Pandora Press is an independent publisher focusing on scholarly and popular titles in Anabaptist Mennonite Studies and beyond.

June 2025 Feature Title

Nothing Will Save Us:
A Theology of Immeasurable Life 
by David C.L. Driedger

The Torah requires that nothing be placed at the centre of worship. The Gospel proclaims that God came into the world as nothing. So will nothing save us? This book is a pastoral and critical work of constructive Mennonite theology, inspired by the tradition of liberation theology which claims there is no salvation outside the poor. By attending to the people and places dismissed, despised, and discounted as nothing, we find eyes to see the idolatrous systems and the structural sin of the church and world. From beginning to end, Nothing Will Save Us is in search of what church and world should be made accountable to. There is a tendency for conservatives to abuse judgment and liberals to abdicate themselves from it, with both disavowing those who are daily crucified. Once we understand our common place among those considered nothing by the world, we may find ears to hear the good news of another, immeasurable, life.

David C. L. Driedger is Leading Minister at First Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, and a public theologian who speaks and writes at the intersection of faith and politics.

Nothing Will Save Us is a hopeful book about hopelessness. Pastor, theologian, and activist David Driedger’s voice is both unique and much needed in these times where all hopes for a just and humane society and thriving planet appear to be lost causes. With an eye well trained to the contours and complexities of the biblical text, Driedger engages a range of social and political questions—from Basic Income to sex work to policing—with humility, depth, experience, and compassion. This book is a must read for clergy, theologians, and Christians who seek the immeasurable and abundant life to which Christ calls us in the midst of idolatry and violence. —Jane Barter, University of Winnipeg

David Driedger writes from a less than familiar perspective. This permits him to dispose quite readily of the various triumphalisms that seduce us. He makes room for hope and reflection on “what is not of this world.” He puts our daily lives into quite a fresh perspective. He knows in compelling ways that our lives are beyond our own management, and are best lived in response to the Holy One who lives beyond us and outside of our control. This book is an invitation to reflect and trust beyond the ideologies that press upon us. —Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

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David Driedger’s Nothing Will Save Us shows us how the Gospel can be a challenging word, one that dismantles idols while recognizing its own temptation to set up new ones. Addressing topics as wide-ranging as universal basic income and sex work, Driedger gives us a theology that is both deeply biblical and urgently contemporary, both sharply critical and profoundly empathetic. —Adam Kotsko, author of Neoliberalism’s Demons

Nothing Will Save Us–beyond attentive thinking, refusing to place faith in easy answers. In this way, Driedger’s book is a testimony to an examined life, bringing the thoughtfulness of the Bible to bear on the many dimensions of structural sin. This is liberation theology for a Canadian context: engaged, sincere, and open-hearted. Above all, Driedger’s own character comes across, a character condensing and expressing a Christian life faithfully lived. —Philip Goodchild, University of Nottingham

It’s hard to find much “good” in the Christian Good News these days, in a world shaped by structural injustices and systemic oppressions empowered and sustained by the assumption of Christian supremacy. If there is anything good to hear in this news, it will be, as David Driedger provocatively suggests, ‘nothing’ in terms of the logic of this world. Nothing Will Save Us is an impassioned call for Christians to resist violence in the name of a Gospel that the church historically has refused to hear and follow. —David W. Congdon, University of Kansas, author of Who Is a True Christian?
Recent Titles

February 2025 Featured Titles

Reconciliation and Symbiosis in East Asia from Comparative Perspectives. Edited by Kimie Hara.

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Pandora Press, 2025. 354 pp. ‎ISBN-13: 978-1778730269

East Asia, a region of economic dynamism, remains shaped by historical grievances, territorial disputes, and persistent political tensions. Can reconciliation and symbiosis pave the way for sustainable peace and regional stability? This volume explores these critical issues by examining East Asia’s political and security challenges through a comparative and international lens.
Based on a lecture series featuring leading scholars, this volume sheds light on the complex intersections of history, politics, and diplomacy in East Asia while drawing lessons from settler-colonial societies, European reconciliation processes, and international conflict resolution frameworks. By broadening the scope of reconciliation studies and challenging conventional narratives, it offers fresh perspectives on regional conflicts and pathways toward coexistence.

By bridging diverse historical and geopolitical contexts, Reconciliation and Symbiosis in East Asia from Comparative Perspectives provides critical insights and contributes to ongoing discussions on historical conflicts and reconciliation.

Kimie Hara is Professor and the Renison Research Professor at the University of Waterloo, where she is also the Director of the Belair Centre for East Asian Studies at Renison University College.

From Shore to Shore: Ukrainian Mennonite Poetry in Translation. Edited and translated by Hannah Gardiner and Sigmund Jakob-Michael Stephan.

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Pandora Press, 2025. 60 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1778730245
Special edition available by request: 150 hand numbered copies printed with a matte laminated cover, black end papers, on heavy cream 70# felt paper.

The ten poems in this chapbook collection were written in the first half of the twentieth century in German by Mennonite men and women from the Chortitza and Molotschna colonies of nowadays Ukraine. These poems offer personal accounts that reflect the historical experiences of many Mennonites during this time. Their poetry speaks of war, oppression, persecution, immigration, and living in the diaspora. Some of the poets recount stories of staying; others, stories of leaving. Taken together, the poems offer readers a vivid account of the everyday life of people: their commitment to their families, to hope, and to faith.

Editor and translator Hannah Gardiner, is a writer from Kitchener, Ontario. She has a master’s degree in literary studies from the University of Waterloo. Her writing and community art projects have been supported by the Region of Waterloo, City of Kitchener, City of Waterloo, 8 80 Cities, the Balsam Foundation, and now the Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario, who gratefully funded this translation project.

Editor and translator Sigmund Jakob-Michael Stephan, is currently completing a PhD in German Studies at the University of Jena (Germany), where he is developing a systematic model of the comedic mode in German Romanticism. During his master’s degree in Intercultural German Studies at the University of Waterloo, he was awarded the J. William and Sarah Dyck Award for Russian Mennonite Studies and conducted an internship at the Mennonite Archives of Ontario. He is interested in German literary traditions outside of and at the periphery of German-speaking Europe.

2009 Reprint of: Consider the Threshing Stone: Writings of Jacob J. Rempel, A Mennonite in Russia.

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"Jacob Rempel was a 1920s immigrant from Russia who served on a hospital ship during World War I, experienced the horrors of the Civil War and Machno period, and became an organizer for the emigration of Mennonites from the Molochna area in the 1920s. Consider the Threshing Stone is a collection of his writings, which the editor has organized into three chapters supplemented with an introduction, a biographical sketch, and appendices that provide additional information about the Rempel family and other names that appear in the account. The editor has also annotated the memoir with generous footnotes that together with photos and maps elaborate, explain, and provide context and corroborating sources for the narrative... David Rempel Smucker and Eleanore (Rempel) Wollard have made an important source for the Russian Mennonite story accessible to future generations, for both family and historians. The small book pays careful attention to detail and the exhaustive additional research places a small-scale story firmly within its larger context." -Hans Werner in the Journal of Mennonite Studies

From 1923 to 1024, Jacob J. Rempel (1886-1980) served as chairman of the Molotschna Emigration Committee, which helped to organize thousands of Mennonites in the Soviet Union as they fled anarchy, famine, and Soviet Communism. In this translation of his autobiographical writings, he covers his life in Russia from his childhood to his 1924 emigration to Canada. He describes his years of alternative service as a medic on a hospital ship on the Black Sea during World War I. He recounts the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution and ensuing anarchy during which five relatives of his first wife were murdered by bandits. This chaos transformed his family into refugees within his native land, and increased the misery of the crushing famine during which he lost three immediate family members to disease. He finally gives an account of the complex process of emigration in which he performed some crucial roles.

Jacob J. Rempel saw himself as a witness to God’s mighty acts. He was simply astonished with gratitude that God had preserved him through tribulations and had led many of his people to Canada, in the same way that God had led the Israelites to the Promised Land. The book includes an index and two genealogical outlines. These help to locate and relate the various places and persons in Rempel’s writings, as well as provide a list of his descendants.

2003 Reprint: Faith, Life, and Witness in the Northwest, 1903-2003: Centennial History of the Northwest Mennonite Conference, by T.D. Regehr.

