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.
Order here.
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.
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.
Order here.
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.”
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.
Order here.
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.
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.
Order here.
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).
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.
Order here.
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.
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.
December 2024 Featured Title:
The Way Back Home
Wandering the Renaissance and Reformation of the First Flemish Anabaptists
by Jerrad A. Peters
Order here!
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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. |
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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)
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).
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
- Anabaptism, Radicalism, and the Reformation: Collected Essays by James M. Stayer. Edited by Geoffrey Dipple, Sharon Judd, and Michael Driedger. Pandora Press, 2024. 204 pp. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-1778730191. Take a look at this interview with editor Geoffrey Dipple!
- 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) 323 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1778730184. Original 2005. Reprinted 2024. Open access PDF available.
- Lauren Friesen, Theatre, Peace, Justice: Collected Essays Toward a Mennonite Dramaturgy. Pandora Press, 2024. 275 pages. Paperback. ISBN: 978-1778730092. See here for a review!
- The Anabaptist Lodestar: Interpretations of Anabaptism on the Eve of a 500-Year Celebration. Edited and Translated by Leonard Gross. Pandora Press, 2024. 180 pages. Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies Series, volume 6. A collection of translations from this project, through which Mennonites in Germany are marking the 500 year anniversary of Anabaptism.
- Carla Klassen, Living Our Hymns: These Songs We Sing, Volume 2. Pandora Press, 2024. 175 pages. Paperback. ISBN: 978-1778730108.
- Distribution: The Mennonite Story in Ukraine by Paul Toews, with Aileen Friesen.
- M. Darrol Bryant, Crossing Borders: Stories from my Life and Encounters with the World’s Religions.
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
- Colin Godwin, Anabaptist Meditations: Thirty days of Biblical Reflection from the Founders of the Tradition. See here for an author Q&A!
- Carla Klassen, These Songs We Sing: Reflections on the Hymns We Have Loved. See here for a review!
- Ronald Tiessen, Menno in Athens: A Novel. See here for an interview! In conversation with Rudy Wiebe, Margaret Atwood extols the virtues of Menno in Athens at a January 2024 event at the Canadian Mennonite University.
- Intercessory Prayer and the Communion of Saints: Mennonite and Catholic Perspectives, Edited by Darrin W. Snyder Belousek and Margaret R. Pfeil. See here for a review! (PDF)
- Bridgefolk: An Anthology of the Mennonite-Catholic Theological Colloquium, with a new preface by Gerald W. Schlabach.
- Hadje Cresencio Sadje, Theology at the Border: Community Peacemaker Teams and the Refugee Crisis in Europe.
- Distribution: Urbane Peachey, Making Wars Cease: A Survey of the MCC Peace Section, 1940–1990.
- Spiritual Caregivers in the Hospital: Windows to Competent Practice. 3rd Ed. Edited by Daniel S. Schipani and Leah D. Bueckert.
2021 Titles
- Richard Lougheed, Menno’s Descendants in Quebec: The Mission Activity of Four Anabaptist Groups 1956-2021. See here for an interview, here for a review, and here for the French edition!
- Jo Snyder, The Vegan Mennonite Kitchen: Old Recipes for a Changing World. See here for a CBC article and here for a profile in Chatelaine!
Book Series'
- Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies Series (new series, 2023-present)
- Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies (Original Series, 2000-2010)
- Anabaptist History and Theology
- Mennonite Reflections Series
- Anabaptist Texts in Translation Series
- Bridgefolk Mennonite-Catholic dialogue series (recently collected in one volume!)
- Studies in the Believers Church Tradition
- Proceedings of the Goshen Conference on Religion and Science (with new open access titles!)
- Sound in the Land Series
- Spiritual Care Series (with a new edition of Spiritual Caregivers in the Hospital)
- M. Darrol Bryant Series (all titles are open access, with a new memoir!)
- Classics of the Radical Reformation series and the Global Mennonite History Series (legacy series')
- languages and translations
- Anabaptists & Philosophy Roundtable Lecture Series
- Conrad Grebel Review (with two final issues coming in the next few months)
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.
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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." |
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