C. Norman Kraus, Harrisonburg, Virginia, is a teacher-missionary-author, now retired, who taught for many years at Goshen (Ind.) College and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (Elkhart, Indiana). He has served on administrative committees of the Mennonite Board of Missions (MMN) and the boards of Mennonite Central Committee, both International and U.S. In 1950 he was ordained to the ministry in the Indiana-Michigan Conference of the Mennonite Church and has served for a number of years as a pastor. A student of both Anabaptism and Evangelicalism and its origins, he is the author of Dispensationalism in America (1958), and editor of Evangelicalism and Anabaptism (1979) among other books. He was born and raised in Denbigh (now Newport News), Virginia, and received his early education in the public schools, finishing college degrees at Eastern Mennonite College and Goshen College in 1946. He married Ruth Smith (now deceased) of Elida, Ohio, and together they raised a family of five children. During these years, he finished his seminary degree at Goshen Biblical Seminary (now AMBS), a Master of Theology degree at Princeton Seminary (1954) and a Doctor of Philosophy at Duke University (1961). During his teaching years at Goshen College, Kraus accepted a number of overseas teaching and counseling assignments in Asia, Africa, and South America with various boards of the Mennonite Church. After thirty years on the faculty at Goshen College, he and his wife Ruth took an assignment with the MBM to serve the churches in Japan and East Asia and took up residence in Hokkaido, Japan. His Asian ministry was largely one of teaching and writing. He preached in churches, led seminars for pastors, participated in inter-faith dialogues and peace conferences, provided pastoral services for missionaries, and taught in a variety of seminaries and theological schools in India, Japan, and Australia. Kraus’ focus has not been simply on academic theology. While a teacher at Goshen College, he founded and directed the Center for Discipleship to encourage students and faculty to confront issues of social ethics and witness. He helped to begin a new type of congregation, called the Assembly, which emphasized life and witness together in "Koinonia" groups. From the early 1950s on, he was personally involved in the civil rights movement, and from the 1960s he played an active role in cross-cultural missions. In addition to contributing chapters to scholarly symposia and many articles to both popular magazines and scholarly journals, Kraus is the author and/or editor of more than a dozen books. The latter include The Community of the Spirit (Eerdmans, 1974; Herald Press 1993, rev. and and enlarged), The Authentic Witness (Eerdmans, 1979), Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth (Herald Press, 1980), two volumes of theology entitled Jesus Christ Our Lord, and God Our Savior (Herald Press, 1987, 1991), An Intrusive Gospel? (Intervarsity Press, 1998) and To Continue the Dialogue (Pandora Press U.S., 2001). Kraus and his wife Rhoda are at home in Harrisonburg, where they are active members of the Park View Mennonite Church. Using Scripture in a Global Age orders:
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