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"The Mennonite community is a diverse one stretching from coast to coast. T.D. Regehr has written an account of one branch of the community, the Northwest Mennonite Conference, formerly known as the Alberta Mennonite Conference, which later evolved into the Alberta–Saskatchewan Mennonite Conference.One the better histories of the Canadian Mennonite experience, Regehr’s book provides an overview of the evolution of the Northwest Mennonite Conference, from its humble pioneer beginnings until the centennial year of 2003. He describes the struggles, successes,failures, and challenges faced by conference members, presenting the historical “warts” in a non-judgmental manner. More important, he chronicles the development of the Northwest Mennonite Conference fromits inception as a rural agricultural community through the 20thcentury, along with the conference’s reaction to World War II, postwar urbanization, radio, auto insurance, and other phenomena that are now taken for granted.Because Faith, Life and Witness in the Northwest is an overview,historians and subject specialists searching for items such as membership statistics will be disappointed. There are, however,extensive endnotes and an index. This interesting, informative, and important book is recommended for students of Canadian Mennonite history and Western Canadian history."
-Canadian Book Review Annual

"Ted Regehr has provided another thoroughly researched volume to Mennonite history writing in Canada. The Conference is to be commended for giving him freedom to follow where the research took him and allowing the space the tell the story in adequate detail." -Sam Steiner, Conrad Grebel University College

Published in 2003, this book covers the history of the Northwest Mennonite Conference (NMC), formerly the Alberta-Saskatchewan Mennonite Conference, which has had member congregations in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, and Alaska. It was organized by three small Alberta congregations in 1903. NMC has grown by adding new congregations of Mennonite settlers and initiatives in northern missions, voluntary service, and church planting. It now finds itself in a period of transition as it assesses new challenges and the impact of a major reorganization of the parent national and international conferences with which it is no longer affiliated.

For more, see: https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Northwest_Mennonite_Conference&oldid=170089.

Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies Series Titles
Year-End 2024


Click the images above to order and the titles below for more details.
Series details for volumes 1-5 can be found here.
Volume 6. The Anabaptist Lodestar: Interpretations of Anabaptism on the Eve of a 500-Year Celebration. Edited and Translated by Leonard Gross. Pandora Press, 2024.
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Originally titled Daring! and first appearing as a series of German pamphlets, this collection of essays calls its readers to consider following the Anabaptist lodestar by asking again what it means to be a Christian in the 21st century. As Paul Schrag, editor of Anabaptist World, notes in his January 2024 editorial:

It is the relevance of Anabaptist principles that energizes our [500-year anniversary] celebration. The European organizers of “Daring!” refer to Anabaptism as a “lodestar” – a celestial guide for a mariner charting a course – that directs us to follow Jesus and to raise a prophetic voice as the first Anabaptists did when they insisted baptism must be an adult decision.

The diverse texts that make up this English-language selection provide a window into current interpretations of historical Anabaptism by contemporary Mennonites and their interlocutors in Germany. The brief chapters that make up this accessible yet scholarly volume will show North American Mennonites (and those who study them) how their European counterparts are interpreting and reinterpreting the tradition on the eve of its 500-year anniversary, and will provide readers with a glimpse into the ongoing reckoning of a radical tradition with both its past and its present.
“I hope that this message will be heard by as many people as possible in a time when cohesion is challenged internally, and peace is threatened in many parts of the world.”
– Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of Germany

“I hope that this special issue [on nonviolence] will find its way into our global fellowship, the Mennonite World Conference, and that it will help us reflect on Anabaptist identity 500 years after the first rebaptism.”
– Henk Stenvers, President of Mennonite World Conference
Volume 7. James M. Stayer, Anabaptism, Radicalism, and the Reformation: Collected Essays. Edited by Geoffrey Dipple, Sharon Judd, and Michael Driedger. Pandora Press, 2024.
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James Stayer is widely recognized as an important contributor to the revision in the study of Anabaptism and the Radical Reformation which began in the 1970s and to which scholars continue to respond half a century later. On the surface, this revision looks like a straightforward secular challenge – tinged with a strong element of social history – to the primarily historical-theological approach of the confessionally oriented scholars who had dominated the field in decades past. However, as the essays collected in Anabaptism, Radicalism, and the Reformation reveal, the original revision was much more nuanced than that and it remained open to correction on the basis of new evidence. Included here are republications of some of Stayer’s seminal articles and book chapters, some important elements of his scholarship that were originally published in less accessible places, and previously unpublished essays, presentations, and reflections. Their subject matter ranges from Anabaptism and the Radical Reformation to the popular and magisterial Reformations and from methodology to historiography.

James M. Stayer (b. 1935) is an historian of the German Reformation and the Anabaptist movements, and Professor Emeritus in the History Department at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is the author of Anabaptists and the Sword (Coronado Press 1972, 1976), The German Peasants' War and Anabaptist Community of Goods (McGill-Queens UP, 1991), Martin Luther, German Saviour: German Evangelical Theological Factions and the Interpretation of Luther, 1917-1933 (McGill-Queens UP, 2000), and co-editor of The Anabaptists and Thomas Müntzer (Kendall/Hunt, 1980, with Werner O. Packull), Radikalität und Dissent im 16. Jahrhundert / Radicalism and Dissent in the Sixteenth Century (Duncker & Humblot, 2002, with Hans-Jürgen Goertz), and the field-defining collection, A Companion to Anabaptism and Spiritualism, 1521-1700 (Brill, 2007, with John D. Roth).

Geoffrey Dipple is Professor of History at the University of Alberta. His publications include Antifraternalism and Anticlericalism in the German Reformation: Johann Eberlin von Günzburg and the Campaign against the Friars (Routledge, 1996), “Just as in the Time of the Apostles”: Uses of History in the Radical Reformation (Pandora Press, 2005), and he has recently edited (with Kat Hill) New Directions in the Radical Reformation: “Thinking outside the Cages” (Brill, 2023).

Sharon Judd holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in history from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where she first met James Stayer. While working in the History Department, she typed a number of Jim’s articles and books, some of which she also indexed. She has proofread, copy-edited, and indexed almost everything Geoff Dipple has written.

Michael Driedger is an Associate Professor of History at Brock University. His ongoing research is about the relationship between the “Radical Reformation” and the “Radical Enlightenment,” particularly the activities of Mennonite publishers, philosophers, and political activists in the Dutch Republic of the 17th and 18th centuries. He is the author of Obedient Heretics: Mennonite Identities in Lutheran Hamburg and Altona during the Confessional Age (Ashgate, 2002) and co-author with Willem de Bakker and James Stayer of Bernhard Rothmann and the Reformation in Münster, 1530-35 (Pandora Press, 2009), and co-editor with Anselm Schubert and Astrid von Schlachta of Grenzen des Täufertums / Boundaries of Anabaptism. Neue Forschungen (Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2009), and with Francesco Quatrini, Nina Schroeder, and Gary Waite of a special issue of Church History and Religious Culture (2021) on “Spiritualism in Early Modern Europe.”
“This welcome and important collection of Jim Stayer’s interventions in the field of Radical Reformation studies rounds out his path-breaking works on the origins, realities, and contexts of the Anabaptist movements. For the past five decades, Stayer has not only challenged us to be critical of conventional assumptions and face uncomfortable or more complex truths; as this compendium underlines, he has also modeled remarkable collegiality and mentorship.”
—Sigrun Haude, Walter C. Langsam Professor of European History, University of Cincinnati
 
“James Stayer helped revolutionize the study of the Radical Reformation, and he has been a keen observer of trends in Luther scholarship. These essays are essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how approaches to Anabaptism, and to the German Reformation more generally, have changed over the last century.”
—Amy Nelson Burnett, Paula and D.B. Varner University Professor
Department of History, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
 
“This essay collection gives readers a mere sampling of James Stayer's ground-breaking scholarship. Meticulously researched, accessibly written, and persuasively argued, these essays on Reformation radicals, Anabaptists, unruly peasants and commoners, and Martin Luther, among other subjects, reveal how Stayer has changed and invigorated the Reformation field in enduring ways.”
—Gary K. Waite, Professor Emeritus, Department of Historical Studies,
University of New Brunswick
 
“For nearly fifty years, James M. Stayer has been the doyen of Radical Reformation scholarship in North America. His prolific publications--many of which appeared in the Mennonite Quarterly Review--were always incisively argued, firmly anchored in the sources, and judicious in their conclusions. This collection of essays is a worthy tribute to the depth and breadth of Stayer's contributions to a field that he helped to transform.”
—John D. Roth, Project Director, Anabaptism at 500 (MennoMedia), Professor of History Emeritus (Goshen College)
Volume 8. “Elisabeth’s Manly Courage”: Testimonials and Songs of Martyred Anabaptist Women in the Low Countries. Edited and Translated by Hermina Joldersma and Louis Grijp. Reprint of the 2001 original with a new preface by Christina Moss. Pandora Press, 2024.
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Among the most moving writings of the Reformation in the sixteenth-century Low Countries are the final words of Anabaptists condemned to death for their faith. Through a series of circumstances we have a significant body of such writings by women: Anabaptists were the most severely persecuted among Protestant groups, Anabaptist women made up a comparatively high proportion of those martyred, and Anabaptists attached great importance to preserving the memory of the martyred, regardless of gender, through the written word.
As these women recount the details of arguments with their inquisitors, their feelings during turbulent months in prison, their love for their children, husbands, parents, and friends, their ecstasy at having been found worthy to die for their faith, one cannot help but be moved, and impressed, by their voices and their experiences. Their writings reveal them to be articulate and courageous individuals who show not only a form of “manly courage” but the kind of personal courage which is rooted in a self-assurance uncommon for women of the time, one based on taking personal responsibility for the most important matter in their lives, their own salvation.
Archival documents are included in the Dutch original with an English translation on the facing page. There are also texts and music for martyr songs, highlighting the well-known and central role of song in preserving memory of martyrs in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
This edition is a reprint of the original 2001 text published with Marquette University Press. The present Pandora Press edition of 2024 includes a new preface by historian Christina Moss, providing an essential addition to the Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies (New Series), edited by Maxwell Kennel.

“Since Anabaptists judged the preservation of martyrs' examples of particular importance and since a relatively high proportion of women appear in the martyrological collections, documents from the Anabaptist tradition are a rich source for understanding gender norms in the past. They also shed light on family relations and, of course, on the development of religious ideas during the Reformation. Joldersma and Grijp have written a concise and clear introduction, made up of sections summarizing the history of Anabaptism in the Low Countries, the roles of women in the Anabaptist tradition, background information on the texts, and on Anabaptists' use of print in the face of persecution. There is also an analysis of the function of song in the Reformation. (The editors have included musical notation for those songs where the melodies are known.) A summary of the known biographical data on each of the martyrs who are featured in the collection concludes the introduction.”
—Marybeth Carlson in the Sixteenth Century Journal
 
“While generally adhering to the patriarchal tenor of their times, the Anabaptists nevertheless believed everyone should be educated in the scriptures. So these were articulate martyrs. Several sources preserve records of the women's trials and the clarity of their testimonies is astonishing. Their experience of suffering and martyrdom is also preserved in their hymns, many of which were written by women. These songs were collected in the Ausbund, the first Mennonite hymnbook, which is still used by such descendants of the Anabaptists as the Old Order Amish. It is thus the oldest Protestant hymnal still in use… Joldersma and Grijp introduce us to the women they highlight, and print the songs and testimonies in both the original Netherlandic languages and in translation. Music is included for several of the songs. This book is a welcome and useful supplement to resources already available on the Anabaptists and their history...”
—Marie Conn in Catholic Books Review
 
“With this edition, Joldersma and Grijp give remarkable insight into the historiographical tradition of the Anabaptists, as they have developed since the second half of the 16th century. It becomes clear that women played a prominent role in the Anabaptist groups until the end – that is, until their deaths. … Accordingly, the primary goal of the study… is to popularize ideas of women in the Anabaptist movements and also to win over English-speaking researchers from the history of women and gender studies, the ‘Radical Reformation,’ and the Anabaptists, to investigate female martyrs. This has been accomplished through a solidly crafted edition, without any doubt.”
—Nicole Grochowina in sehepunkte
Volume 9. Thomas Kaufmann, The Anabaptists: From the Radical Reformers to the Baptists. Translated by Christina Moss. Edited by Maxwell Kennel. Pandora Press, 2024. 
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Christians have baptized children since antiquity in order to preserve them from eternal damnation. In the course of the Reformation, however, some radical theologians broke with this tradition in order to restrict baptism to mature Christians who chose it for themselves. In his book The Anabaptists: From the Radical Reformers to the Baptists, Thomas Kaufmann concisely describes the history of the Anabaptists from their beginnings, to the Anabaptist Kingdom of Münster and pacifist groups such as the Hutterites and the Mennonites, and finally to the Baptists, who soon spread quickly – particularly in North America – and are one of the largest Christian denominations today. His evocative overview makes it clear that their radical protest against ecclesiastical traditions remains relevant to this day.

Thomas Kaufmann is Professor of Church History at the University of Göttingen, Chair of the Verein für Reformationsgeschichte (Society for Reformation History), Director of the State and University Library in Göttingen, and a fellow of Göttingen’s Academy of Sciences. He is the author of more than twenty books including The Saved and the Damned: A History of the Reformation (Oxford University Press, 2023) and Das Bauernkrieg: Ein Medienereignis (Herder, 2024, forthcoming in English translation by Ellen Yutzy Glebe).
“Not a word too much, not a word too little. Thomas Kaufmann presents a terse but rich introduction to the history of Anabaptism, along with all of its ramifications in religion and society. This book is a gift to all of us who are looking for solid information about the Anabaptists and want to get it quickly.”
--Volker Leppin, Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor, Yale Divinity School

“Worth reading.”
--Michael Strauss, Evangelische Perspektive

“An excellent overview of the history of Anabaptism.”
--Glauben und Denken

“Thomas Kaufmann has been remarkably successful in summarizing a wealth of sound scholarship and new perspectives in this little book.”
--Peter Matheson, University of Otago, writing in the Mennonite Quarterly Review and the Theologische Literaturzeitung
Volume 10. Astrid von Schlachta, Anabaptists: From the Reformation to the 21st Century. Translated by Victor Thiessen. Edited by Maxwell Kennel. Pandora Press, 2024.
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The Anabaptists, alongside the Lutheran and Reformed churches, were the third major current in the sixteenth century Reformation movements. From their beginnings, the Anabaptists were highly diverse and yet they shared some central beliefs and practices for which they were quickly persecuted – for example, defenselessness and nonresistance, the refusal to swear oaths, and the separation of church and state. Ideal for both teachers and students, this book provides a comprehensive and scholarly account of the history and development of the Anabaptists, alongside the Mennonite, Hutterite, and Amish traditions that emerged from their movement.

Anabaptists: From the Reformation to the 21st Century shows the cultural diversity of the Anabaptists over five centuries as they moved between persecution and toleration, isolation and social integration, and tradition-alization and renewal. Amidst these tensions, the Anabaptist story is told here anew based on the current state of the field on the eve of its 500-year anniversary. Written by an established scholar of Anabaptist history, and expertly translated into English by Victor Thiessen, this comprehensive study appears in the Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies series, edited by Maxwell Kennel, and published by Pandora Press.

PD Dr. Astrid von Schlachta is a Lecturer at the Universität Hamburg and head of the Mennonite Research Center in Weierhof, Germany.

“an essential overview” – Kat Hill, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University
“ambitious” – PD Dr. Ingo Klitzsch, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
“saturated with sources” – Freikirchenforschung
“excellent” – Dr. Thomas Klöckner, Habilitation candidate at JGU Mainz
“comprehensive” – Moritz Vachek, in Ichthys
“a great achievement.” – PD Dr. Andrea Strübind, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
“a welcome and insightful work of commemoration.” – Douglas H. Shantz, University of Calgary
“This work will be a significant point of reference for Anabaptist scholarship for decades to come.” – John D. Roth, Professor of History Emeritus, Goshen College.
“A tour de force… I can see this becoming the standard text for courses on Anabaptism.” – Gary K. Waite, Professor Emeritus, University of New Brunswick.

Full series available to order on Amazon here!

December 2024 Featured Title:
The Way Back Home
Wandering the Renaissance and Reformation of the First Flemish Anabaptists 
by Jerrad A. Peters

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In The Way Back Home, Jerrad A. Peters takes the reader on a spontaneous walking tour – a wandering – of late-medieval and early-modern Flanders. Along the way, he introduces the period’s major figures, key ideas, and iconic artworks into the oftentimes restrictive story of the region’s nascent Anabaptist movements, most significantly that of the Mennonites.

At the heart of the book is the experience of an ordinary Flemish family, whose encounters with the volatile Reformation of the Low Countries reveal the tension, hope, grief, and beauty of a Europe undergoing formative Renaissance. Ultimately, it asks its reader to do something at once straightforward and novel: to start at the beginning.

Jerrad A. Peters is an independent writer and historian. His articles have been published by The New York Times, the Winnipeg Free Press, the Mirror, and the CBC. He lives in Canada. His next book From Gods and Beasts: Origin Myths of Europe's Royal Bloodlines will be published by McFarland in 2026.

Letter from the Director

Dear Friends of Pandora Press,

This letter is simply to update you on some new publications from Pandora Press - an independent publisher focusing on scholarly and popular titles in Anabaptist Mennonite Studies and beyond, which I have directed since late 2021. Pandora Press has been around for over 30 years, and in that time we have published over 125 titles, most of which are back in print. Please see here for more about Pandora Press, and here for details on our distribution model explaining why we prefer that you order our books on Amazon.

Feel free to see below for some popular and academic titles that might interest you:

2024 Titles
2023 Titles (Volumes 1-5 of the relaunched Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies Series)
  • Gary Waite, Anti-Anabaptist Polemics: Dutch Anabaptism and the Devil in England, 1531-1660. Pandora Press, 2023. 267 pp. Order here.
  • Cornelius J. Dyck, Hans de Ries: A Study in Second Generation Dutch Anabaptism. Intro. by Mary S. Sprunger. Pandora Press, 2023. 371 pp. Order here.
  • Edmund Pries, Anabaptist Oath Refusal: Basel, Bern, and Strasbourg, 1525-1538. Pandora Press, 2023. 485 pp. Order here.
  • Linda A. Huebert Hecht, Women in Early Austrian Anabaptism: Their Days, Their Stories. 2nd Edition. Pandora Press, 2023. 350 pp. Order here.
  • J. Lawrence Burkholder, Mennonite Ethics: From Isolation to Engagement. 2nd Edition. Ed. by Lauren Friesen. Pandora Press, 2023. 550 pp. Order here.

2022 Titles
2021 Titles
Book Series'
Please stay tuned because in the next several weeks we will be publishing an historical novel about the Dutch Mennonites, a bilingual collection of Ukrainian Mennonite poetry, two translations of new Anabaptist histories by Thomas Kaufmann and Astrid von Schlachta, and more! We are also open to hearing your ideas for new publications, and we are happy to send a limited number of review copies if you would like to review our books for academic journals or magazines.

Lastly, I want to thank our editorial board, peer reviewers, and authors for their work and support, and you for your interest :)

All the best,

Dr. Maxwell Kennel (he/him/his)
Research and Writing at https://maxwellkennel.ca
Director of Pandora Press
Editor of the Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies Series
Author of Postsecular History (Palgrave Macmillan-Springer Nature, 2022) and Ontologies of Violence (De Gruyter Brill, 2023).
Recent Article: "Anabaptism contra Philosophy" Conrad Grebel Review (2022/2024).

October 2024 Featured Title

Anabaptism, Radicalism, and the Reformation: Collected Essays by James M. Stayer. Edited by Geoffrey Dipple, Sharon Judd, and Michael Driedger.

Order here!

204 pp. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-1778730191. $35.00 CAD. 2024. Volume 7 in the Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies Series. Take a look at this interview with editor Geoffrey Dipple!

“This welcome and important collection of Jim Stayer’s interventions in the field of Radical Reformation studies rounds out his path-breaking works on the origins, realities, and contexts of the Anabaptist movements. For the past five decades, Stayer has not only challenged us to be critical of conventional assumptions and face uncomfortable or more complex truths; as this compendium underlines, he has also modeled remarkable collegiality and mentorship.”
—Sigrun Haude, Walter C. Langsam Professor of European History, University of Cincinnati

“James Stayer helped revolutionize the study of the Radical Reformation, and he has been a keen observer of trends in Luther scholarship. These essays are essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how approaches to Anabaptism, and to the German Reformation more generally, have changed over the last century.”
—Amy Nelson Burnett, Paula and D.B. Varner University Professor
Department of History, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
James Stayer is widely recognized as an important contributor to the revision in the study of Anabaptism and the Radical Reformation which began in the 1970s and to which scholars continue to respond half a century later. On the surface, this revision looks like a straightforward secular challenge – tinged with a strong element of social history – to the primarily historical-theological approach of the confessionally oriented scholars who had dominated the field in decades past. However, as the essays collected in Anabaptism, Radicalism, and the Reformation reveal, the original revision was much more nuanced than that, and it remained open to correction on the basis of new evidence. Included here are republications of some of Stayer’s seminal articles and book chapters, some important elements of his scholarship that were originally published in less accessible places, and previously unpublished essays, presentations, and reflections. Their subject matter ranges from Anabaptism and the Radical Reformation to the popular and magisterial Reformations and from methodology to historiography.

James M. Stayer (b. 1935) is an historian of the German Reformation and the Anabaptist movements, and Professor Emeritus in the History Department at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is the author of Anabaptists and the Sword (Coronado Press 1972, 1976), The German Peasants' War and Anabaptist Community of Goods (McGill-Queens UP, 1991), Martin Luther, German Saviour: German Evangelical Theological Factions and the Interpretation of Luther, 1917-1933 (McGill-Queens UP, 2000), and co-editor of The Anabaptists and Thomas Müntzer (Kendall/Hunt, 1980, with Werner O. Packull), Radikalität und Dissent im 16. Jahrhundert / Radicalism and Dissent in the Sixteenth Century (Duncker & Humblot, 2002, with Hans-Jürgen Goertz), and the field-defining collection, A Companion to Anabaptism and Spiritualism, 1521-1700 (Brill, 2007, with John D. Roth).

Geoffrey Dipple is Professor of History at the University of Alberta. His publications include Antifraternalism and Anticlericalism in the German Reformation: Johann Eberlin von Günzburg and the Campaign against the Friars (Routledge, 1996), “Just as in the Time of the Apostles”: Uses of History in the Radical Reformation (Pandora Press, 2005), and he has recently edited (with Kat Hill) New Directions in the Radical Reformation: “Thinking outside the Cages” (Brill, 2023).

Sharon Judd holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in history from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where she first met James Stayer. While working in the History Department, she typed a number of Jim’s articles and books, some of which she also indexed. She has proofread, copy-edited, and indexed almost everything Geoff Dipple has written.

Michael Driedger is an Associate Professor of History at Brock University. His ongoing research is about the relationship between the “Radical Reformation” and the “Radical Enlightenment,” particularly the activities of Mennonite publishers, philosophers, and political activists in the Dutch Republic of the 17th and 18th centuries. He is the author of Obedient Heretics: Mennonite Identities in Lutheran Hamburg and Altona during the Confessional Age (Ashgate, 2002) and co-author with Willem de Bakker and James Stayer of Bernhard Rothmann and the Reformation in Münster, 1530-35 (Pandora Press, 2009), and co-editor with Anselm Schubert and Astrid von Schlachta of Grenzen des Täufertums / Boundaries of Anabaptism. Neue Forschungen (Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2009), and with Francesco Quatrini, Nina Schroeder, and Gary Waite of a special issue of Church History and Religious Culture (2021) on “Spiritualism in Early Modern Europe.”

Hope is our Deliverance: Aeltester Jakob Aron Rempel: The Tragic Experience of a Mennonite Leader and His Family in Stalin's Russia
by Jakob Aron Rempel (Author), Amalie Enns (Author, Translator)
Original 2005. Reprinted 2024.

Alexander Rempel, oldest son of Jakob Aron Rempel (1883-1941), promised his father that his father's story would not be forgotten. Hope is Our Deliverance is the story of a beloved father, whose forcible removal from the family left an indelible mark on his wife and children. It is the story of a man who was passionately devoted to his Mennonite people. It is the story of a man who, given the choice between recanting his faith to regain his freedom or being subjected to repeated torture and eventually imprisonment in exile, did not bend in his resolve to faithfulness. Unfortunately, illness and death prevented Alexander Rempel from completing his research and writing the story. His niece Amalie Enns finished the project, and the book also includes translations of the letters written by Aeltester Jakob Rempel from exile.

