work, The Jewish-Christian Schism Revisited, is dedicated. His replies to questions posed by Notre Dame Law professor Thomas L. Shaffer form the substance of a 121-page book, Moral Memoranda from John Howard Yoder. On a concluding page, Yoder explains one reason for his patience: "Part of what it means to be a believers church is to believe that there are answers that we don’t have yet." This also helps to explain his untamed mind. The chapters in this book derive from papers delivered at the "Assessing the Theological Legacy of John Howard Yoder" conference, March 2002. The conference, which took place on the University of Notre Dame campus, was one in the series of Believers Church Conferences. Sponsors were the Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame; Goshen College; the Institute of Mennonite Studies, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary; the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame; and the Continuing Conversations Committee for the Believers Church Conference. Faculty from these institutions and organizations formed the conference planning committee. We thank the conference sponsors, members of the planning committee, and Karl Koop (Canadian Mennonite University), conference coordinator; Mary H. Schertz and Barbara Nelson Gingerich, respectively Director and Administrative Assistant of the Institute of Mennonite Studies; and Amy L. Barker (Bethel College, Kan.), conference assistant. We are grateful to the scholars who have permitted publication of their good work. And we offer special thanks to individuals and organizations whose support helped make possible both conference and book, including The Schowalter Foundation, Shalom Communications Inc., Stanley Hauerwas, Hiram R. and Mary Jane Hershey, Jane and Henry Landes, Phillip and Betsy Moyer. —Ben C. Ollenburger and Gayle Gerber Koontz, Editors A Mind Patient and Untamed orders:
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