This book enters a conversation with the "Schleitheim Articles" from a contemporary perspective. To do this, it closely follows Schleitheim''s seven articles, each of which discusses a practice to shape the church community. These range from freely chosen baptism to mutual discipline, the election of leaders, and the dissociation from worldly sovereignty. On its surface, the text suggests a severe separation from the outside world. On closer reading, however, we find a text marked by tensions and openings. Separation is never quite achieved, and negotiating ambiguity becomes key to shaping a nonsovereign co-presence. The shared life it envisions remains a matter of repeated practice, persisting without guarantee, making space for human freedom in response to God''s invitation and amid creaturely existence.

Autorentext
Marius van Hoogstraten is a Lecturer at the Mennonite Seminary at VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Klappentext

This book examines, from a contemporary perspective, the most influential document in Anabaptist tradition: the Schleitheim Confession. Van Hoogstraten develops seven constructive readings of the Confession's articles, each of which discuss practices to shape the church community.

Written in the wake of defeat at the Peasants' rising in 1527, the Confession represents the attempt by radical reformers to outline collective, nurturing practices in the wake of external catastrophe. Van Hoogstraten sets loose a lively conversation with this text that illuminates a sense of life and togetherness in trying times. In the of this hands sophisticated and interdisciplinary scholar, the Confession becomes a vital source for constructive theology and ethics in the Anabaptist tradition.

This fresh take on the Confession is sure to be of interest to Anabaptist theologians as well as students of the wider fields of political theology, Continental philosophy and ecclesiology.

Inhalt

Introduction

Chapter 1: Beginning
Chapter 2: Repetition
Chapter 3: Presence
Chapter 4: Refuge
Chapter 5: Process
Chapter 6: Authority
Chapter 7: Guarantee

Excursus: Schleitheim's Preface and Closing Lines
Conclusion
Appendix: The Schleitheim Articles (the full text in English translation)

Bibliography
Index