323 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1778730184. Original 2005. Reprinted 2024.
"The story is simply a must-read. It is a story that a person cannot begin to retell properly in a brief review. Pandora Press has done a fine printing job, the writing and editing have been excellent, and the product stands as a beautiful and powerful tribute to a man whose family, above all a most supportive son, Alexander, had once pledged to have the story told to all, and now has done just that – and done it marvelously well."
- Mennonite Historian

"P.A. Rempel’s 1946 Ältesten J. A. Rempel’s Lebens- und Leidensgeschichte was a short biography of a Mennonite bishop, including his Siberian exile. Reissued in English in an expanded format Hope is Our Deliverance: The Tragic Experience of a Mennonite Leader and his family in Stalin’s Russia (2005), it traced the remarkable story of one educated in Switzerland, including at the University of Basel, who declined an appointment at Moscow State University as a Professor of German in favor of providing leadership for Mennonites resisting Sovietization. Championing their cause resulted in a Siberian exile from his arrest in 1929 to his death in 1941."
- Journal of Mennonite Studies
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April 2024 Featured Title
Lauren Friesen's Theatre, Peace, Justice: Collected Essays Toward a Mennonite Dramaturgy

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Lauren Friesen, Theatre, Peace, Justice: Collected Essays Toward a Mennonite Dramaturgy. Thunder Bay, ON; Pandora Press, 2024. 275 pages. Paperback. ISBN: 978-1778730092

Shakespeare’s Hamlet asks the most important question that we all need to answer: “To be or not to be? That is the question . . .” “Why do people exist?” is the singular question that focuses our attention, not just on why but how we are to live. From its origin in ancient Greece, theatre has posed the same question by addressing the crises people face and dramatizing how we have sought to resolve them. Theatre persists, even when there are organized attempts to quell it. This is because there is a human need to understand the crises of the day and to visualize a path toward restoration. This is the ultimate parallel between theatre and religion: both seek an understanding of existence and both articulate paths toward redemption. This is also why each side often seeks exclusive claims on the path toward wholeness. Religion often attempts to exclude the theatrical, and theatre often seeks to sever ties with religious foundations. The focus of this volume is to explore how those two facets of human life, religion and theatre diverge, converge, or seek common ground. The common ground, I suggest, is the quest for peace action and restorative justice. (from the Coda to Theatre, Peace, Justice)
"In this thought-provoking volume, Lauren Friesen investigates compelling intersections between theatre-making and meaning-making. Using insights from aesthetics, dramatic theory, pivotal plays, and personal experience, Friesen’s essays seek the sources and implications of the immense power of theatre for social justice that have animated his life as a theatre practitioner and scholar. Whether addressing big-picture questions about theatre and transcendence or zooming in on the historical contexts of playwrights such as Hermann Sudermann, Friesen writes with clarity and curiosity about theatre as an act of restorative justice."
-Melissa Friesen, Bluffton University

"In this compelling collection of essays, Dr. Lauren Friesen embraces multiple ways of knowing, through theatre, play, and ethics. He declares that performances engage participants and audiences in discovering meanings that lead to ethical actions. Well-grounded in theatre history and religion, Friesen shows how these diverse ways of knowing have deep connections: the ancient Greek theatre emerged out of both religion and cultural festivals, and medieval religious theatre also emerged from popular performance as well as the Catholic Mass. In the 21st century, Friesen also demonstrates creative tension among theatre, religion, and ethics in Hermann Sudermann’s critique of German nationalism, Anna Deavere Smith’s engagement with racial justice, as well as the religious concerns in the theatre of Eugene O’Neill, Samuel Beckett, Tony Kushner, and many others. For Friesen (and for this writer) there is a special interest in the groundbreaking essay on Mennonite forays into theatre — for self-expression, identity, ethics, and religious inquiry — from the Dutch Golden Age to the present. Anyone with a serious interest in theatre, religion, and ethics will find Friesen’s essays insightful and inspiring."
-Robert Hostetter, North Park University
Lauren Friesen is the David M. French Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. He received his Ph.D. (with honors) from Graduate Theological Union and the University of California-Berkeley. His publications include the memoir Prairie Lands, Private Landscapes (Archway Publications, 2023); a German to English translation of Hermann Sudermann’s comedy The Storm Komrade Sokrates (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003); an edition of J. Lawrence Burkholder’s writings called Mennonite Ethics: From Isolation to Engagement (Pandora Press, 2023), and the present volume. Friesen was Professor of Drama at Goshen College and, early in his career, Pastor of the Seattle Mennonite Church.

May 2024 Featured Title
The Anabaptist Lodestar: Interpretations of Anabaptism on the Eve of a 500-Year Celebration

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The Anabaptist Lodestar: Interpretations of Anabaptism on the Eve of a 500-Year Celebration. Edited and Translated by Leonard Gross. Thunder Bay: Pandora Press, 2024. 180 pages. Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies Series, volume 6.

Originally titled Daring! and first appearing as a series of German pamphlets, this collection of essays calls its readers to consider following the Anabaptist lodestar by asking again what it means to be a Christian in the 21st century. As Paul Schrag, editor of Anabaptist World, notes:
 
It is the relevance of Anabaptist principles that energizes our [500-year anniversary] celebration. The European organizers of “Daring!” refer to Anabaptism as a “lodestar” – a celestial guide for a mariner charting a course – that directs us to follow Jesus and to raise a prophetic voice as the first Anabaptists did when they insisted baptism must be an adult decision.
 
The diverse texts that make up this English-language selection provide a window into current interpretations of historical Anabaptism by contemporary Mennonites and their interlocutors in Germany. The brief chapters that make up this accessible yet scholarly volume will show North American Mennonites and those who study them how their European counterparts are interpreting and reinterpreting the tradition on the eve of its 500-year anniversary, providing readers with a glimpse into the ongoing reckoning of a radical tradition with both its past and its present.
“I hope that this message will be heard by as many people as possible in a time when cohesion is challenged internally, and peace is threatened in many parts of the world.”
– Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of Germany
 
“I hope that this special issue [on nonviolence] will find its way into our global fellowship, the Mennonite World Conference, and that it will help us reflect on Anabaptist identity 500 years after the first rebaptism.”
– Henk Stenvers, President of Mennonite World Conference
 
“I wish that this booklet and all activities of the association ‘500 Years of the Anabaptist Movement 2025’ and its member organizations may attract much attention. I add to these wishes the hope that knowledge of our rich shared history promotes living together in peaceful coexistence.”
– Markus Lewe, Lord Mayor of the City of Münster.

CTMS Title

By special arrangement with the Centre for Transnational Mennonite Studies at the University of Winnipeg and Dr. Aileen Friesen, Pandora Press is proud to distribute The Mennonite Story in Ukraine by Paul Toews, with Aileen Friesen.

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Take a unique journey through the Russian Mennonite past with Paul Toews’ Mennonite Heritage Cruise Lectures.

Ethno-tourism for Mennonites has grown through the Mennonite Heritage Cruises, where for sixteen years (1995-2010) Mennonite pilgrims have floated along the Dnieper River. Within a community of fellowship and reflection on the Mennonite story in Ukraine, Paul Toews, the resident historian, provided historical knowledge to the passengers. Toews’ lectures explore the themes of prosperity, destruction, and resurrection within the The Russian Mennonite Story, while Aileen Friesen's illustrations, along with nearly 100 historic photographs, provide a memory of the past. This coffee-table book offers a rare glimpse into the prosperity, sorrow, and rebirth of the Mennonite story in Russia and Ukraine, and creates a path forward for the future study of Russian Mennonites.

Toews takes the Russian Mennonite story into the 21st century, touching on a renewed church presence in Ukraine and new interest in the Mennonites by Ukrainian and Russian scholars. Much new research has been facilitated by the opening of former KGB archives in Ukraine, a cause Toews enthusiastically promoted. Another strength of the book is its marvelous use of photos, capitalizing on a priceless trove of archival collections in the United States and Canada. The ample number of photos gives The Russian Mennonite Story a coffee-table-book quality.
- Anabaptist World

March 2024 Featured Title
Carla Klassen's Living Our Hymns: These Songs We Sing Volume 2

Carla Klassen, Living Our Hymns: These Songs We Sing, Volume 2. Pandora Press, 2024. 175 pages. Paperback. ISBN: 978-1778730108.

Living Our Hymns is a continuation of a project undertaken by author Carla Klassen a number of years ago. A second volume of reflections on favourite hymns, this follow-up to her first book, These Songs We Sing, continues to explore the world of hymnody – how these songs baffle and inspire us, warm our hearts and remind us of people and places long gone. This collection of thoughts seeks both obvious and hidden wisdom to guide and challenge; wisdom that finds ways to live within these hymns and ways for them to continue living. These are songs that can fill us with joy, purpose and hope. These are the songs we continue to sing.

