The Naked Anabaptist

About two months ago I intended to tell you about a newly released book that I had the privilege of writing the forward to. For reasons I don’t recall, I forgot to do this. (You’re shocked, I know.) I’ll blame it on my A.D.D. combined with my close-to-insane obsession with explaining Old Testament violence (working on my forthcoming book, The Crucifixion of the Warrior God). Anyway, I just noticed this newly released book peeking out at me from under a huge pile of books on the floor (one of many such piles I’m afraid), and so I decided to immediately take a break from my Old Testament obsession to tell you about this book before I forget again!

The book I’m referring to is Stuart Murray’s The Naked Anabaptist. You can read more about it here and purchase it here. The title refers to the fact that Murray presents the Anabaptist tradition in its bare essentials and without covering up any its shortcomings. He does this masterfully. The goal of The Naked Anabaptist is to simply begin a dialog between Mennonites and other Anabaptist groups, on the one hand, and the quickly multiplying tribes of kingdom-minded, peace-centered, post-Christendom, Jesus-followers around the globe, on the other. For the last several years I’ve been saying that this is a discussion that needs to happen, and Murray’s book is as good an introduction to the Anabaptist partner in this dialog as I can imagine.

I have no idea whether or not this discussion will result in Anabaptist groups like the Mennonites and Bretheren in Christ experiencing explosive growth, though (as I’ve been telling them for the last three years) I believe if they will return to embracing without compromise the distinctive theology of their tradition while loosening their grip on the distinctive culture of their tradition, they very well could. Having disavowed the triumphalistic tradition of Christendom, many of these new tribes are looking for some other ecclesial tradition to anchor themselves in. On the other hand, it may be that the dialog is primarily used by God to help each side grow in distinct ways. The future is open (pun intended). What I do know for sure is that both parties would benefit from this on-going dialog. And given how quickly the last vestiges of Christendom are (thankfully) dying off, I believe it’s a matter of urgency that this dialog begins soon. Which is why I encourage everyone to read this book — including Mennonites and other traditional Anabaptists, many of whom are walking away from their theological tradition just as the rest of the world is waking up to it.

Peace