The Hutterites in North America (Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies)
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One of the longest-lived communal societies in North America, the Hutterites have developed multifaceted communitarian perspectives on everything from conflict resolution and decision-making practices to standards of living and care for the elderly. This compellingly written book offers a glimpse into the complex and varied lives of the nearly 500 North American Hutterite communities.
North American Hutterites today number around 50,000 and have common roots with and beliefs akin to the Amish and other Old Order Christians. This historical analysis and anthropological investigation draws on existing research, primary sources, and over 25 years of the authors' interaction with Hutterite communities to recount the group's physical and spiritual journey from its 16th-century founding in Eastern Europe and its near disappearance in Transylvania in the 1760s to its late 19th-century transplantation to North America and into the modern era. It explains how the Hutterites found creative ways to manage social and economic changes over more than five centuries while holding to the principles and cultural values embedded in their faith.
Religious scholars, anthropologists, and historians of America and the Anabaptist faiths will find this objective-yet-appreciative account of the Hutterites' distinct North American culture to be a valuable and fascinating study both of the religion and of a viable alternative to modern-day capitalism.
Are,” www.thecommonlife.com/about. 33. Peter Hoover, conversation with Janzen, May 2004. 34. Terry Miller, conversation with Janzen, August 2006. 35. David Penner and Jerald Hiebert, conversation with Janzen, July 2006. Penner is a member of the Charity Christian Fellowship in North Carolina. 36. Ivan Glick to John A. Hostetler, August 31, 1997, Archives of the Mennonite Church, Goshen, IN; Terry Miller, conversation with Janzen, August 2006. 37. Elizabeth Wipf Flinn, conversation with
1974. In 1990 the Dariusleut and the Lehrerleut had ended their own relationships with the Bruderhof and quit recognizing Kleinsasser as the common elder of all three Leut.6 Many Schmiedeleut ministers believed that without the participation of the Lehrerleut and the Dariusleut, the Schmiedeleut might be unable to forestall a feared Bruderhof takeover. Supporters of Jacob Kleinsasser rejected the validity of the ministers’ vote and did not allow Kleinsasser to step down.7 The meeting agenda had
movement. Photographs of the community show television antennae outside individual residences. Western Hutterites who visit accept a diet that includes plantains, peanut spread, palm fruit, pineapples, and casaba. HUTTERITE BELIEFS AND PRACTICES ARE FIRMLY GROUNDED in historic sermons, hymns, epistles, Ordnungen, and ecclesial forms. Each Leut, and to some extent each colony, takes a slightly different view of what Christianity means in daily life, but all Hutterites are deeply committed to
lovely land The land you know so well This is my homeland You’re called Tirol, Tirol, Tirol. 3. And when at last I die Take me there to be buried And when at last I die Take me there Take me to my Fatherland The land you know so well This is my homeland You’re called Tirol, Tirol, Tirol. Chorus: You my Tirol, Tirol You my Tirol, Tirol You my Tirol I’ll see you never more. Nonethnic Hutterians The Hutterites became a closed ethnic group in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, while they
place theirs inside hope chests and dresser drawers. Since digital cameras and cell phones make images instantly accessible, it is difficult for even the most conservative ministers to control photography. At important events such as weddings, there are usually prearranged or serendipitous windows of time when ministers allow photographs to be taken, even in Lehrerleut colonies. An eighty-nine-year-old Hutterite woman said, “You know, older Hutterites do not allow themselves to have their picture