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In this book, Klassen provides deep and poignant reflections on enduring hymn texts. She uses the lyrics to help the reader muse on faith and doubt, hope and despair, in the context of the stories of our everyday lives. Her words evoke a sense of the intense beauty and deep sadness that permeates life. She draws on the lives of the writers and composers to give insight into the text.  Whether read as a daily devotional or all in one sitting, Klassen's musings invite us to offer these hymns up as prayer.  Through her simple and clear writing, she explains how the hymns she's chosen help us to "think, struggle, learn, share, weep, and soar."
- Dr. Carol Penner, Director of Theological Studies, Conrad Grebel University College

2023 Featured Titles
Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies (New Series)
Edited by Maxwell Kennel

Volume 1. Gary Waite, Anti-Anabaptist Polemics: Dutch Anabaptism and the Devil in England, 1531-1660. 2023. 267 pp. Order here.
Volume 2. Cornelius J. Dyck, Hans de Ries: A Study in Second Generation Dutch Anabaptism. Intro. by Mary S. Sprunger. 2023. 371 pp. Order here.
Volume 3. Edmund Pries, Anabaptist Oath Refusal: Basel, Bern, and Strasbourg, 1525-1538. 2023. 485 pp. Order here.
Volume 4. Linda A. Huebert Hecht, Women in Early Austrian Anabaptism: Their Days, Their Stories. 2nd Edition. 2023. 350 pp. Order here.
Volume 5. J. Lawrence Burkholder, Mennonite Ethics: From Isolation to Engagement. 2nd Edition. Ed. by Lauren Friesen. 2023. 550 pp. Order here.

More details on the Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies Series are available here.

2022 Titles

Anabaptist Meditations: Thirty days of Biblical Reflection from the Founders of the Tradition
by Colin Godwin

Ordering Information
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An Interview with the Author
Colin Godwin's Anabaptist Meditations provides an accessible and attractive set of devotional readings that integrate biblical, historical, and contemporary reflections alongside discussion questions designed to provoke deeper engagement. The book is a very helpful introduction to Anabaptist spirituality.
—Stuart Murray, author of Biblical Interpretation in the Anabaptist Tradition (Pandora Press, 2000) and The Naked Anabaptist (Herald Press, 2010).
Five hundred years ago, a movement emerged in Europe that took seriously the call to follow in the footsteps of Christ. The Anabaptists developed a new form of Christian spirituality and practice in response to the political changes, spiritual confusion, violence, and the economic disparities that they saw around them. Their new faith went beyond carefully crafted creedal statements and instead, they developed a new understanding of Christian discipleship based on their reading of the New Testament and centered on the life and teachings of Christ.

In Anabaptist Meditations, Colin Godwin offers thirty devotional readings carefully crafted to guide you to the heart of the Anabaptist tradition. Five themes will challenge you to a more engaged and Christ-centered spiritual life: choosing faith (voluntarism), following Christ (discipleship), Christian community (church), separation (nonresistance), and witness (mission).

Each entry begins with a biblical passage, followed by a short meditation and quotation from an Anabaptist writer, and concludes with questions for reflection and a prayer. Anabaptist Meditations provides a devotional complement to the Anabaptist tradition that draws on its past to inform our present.

About the Author

Colin Godwin serves as the President of Carey Theological College in Vancouver, Canada. He was born in Belgium and educated at the University of Guelph, the University of St. Michael’s College, McMaster University, and the University of Wales. He began his ministry as a youth pastor and served as a Baptist missionary in Belgium, Rwanda, and Kenya alongside the love of his life, Karen, and their four children. Colin is the author of an exploration of sixteenth-century Anabaptist missiology, Baptizing, Gathering and Sending: the significance of Anabaptist approaches to mission in the sixteenth-century context (Pandora Press, 2012), and articles on Baptist and Anabaptist history, church planting, and missiology.

These Songs We Sing: Reflections on the Hymns We Have Loved
by Carla Klassen

2022. 214 pp. ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1926599984
United States: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926599985
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1926599985
United Kingdom: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1926599985
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Sheet music available at:  www.sheetmusicplus.com/publishers/carla-klassen-sheet-music/3015740

About the Author
Carla Klassen is a piano teacher, accompanist, professional chorister, and church musician. She has been singing her whole life and has spent the past number of years rediscovering traditional hymns as an arranger, having arranged for piano more than one hundred and fifty of these sacred songs. When she is not making music, she is an avid traveler, art lover, and collector of all sorts of treasures.
This collection of reflections on favourite hymns emerged from a project undertaken by the author a number of years ago. At the time, the idea was to create a piano arrangement of one hymn, write a few thoughts on the music and text, and post it on a blog every week for one year. The passing of time has since opened up the space to develop these writings, to finish thoughts that needed to expand, and to revisit meaningful ideas that will speak to the hearts and minds of many.

These reflections are about finding a place within these old songs that offer a glimpse into who we were, who we are, and who we can be. These hymns inspire us, baffle us, warm our hearts, remind us of people and places long gone, and ultimately provide guidance for those who sing them whether we adhere to the faith in which they are found or not. These are songs that can fill us with joy, purpose, and hope. They are the hymns we’ve loved. These are the songs we sing.
As a church musician and pianist, the discovery of Carla Klassen's volume of inventive hymn arrangements several years ago was like meeting a new friend with whom one feels an instant connection. In These Songs We Sing, Carla's written voice is as satisfying as her musical voice, creating a devotional guide for Christian discipleship as she explores why these timeless hymns resonate so deeply in our individual and collective souls.
—Dr. Beverly Lapp
Vice President and Academic Dean, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

Carla Klassen has taken on a self-motivated spiritual journey; one hymn per week for a year. She covers a wide spectrum in the lexicon of hymnody with astute observations, personal sharing, pertinent historical context, and storytelling. Each chapter ends with a testimony to God’s grace and gentle encouragement to the reader. This study would make an ideal devotional guide.
—Dr. Larry Nickel
CEO of Cypress Choral Music Publishing

Menno in Athens: A Novel
by Ronald Tiessen

“To read it is to see correspondences and to ask questions… that may produce tremors in the ground of a naïve faith. So be it. Difficult questions and honest answers are essential in the transition to maturity, in faith as in everything.” —Charles Roth in the Conrad Grebel Review (2022).
2022. 200 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1926599748
See here for an interview with the author for the Conrad Grebel University College Alumni series.

In conversation with Rudy Wiebe, Margaret Atwood extols the virtues of Menno in Athens at a January 2024 event at the Canadian Mennonite University: https://youtube.com/live/ybiRpYvbpbQ?si=lhq0ykLzzWlvkBrd&t=2102

United States: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926599748
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1926599748 
United Kingdom: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1926599748
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About the Author

Ronald Tiessen was raised in a Mennonite family and fellowship outside Leamington, Ontario. His studies brought him to Conrad Grebel College, the University of Waterloo, the University of Windsor, and thereafter to Greece. After studying Ancient Greek history in Athens, he made his home on Pelee Island, the setting of his 2016 novel The Pele’ Harbour for Odd Birds. Following his studies, he retained an unflagging curiosity about ancient Greece and has returned numerous times. Menno in Athens bridges two defining experiences in his life—his Anabaptist-Mennonite heritage and his love for Greece.

About the Illustrator

Lisa Rollo Kipp is a multimedia artist from Pelee Island, Ontario, whose love for art began at a very early age. The encouragement of her parents and a gifted high school teacher inspired her to continue her exploration of art. She currently enjoys oil painting, pen and ink drawing, and working with found items in nature.
Menno in Athens: A Novel. A quirky charmer & unusual travel book & exploration of Greek myths and Christian origins via a young Mennonite. Yikes, naked statues!
—Margaret E. Atwood, Twitter. July 29, 2022.
An Anabaptist-Mennonite finding a home, not in Jerusalem, but in Athens? Cavorting with ancient pagans? Placing ancient Greek poets and playwrights next to Hebrew prophets? Imagining peacemakers in the heroic age that celebrated prowess in war? And, finding inspiration in the writings of the French mystic, Simone Weil?

Menno in Athens stages such encounters while blending memoir and meditative travelogue where the wisdom of ancient Greece and the tenets of Anabaptism meet.

