Menno Simons: His Life, Labors, and Teachings

by John Horsch

Publisher:

Mennonite Publishing

, 1916

Overview

John Horsch’s biography of Menno Simons provides an important history of the Anabaptists and early Mennonites, focusing on Menno Simons’ life and works. Menno Simons: His Life, Labors, and Teachings is full of biographical information about many of Simons’ contemporaries and gives a unique perspective of the Reformation. Horsch also provides an Anabaptist dictionary of key people, places, and doctrines as well as an abbreviated time-line of Menno Simons’ various points of doctrine and practice.

Menno Simons: His Life, Labors, and Teachings is a must-have for those interested in Reformation history. With the Logos edition, all Scripture passages in Menno Simons: His Life, Labors, and Teachings are tagged and appear on mouse-over. What’s more, Scripture references are linked to the wealth of language resources in your Logos library, making these texts more powerful and easier to access than ever before for scholarly work or personal Bible study. With the advanced search features of Logos Bible Software, you can perform powerful searches by topic or Scripture reference—finding, for example, every mention of “baptism” or “Matthew 5:3.”

Key Features

• Examines Menno Simons’ conversion, baptism, call to ministry, and works
• Explains the role Simons played in the history of the Anabaptists and early Mennonites
• Includes an Anabaptist dictionary of key people, places, and doctrines

Contents

• Menno Simons’ Conversion and Baptism
• Menno Simons’ Call to the Ministry and Ordination
• The Anabaptists
• Menno Simons’ Motives, Aims, and Endeavors
• Menno’s Labors in the Netherlands
• The Difficulties under Which Menno Simons Labored
• Menno’s Flight to Germany and Labors in the Electorate of Cologne
• From the Flight from Cologne to the Discussions at Wismar
• Menno Simons’ Relation to the State-Church Reformation
• Menno’s Attitude toward Rationalism
• Menno on Church Discipline
• Menno Simons’ Doctrine on the Incarnation of Christ
• Menno Simons’ Attitude toward the Munsterites
• The Batenburgers and the Davidites
• Adam Pastor
• Recent Accusations against Menno Simons
• A Letter of Menno Simons to a Timid Believer
• Menno in Wustenfelde. His Death. His Place in the History of the Reformation
• Menno Simons on Various Points of Doctrine and Practice
• Menno’s Writings

Top Highlights

“It sounded to me strange indeed to hear of a second baptism. I examined the Scriptures with diligence and earnest application but could find nothing concerning infant baptism.’” (Page 22)

“‘To a weak perishable creature which grew out of the earth, was broken in the mill, was baked at the fire and which I have bitten with my teeth and consumed by my stomach, namely to a bit of bread I have said, ‘Thou hast redeemed me,’ as Israel said to the golden calf, ‘These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.’ ’ (171b; I:222a).” (Page 27)

“The regenerated do not go to war nor fight. They are the children of peace who have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and know of no war. They give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. Their sword is the word of the Spirit which they wield with a good conscience through the Holy Ghost.” (Page 281)

“I did not order my life in accordance with my knowledge, but led an impure, carnal, fruitless life in youthful lusts, seeking nothing but earthly gain, ease, the favor of men and a great name, as all generally do who take passage on the same ship.’” (Page 24)

“The exact place where his body was laid to rest is today unknown, the settlement or village of Wüstenfelde having been so completely destroyed in the Thirty Years War that no trace of it remained.” (Page 220)

Praise for the Print Edition

It is of value to have in English a really authoritative life of the great Dutch radical of the Reformation. We are so accustomed to hear only of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin, that we frequently forget that there was a large part of the Reformation movement bitterly hostile to the so-called ’orthodox’ reformers. For Menno Simons and his many followers, Luther and his confreres were hardly better than the Pope with his Cardinals.

—Anglican Theological Review

The Historical value of the book is very considerable, the author’s diligence is exemplary, and a quantity of material has been brought together from various sources that has never before been printed in English.

—The American Historical Review

Product Details

• Title: Menno Simons: His Life, Labors, and Teachings
• Author: John Horsch
• Publisher: Mennonite Publishing House
• Publication Date: 1916
• Pages: 324

About John Horsch

John Horsch (1867–1941) was born in Germany and immigrated to America in 1887. After learning English from the Indian Mission School under Christian Krehbiel, he began to work as an editor for the Mennonite Publishing Company. Aside a few intermittent years of further study, Horsch worked as an editor, researcher, and writer for the Mennonite Publishing Company for over 50 years. He authored numerous works, including Infant Baptism: Its Origin Among Protestants, The Principle of Nonresistance as Held by the Mennonite Church, and The Hutterian Brethren: A Story of Martyrdom and Loyalty. He has the credit of discovering the modern Hutterites and their historical manuscripts and introducing them to modern scholarship.