"How can Christians accept an
ordering role for government while clearly opposing the
abuses of state violence? In his scholarly work,
Biesecker-Mast analyzes this tension in early Anabaptist
rhetoric and practice. His book is especially timely for
all Christians who seek to offer a faithful witness to
God's reign in a post-9/11 world." "Biesecker-Mast’s attentiveness to confessional texts, which became constitutive for Anabaptist groups surviving beyond the sixteenth century, sheds new light on the relationship between the church and civil authority in Anabaptism. "Scholars, pastors, church leaders; anyone interested in Anabaptist perspectives on peace will appreciate Beisecker-Mast’s ability to recognize in Anabaptist confessional texts what has been neglected by conventional wisdom. "This is a helpful resource for
those wishing to gain further insight regarding the
relationship between church and civil authority in
Anabaptism; Mast’s treatment of recent Anabaptist
historiography is engaging, fruitful, and
controversial." "Intelligently argued, clearly
written, the product of careful yet creative thought,
this book is a delight to read and a first-rate example
of what contemporary scholarship on Anabaptists can
accomplish. The absence of pretension in this
'rhetorical' study of select Anabaptist texts is a breath
of fresh air: reading it is a profitable exercise for a
wide audience of academics, non-specialists, and lay
people. The attention to complex contexts, intentions,
and results in and around the original texts and in
contemporary scholarship alike is a caveat to every
simplistic reading of confessional texts.
Biesecker-Mast's scholarly, yet unfussy treatment makes
this book an especially enlightening study for every
contemporary lover of peace who seeks to find with
integrity a way between a too-simple, strict, and hostile
self-ostracism from 'the world' on the one hand, and an
equally simple acquiescence to its modes of violence on
the other. While focusing on texts that are centuries
old, Professor Biesecker-Mast has rendered an invaluable
service to those now asking the same questions these
texts bring to the fore. Highly recommended." "To the fascinating history and
theology of the Anabaptist tradition, Gerald
Biesecker-Mast brings new tools of rhetorical analysis
and postmodern theory. The result is a rich study that
shows how evocatively Reformation debates resonate for
contemporary political and religious life. He opens up
historical materials in fresh ways but also explores with
a gentle thoroughness the prospects and price of building
a peaceable kingdom today." "Biesecker-Mast’s provocative book elevates Anabaptist persuasion to the important scholarly examination it deserves alongside Anabaptist history and theology. In a necessary corrective to the one-dimensional conventional reading of the faith’s key confessional texts, especially the Schleitheim Brotherly Union and the Dordrecht Confession of Faith, Biesecker-Mast deftly applies a postmodern rhetorical analysis to illumine how sixteenth-century Anabaptists eloquently and strategically articulated the struggle for both separation and toleration to support a radical Christian posture. "The imperative that emerges in
this meticulously researched examination of Anabaptist
persuasion is that we must take seriously the substantive
rhetorical features of Anabaptist theology. Influenced by
J. Howard Yoder’s Politics of Jesus and J.
Denny Weaver’s Anabaptist Theology in Face of
Postmodernity, Beisescker-Mast continues a trajectory
of thought that questions Anabaptist confessional texts
as apolitical statements that privilege withdrawal from
the world. Rather, he invites readers to appreciate the
sophistication and subtlety in which early Anabaptists
functioned as rhetoricians to address at a philosophical
level a conundrum of the human condition—our need
for segregation and congregation—and to address at a
theological level a complex identity-- the antagonistic
and dualistic relationships with the broader social order
that tenets of their radical faith witness
demanded." Separation and the Sword orders:
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