Menno, the narrator, undertakes a pilgrimage to Greece, where he visits sites once home to ancient poets, sages, playwrights, and philosophers. Along the way, an imposing coincidence with Menno’s Anabaptist heritage reveals itself in voices that draw attention to the true cost of violence and discord—voices reiterating an aspiration for peace, and even love.
An unlikely modern-day Odysseus, Menno is schooled in the religiosity and pacifism of his conservative rural community in Canada, yet finds himself on a memorable journey through contemporary Greece in search of the wisdom of the Ancients. To his surprise, encounters with an astonishing array of characters foreshadow fundamental norms of his sheltered home community, warn of disintegrating social and political life, and testify to the enduring folly of war that delivers only defeat to victors and vanquished alike. Menno in Athens is a unique, compelling journey of discovery, and the reader’s good fortune is to be along for the ride.
–Ernie Regehr, Senior Fellow in Defence and Arctic Security at the Simons Foundation Canada, and Research Fellow in the Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo.

This enthralling novel takes us on what might at first seem to be a quixotic pilgrimage to the sites of ancient Greece to validate a vision of how free people can live and thrive in harmony – a vision that two thousand years later found an echo among Anabaptist Mennonites. When the hero, aptly named Menno, leaves the Mennonite town where he grew up he is strenuously warned by his stepfather that he is pursuing false gods. But what Menno unearths in his pilgrimage among the pre-Hellenic Greeks is a record of their scorn, not their celebration, of private wealth and martial glory. And what else but a latter-day version of a polis were those agrarian Mennonite settlements in Russia, Paraguay, or Canada, where small, radically democratic communities could aspire to live a life that was pleasing to God in the midst of warring nations and empires?
–Erwin Wiens, Retired professor of English Literature, and author of To Antoine: A Novel (Gelassenheit Publications, 2022).

Bridgefolk: An Anthology of the Mennonite-Catholic Theological Colloquium (Bridgefolk Series)
General Editor: Gerald W. Schlabach

2022. 570 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1926599953
United States: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926599950
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This volume collects four titles in the Bridgefolk series on Mennonite-Catholic dialogue published by Pandora Press between 2004 and 2007, accompanied by a new preface by Gerald W. Schlabach.

Contents include:

On Baptism: Mennonite-Catholic Theological Colloquium, 2001-2002.
Edited by Gerald W. Schlabach. 2004.

Just Policing: Mennonite-Catholic Theological Colloquium, 2002.
Edited by Ivan J. Kauffman. 2004.

Called Together to be Peacemakers: Report of the International Dialogue between the Catholic Church and Mennonite World Conference, 1998-2003.
Edited by Willard Roth and Gerald W. Schlabach. 2005.

Martyrdom in an Ecumenical Perspective: A Mennonite-Catholic Dialogue.
Edited by Peter C. Erb. 2007.

Spiritual Caregivers in the Hospital: Windows to Competent Practice
Edited by Daniel S. Schipani and Leah D. Bueckert

2022. 348 pp. ISBN 979-888627349-6
United States: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5G63S3G
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0B5G63S3G
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Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0B5G63S3G
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0B5G63S3G

About the Editors

Leah D. Bueckert is Case Coordinator with Transitional Living Centres, Inc. She was formerly Spiritual Care Coordinator with the Eastman Health Association in Manitoba, Canada.

Daniel S. Schipani is Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana, USA
Even as hospitals increasingly recognize spiritual care as an essential component of holistic care, chaplains are still in the process of defining their role. This book acknowledges and celebrates the unique contribution of hospital chaplains, fosters understanding and support for their work, and seeks to elicit interest in their ministry of spiritual caregiving.

Praise for Spiritual Caregivers in the Hospital

"The writers bring together a wealth of conceptual and practical information for those engaged in the challenging ministry of caring for persons in crises. Required reading for any chaplain or spiritual care provider, this book is also an excellent resource for those training professional caregivers."
–Teresa E. Snorton, Presiding Bishop of the Fifth Episcopal District of the CME Church; former Executive Director, Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE)

"This resource addresses the unique contributions of professional chaplains and the foundations and guiding principles that help spiritual care providers respond to specific concerns and difficult issues."
–George Abram Neufeld, Retired Provincial Coordinator of Spiritual Care for Manitoba Health

"This book fills a gap in the literature of healthcare chaplaincy. A must read for chaplains, it will also be helpful to CPE students and supervisors as well as pastoral theologians."
–Mark LaRocca-Pitts, Former Staff Chaplain, Regional Medical Center, Athens, Ga.

"Here are the voices of spiritual care providers who have claimed their places as healers in the health care institutions of our countries. Their stories and reflections convey compassion and competence, discerning spirits and deep faith, and an integration of theory and practice."
–Glen R. Horst, Retired CPE Teaching Supervisor; Spiritual Care Advisor, Canadian Virtual Hospice

"This valuable guide provides tools to empower and assist professional chaplains in articulating their education, training, and contributions to administrators and other members of the multidisciplinary team. It presents an engaging, in-depth overview of the competencies and expertise clinically trained chaplains offer."
–Sue Wintz, Retired Staff Chaplain, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, Ariz.

Theology at the Border: Community Peacemaker Teams and the Refugee Crisis in Europe
by Hadje Cresencio Sadje

2022. 109 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1926599755
United States: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926599756
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1926599756
United Kingdom: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1926599756
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/1926599756
France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/1926599756
Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/1926599756
Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/1926599756
Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/1926599756
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/1926599756
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/1926599756

About the Author

Hadje Cresencio Sadje is a visiting research fellow at the University of Vienna, Austria, a visiting fellow at the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre in Canada, an associate member of the SOAS Center for Palestine Studies at the University of London-UK, and a research associate at the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student at the University of Hamburg Germany.

Following its change in name from Christian Peacemaker Teams to Community Peacemaker Teams, CPT Europe places significant theologically-informed emphases on political, economic, and public policy advocacy. The identity of CPT Europe differs markedly from traditional theological and pastoral approaches, but does not preclude theological interpretations of its work. This booklet explores how CPT Europe’s work can inform a contextually sensitive, socially relevant, and liberating form of Christian faith that is immersed in the everyday lives of people, especially refugee lives. Although it is not solely a Christian organization, the work of CPT rests on a strong theological affirmation of immersion as a concrete approach to doing theology at the borders of this world. The work of CPT Europe shows how theological reflection at the borderland should not remain academic exercise, but instead it ought to emerge in the context of common people, especially the poor, the vulnerable, and the oppressed. In brief, this booklet argues that theology cannot be done without taking lived realities into account, and it demonstrates this conclusion by showing how CPT Europe provides a paradigm for doing theology – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching God – at the borderland.

Praise for Theology at the Border

"Hadje Cresencio Sadje’s perspective on CPT-Europe’s work with refugees at Lesbos starts with the assumption that theology is rightly formed by encounters at the margins – particularly in distressed places where Christ is found among “crucified people” – rather than theology being brought to such encounters from outside. Theology at the Border is focused on seeing/hearing/touching God, and it begins where faith both confronts human realities and is shaped by them. In this book, experience contextualizes and shapes one’s perspective on God, and not the other way around. This is what the immersive work of CPT-Europe does, and although that work involves many mundane tasks, as these tasks are accomplished theology takes shape and hearts are changed."
–Reverend Dr. Tricia Gates Brown, editor of Getting in the Way: Stories from Christian Peacemaker Teams, author of Jesus Loves Women: A Memoir of Body and Spirit, and author of ReligionMatters.substack.com

"Hadje Sadje presents a provocative view that God of the poor, marginalized, and displaced is involved in their everyday struggles. In a theologically engaging manner, Sadje’s Theology at the Border displays how the Christian community should be at the forefront of the fight for human dignity and social justice, especially in response to the global migration and refugee crisis. This booklet is a must-read for clergy and concerned Christian seeking to proclaim and embody God’s Good News for the broken and damaged world."
–Reverend Samuel Lee, Director of Center for Theology of Migration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Founding President of Foundation Academy of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Making Wars Cease: A Survey of the MCC Peace Section, 1940–1990
by Urbane Peachey

2022. 320 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1926599885
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1926599888   
United Kingdom: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1926599888
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/1926599888
France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/1926599888
Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/1926599888
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Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/1926599888
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/1926599888

