Old Order Mennonites of Ontario: Gelassenheit, Discipleship, Brotherhood, by Donald Martin
2003. 381 pp. ISBN: 978-1894710336
Available on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com
Written by someone standing within the conservative Mennonite community, The Old Order Mennonites provides a unique and detailed history of the formation of the numerous groups of Old Order Mennonites. In doing so, it traces the principle of Gelassenheit through the centuries from the teachings of Jesus, to the Anabaptists in Europe, to the hearts and homes of the Old Order Mennonites of today. The application of the principle of Gelassenheit is portrayed as a primary difference between the Old Order Mennonites and modern forms of Christianity.
“Donald Martin is a member of the Markham-Waterloo Conference of Old Order Mennonites in Ontario, a group that separated from the more traditional horse-and-buggy driving Old Order Mennonites about sixty years ago. The two groups cooperate in some areas such as schools and the use of meetinghouses and share a common Old Order identity, history, and theological perspective. Martin’s book is an important contribution to the scholarly literature on Old Order groups because, to my knowledge, it is the only systematic account of Old Order history, theology, and practice written by an Old Order lay historian.”
- Donald B. Kraybill, Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College (in the Journal of Mennonite Studies)
"Very few of the published writings on conservative Mennonites offer the kind of detailed, well-researched and thoughtful study that is exhibited in Donald Martin's survey and analysis of the history and traditions of Old Order Mennonites in Ontario."
– Marlene Epp, Conrad Grebel University College (in Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses)