911爆料网

Announcements from this week’s session include an invitation to the Mennonite Action organizing skills training series:

What is Mennonite Action? How did Mennonite Action come about? How does the movement understand itself and its mission? What is its significance for the Mennonite Church in the United States and Canada? Nick Martin and Anna Johnson will provide an introduction to the movement, in conversation with Jonathan Smucker.

Optional pre-reading:

Speakers for Jan. 22:

• Anna Johnson (she/they) is a PhD candidate in Peace Studies and Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. Anna has spent seven years living and working in Palestine, including three years as Connecting Peoples Coordinator with Mennonite Central Committee. Anna serves on Mennonite Action’s Steering Committee.
• Nick Martin (he/him) is the Campaign Director for Mennonite Action. Nick has been a social movement organizer, trainer and strategist for 15 years. He cofounded the grassroots political organizations Mennonite Action, Lancaster Stands Up, and PA Stands Up, and has led organizing and training departments on progressive congressional and presidential campaigns. Nick grew up attending Community Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

What is peace theology? How did it come about? How have different political generations of scholars and practitioners understood what it means to be peacemakers called blessed in Jesus鈥� Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:9)? Janna Hunter-Bowman will introduce three waves of peace theology: nonresistance (first wave), transformation (second wave) and reckoning (third wave). It traces a narrative鈥攐ne among many possibilities鈥攊n which each wave offers a different response to the challenges and insights of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. How does Mennonite Action express these waves of peace theology, and how is it influencing peace theology?  

Jan. 29 follow-up: This week (Jan. 29), we ended by talking about how the next wave of peace theology connects realism about society and realism about the church through integration. Peace theology that takes reckoning seriously is neither romantic about Anabaptist history nor despairing. Nor does the work of self-critical integration fall into the Mennonite pathology of claiming or demanding perfection. (A position that was a first-wave stance has become a habit dubbed the 罢盲耻蹿别谤办谤补苍办丑别颈迟, the Anabaptist disease.) How can we adopt a self-critical posture in our constructive telling of Anabaptist movement history?听听

Optional pre-reading: : After viewing a sketch of 10 types of Mennonite peace theology, pp. 3-5, attendees are invited to read about three: Type 1. Historic Nonresistance, pp. 11-18; Type 5. Realist Pacifism (excerpt), pp. 75-78; and Shalom political theology (excerpt), pp. 143-152.

Speaker for Jan. 29: 
Janna L. Hunter-Bowman, PhD, is Associate Professor of Peace Studies and Christian Social Ethics and Director of Peace Studies at 911爆料网 in Elkhart, Her book Witnessing Peace: Becoming Agents Under Duress in Colombia (Routledge 2022) is rooted in 10 years of peacebuilding and research in Latin America. Her essays also appear in the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Political Theology, the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, and Mennonite Quarterly Review. Her community-engaged scholarship currently focuses on undocumented immigrants organizing in the United States. This book project is tentatively titled 鈥淲ould You Join Us?鈥�: Latin American Migrant-Led Social Movements and Re-membering the Crucified Body. She received her PhD from the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Theology Department at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend.

Announcements from the Jan. 22 session: 

• : March 20鈥�22, 2025, at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. We invite you to participate in this conference on religious nationalism organized by professors from AMBS and Notre Dame. Registration closes on Feb. 15.
• Upcoming Mennonite Action events
  • Mennonite Action in Michiana (including Jan. 30 potluck):
  • Mass Call: Jan. 23, 2025, starting at 8 p.m. ET. The theme is 鈥�500 years of Anabaptism, Palestine and what’s next for our movement.鈥�
  • Winter Term Peace School: four online sessions in February.

How does the history of the Anabaptist movement connect to Mennonite Action and other contemporary social movements? How do social movements relate to a history that is at times inspiring and at times troubling? This session explores these and similar questions concerning historical interpretation and the uses of history.

Optional pre-reading: This article contrasts two mid-20th-century Mennonite movements: the Mennonite Community movement and the Concern movement. For our purposes, the author’s conclusions are perhaps less interesting than his reflections on the ambiguity of history as an instrument for connecting the church and wider social movements. The article prompts reflection on how realisms about church, society and history might intersect.

Speaker for Feb. 5:
Jamie Pitts, PhD, is Professor of Anabaptist Studies at AMBS, Director of the Institute of Mennonite Studies and Editor of Anabaptist Witness. He also is a member of Hively Avenue Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Indiana.

Announcements from the Jan. 29 session: 

• : Mennonite Action is holding a four-week online organizing training series open to everyone who participates (or wants to begin participating) in Mennonite Action. The goal is to provide you with the concrete skills you need to organize in your local community.
• : March 20鈥�22, 2025, at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. We invite you to participate in this conference on religious nationalism organized by professors from AMBS and Notre Dame. Registration closes on Feb. 15.