Praise for Making Wars Cease

"Across five decades, North American Mennonites worked together in the MCC Peace Section to address issues of war and peace and to push boundaries of social justice advocacy. Urbane Peachey’s stance as practitioner, visionary, and critic provides authenticity and depth to this study of twentieth century Mennonite-led efforts, outcomes, and roads not taken. In hindsight, the Peace Section’s aspirations and breadth were remarkable. Peachey’s historical appraisal of this “lively mosaic” is a timely contribution to contemporary debates regarding present-day humanitarian need and grounded ethical response."
– Rachel Waltner Goossen, Professor of History, Washburn University

"Urbane Peachey draws on both archival documents and his own long experience to remind us of a key part of Mennonite peacemaking work as it developed and matured in the 20th century. MCC Peace Section was sometimes in the foreground but consistently in the background helping Mennonites network with one another and with ecumenical partners to respond to new challenges with growing theological sophistication and practical wisdom. Making Wars Cease will be an indispensable resource to help us continue to remember and learn from that work."
– Gerald W. Schlabach, Emeritus Professor of Theology and former chair of Justice and Peace Studies at University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
This book is a modest effort to preserve and interpret the half century work and witness of the Mennonite Central Committee Peace Section. The Section was formed by MCC in 1942 and assigned to address “all matters that concerned witness to the nonresistant way of life on behalf of all member groups.” It was organized semi-autonomously, with its own board because of US Selective Service urgencies. The Section was formed in January, 1942, after Mennonites, Quakers and Church of the Brethren had spent half a decade appealing to the U. S. government for exemption of draft age men from military service. Canadian Mennonites served on the MCC board and the Peace Section in the early years, before the formation of MCC Canada in 1963. The book includes perspectives on the organizational issues between MCC Canada and MCC US. Peace Section bi-national was formed in 1974, with full Canadian-U.S. membership. The book includes Canadian perspectives and major roles of Canadian members on the bi-national Section, but only summarizes peace activities of the Canadian Peace and Social Concerns Committee and MCC Canada.

About the Author

Urbane Peachey was Executive Secretary of the MCC Peace Section binational from 1975-1986, with a focus on the joined agenda of Canada and the US, including international work. He first served in Mennonite Central Committee as Director of Personnel Services where he coordinated the recruitment, selection and placement of MCC workers, 1960-1969. He served as the MCC country director in Jordan and MCC Representative for Egypt and Lebanon from 1970-75, residing in Jordan and Beirut, Lebanon with his family, just before coming to the Section. After 1986, he changed careers and served as pastor and counselor for 20 years until his retirement in 2005. Peachey holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Lancaster (Pa.) Theological Seminary, and the University of Pittsburgh's School of International Affairs. He graduated from Eastern Mennonite University in 1958 with a BA in Sociology.
Intercessory Prayer and the Communion of Saints: Mennonite and Catholic Perspectives, Edited by Darrin W. Snyder Belousek and Margaret R. Pfeil
2022. 260 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1926599786
Cover design by Meghan Harder
United States: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926599780
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1926599780
United Kingdom: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1926599780
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"This miracle will be one of the bridges between Roman Catholics and Mennonites in an ecumenical point of view," said Pope John Paul II in 2003 on the occasion of the canonization of Joseph Freinademetz, S.V.D. He was speaking of the miraculous healing of Jun Yamada, son of a Japanese Mennonite pastor, through the joint intercessions of Catholics and Mennonites united by faith in Jesus and love of God. That miracle, as John Paul predicted, has inspired ongoing ecumenical friendships, dialogues, and engagements between Mennonite and Catholics, leading to this volume. Moved by this healing story, Bridgefolk, a Mennonite-Catholic ecumenical movement in North America, centered its annual conference in 2015 on that story. Following that conference, the Mennonite Catholic Theological Colloquium convened in 2016 to consider the Christian practice of intercessory prayer and doctrine of the communion of saints from the perspectives of both traditions. This volume collects the presentations from those two events, including the personal and theological reflections of Nozomu Yamada, brother of Jun, and Alfonso Fausone, S.V.D., who initiated the intercessions for Jun.

Praise for Intercessory Prayer and the Communion of Saints

"Memory and hope meet mystery and faith in this collection of essays. One family's story of people praying and God healing inspires rich reflections about what it means to belong to God's family, a communion of saints spanning space and time. Conveying helpful historical, theological, and liturgical context about how Mennonites and Catholics approach praying with and/or praying for others, this book will serve theologians, ecumenists, and faith leaders."
–Anne McGowan, Assistant Professor of Liturgy, Catholic Theological Union

"This book not only tells the story of a miraculous healing, but of a network of relationships that bears witness to transformation, reconciliation, and movement toward the very centre of faith. First there is an astonishing experience of prayer and the communion of saints. Then Catholics and Mennonites together reflect, discuss, and deepen their understanding of prayer and the communion of saints. This is an instructive and inspiring pattern of doing theology in service of the church."
–Jeremy M. Bergen, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Theological Studies, Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo
Menno’s Descendants in Quebec: The Mission Activity of Four Anabaptist Groups 1956 – 2021, by Richard Lougheed
2021. 255 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1926599724
United States: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926599721
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1926599721
United Kingdom: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1926599721
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/1926599721
France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/1926599721
Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/1926599721
Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/1926599721
Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/1926599721
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/1926599721
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/1926599721
See here for a recent interview with the author in Anabaptist Historians!

"Although this study specifically retraces the missionary history of Mennonites in Quebec, many parallels can be seen with the missionary ventures of other denominations. Thus, this book is a vital contribution for the entire Quebec evangelical movement. In addition the combination of a historical work and a missiological critique is a welcome precedent." – The late Gilles Marcouiller, occupying the Chair of Leadership in Evangelical Protestant Missiology at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of Université Laval.

"Richard Lougheed delivers the first historical review of the Anabaptist movement in Québec since 1950. This volume, which provides a quite complete picture accompanied by many pertinent observations and questions, also reads well. It will certainly remain an important reference for some time both for Anabaptist history and for the evangelical movement in Quebec. " – Jean Raymond Théorêt, former Director of the Institut Biblique Laval and chairman of the Board of ÉTEQ.

"Finally, a history of Mennonite mission in Quebec is available for English readers. Richard Lougheed has chronicled the stories of each of the four Anabaptist groups whose vision brought them to Quebec during the latter half of the twentieth century, placing it in the context of the sweeping changes of the sixties. With its comparisons among the groups, and insights from Anabaptist mission in France, the book provides an analysis of methods and strategies relevant both for Mennonites and other evangelicals." – Lucille Marr, Adjunct Professor at McGill University.

About the Author
Grandson and son of United Church pastors, Richard Lougheed also served as pastor of a joint Anglican-United congregation before PhD studies in French Protestantism. He has taught church history in French in Montreal since 1993 at the Faculté de Théologie Évangélique and since 2011 at the École de Théologie Évangélique du Québec. He serves on the Quebec and Canadian Boards of the Mennonite Brethren denomination. His research concentrates on French Protestant history and he is past chair of the Société d'histoire du protestantisme franco-québécois.
2021 Featured Title

The Vegan Mennonite Kitchen: Old Recipes for a Changing World by Jo Snyder

United States: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926599713
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1926599713
United Kingdom: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1926599713
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Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/1926599713
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/1926599713
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/1926599713
2021. 186 pp. ISBN 978-1-926599-71-7. Order here!

“This inventive cookbook reimagines Mennonite dishes using plant-based ingredients... Author Jo Snyder’s accessible instructions for savoury and sweet dishes make replicating these reinvented classic meals a breeze.”
– Chatelaine

In The Vegan Mennonite Kitchen, Jo Snyder revisits recipes from the beloved Mennonite Community Cookbook, the grandmother of all Mennonite cookbooks. After inheriting her own grandmother’s well-worn copy, Snyder brought together friends and family around the dinner table to reimagine some of her childhood favourites using plant-based ingredients. The result of those dinners are the recipes in this book. Throughout the book, Snyder weaves in stories of her family and growing up on a crop farm in Southern Ontario.

Jo Snyder is an editor, writer, communications professional and author of The Vegan Mennonite Kitchen. She grew up on a Southern Ontario crop farm in a big Mennonite family. After spending ten years in Winnipeg as a student, editor and touring musician, she moved to Vancouver to complete her Master of Publishing from Simon Fraser University. She recently moved to Kitchener with her husband Paul and Jean Luc the dog.

www.veganmennonite.com
@veganmennonite

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