A chance discovery of a log book of sermons by grand-uncle and Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference minister Cornelius G. Stoesz led Donald Stoesz on a fifteen-year odyssey in which he identified four hundred and fifty-seven Scripture texts used by seventeen Mennonite ministers in Canada over the course of one hundred years (1874-1977). The extensive, yet selective, use of the Lutheran lectionary by these ministers illuminates an aspect of Mennonite church life that has seldom been recognized. Known as the Anweisung der Lieder and located at the front of the German-language hymnbook (Gesangbuch), this lectionary was in use by Mennonite congregations in the 18th and 19th centuries in Prussia and Russia. Stoesz details Scripture usage and arranges sermon texts according to method of selection and topic. Included in this analysis are biographies of three pastors and several translated sermons from 1 Peter.

T.D. Regehr shows how the Second World War challenged the pacifist views of Mennonites and created a population more aware of events, problems, and opportunities for Christian service and personal advancement in the world beyond their traditional rural communities.

The editor provides an important new scholarly tool for locating and understanding the enormous expansion of scholarly research dealing with the sociology of Canadian Mennonites, Hutterites and Amish. Although the book includes research from American scholars, the editor devotes special attention to Canadian works concerning these important and interesting minorities. Using the tripartite division of Mennonites, Hutterites and Amish, the bibliography includes 800 entries each with a concise summary and evaluation. The entries are listed under the subheadings: books, theses, articles and unpublished manuscripts. Preceding the bibliography itself is an essay by the editor originally presented to the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association. The essay outlines the differing conceptual assumptions of the researchers included in the book, the major methodologies employed and the main conclusions to be drawn from their work.

Mennonites and their forebears are usually thought to be a people with little interest or involvement in politics. Mennonites, Politics, and Peoplehood reveals that since their early history, Mennonites have, in fact, been active participants in worldly politics. From western to eastern Europe and through different migrations to North America, James Urry’s meticulous research traces Mennonite links with kingdoms, empires, republics, and democratic nations in the context of peace, war, and revolution. Urry stresses a degree of Mennonite involvement in politics not previously discussed in literature, including Mennonite participation in constitutional reform and party politics, and shows the polarization of their political views from conservatism to liberalism and even revolutionary activities. Urry looks at the Mennonite reaction to politics and political events from the Reformation onwards and focuses particularly on those people who settled in Russia and their descendants who came to Manitoba. Using a wide variety of sources, Mennonites, Politics, and Peoplehood combines an inter-disciplinary approach to reveal that Mennonites, far from being the “Quiet in the Land,” have deep roots in politics.

Impelled by a call to share their gifts through service, Russian Mennonite women immigrating to Canada organized their own church societies (Vereine) as avenues of mission and spiritual strengthening. For women who were restricted from leadership positions within the church, these societies became the primary avenue of church involvement. Through them they contributed vast amounts of energy, time and financial resources to the mission activity of the church. The societies thus became a context in which women could speak, pray and creatively give expression to their own understanding of the biblical message. Using primary sources such as reports, letters, minutes, etc., as well as society histories, interviews and survey data, Redekop charts the development of these societies, from the establishment of the earliest ones in the 1870s to their flowering in the fifties and sixties and their decline in the eighties and nineties. The Work of Their Hands elucidates the context in which Mennonite women lived their identity as Christian women, one considered appropriate by themselves and the institutional church. It also shows how changes to the societies, including declining membership and a shift in their primary focus from sewing and baking to one of spiritual fellowship, reflect the changing roles of women within the church, the home and the wider society. The Work of Their Hands is an important book in the history of Mennonite women’s spirituality and will be a valuable resource for religious studies, women’s studies and Canadian history.