Foundational Figures: Menno Simons // THEO 380

[Music] the final figure we'll discuss is menno simons the dutch anabaptist who founded the group we call the mennonites meno had become a catholic priest without ever having read the bible fearing that he couldn't understand the truth of scripture apart from what the church had declared as truth later in life menno joined up with other church reformers in embracing scripture as the basis for belief in practice in distinction from church authorities the anabaptists literally re-baptizers believed that the church reforms begun by luther and calvin and others did not go far enough thus the anabaptists and

similar groups like the quakers or society of friends of george fox fame would be known collectively as the radical reformation the word radical referring back to the ancient roots of christianity anabaptists wanted to bring the church back to its original form before it got mixed up with power and wealth and lost its way they had a high view of scripture and believed that the way back to faithfulness was through a strict and literal adherence to the text and especially the moral teachings of the new testament a favorite slogan was ad fontes meaning to the fount

or the original sources and a favorite maxim was apply yourself totally to the text apply the text totally to yourself for anabaptists like menos simons one was not born but rather chooses to become a disciple or follower of jesus and his way they therefore rejected infant baptism and practiced believers baptism only in the process they re-baptized those who had not yet been baptized as believers a central tenet of anabaptists and mennonites was non-violence as taught in the sermon on the mount and as practiced by jesus a famous example of anabaptist non-violence is dirk willems who

had been condemned to die but who escaped from prison one night willems crossed an iced over pond in the dark but was followed by a guard who broke the ice and fell in faced with a dilemma willems turned back and rescued the guard from the icy waters only to be re-arrested imprisoned and later executed for his beliefs many anabaptist communities practice simplicity and the sharing of resources and goods in common in order to maintain strict adherence to moral discipline while simultaneously remaining non-violent many anabaptist communities practice banning as a form of church discipline members of

the community who refuse fraternal correction would be shunned and ostracized both in hopes that the person would see the error of their ways and in order to maintain the purity of the community meno simons and other anabaptists give us a moral vision that emphasizes the role of scripture and the example of jesus primarily in the gospels the goal is to reclaim a counter-cultural form of life that early christians lived and to follow as closely as possible to the way of jesus