Mennonite Weekly Review

On my desk is One Body, Many Parts: The Mennonite Churches in Paraguay, by Gerhard Ratzlaff, translated by Jake K. Balzer, privately published, 2008, 307 pages, $15.

Next year the 15th Mennonite World Conference assembly will take place in Asuncion, Paraguay. Readers would do well to acquaint themselves with the history and life of the Mennonite churches there.

One of the most knowledgeable Mennonite historians is Gerhard Ratzlaff of Asuncion. In 2001 he published One Body, Many Parts, which is now available in English translation. It is a thorough and well-written study of Mennonites in Paraguay.

The book is divided into five parts. Part 1 deals with the significance of history for the Paraguayan churches and places the Mennonites within the context of worldwide Mennonitism. In Paraguay there are more than 25,000 baptized members.

Part 2 provides a detailed survey of Mennonite immigration to Paraguay and the establishment of the colonies in the Chaco. The author seeks to deal objectively with the different groups of Mennonites, the traditional or conservative to the more liberal.

Parts 3 and 4 show how the Mennonites early in their history began mission work among the Indian and Paraguayan population and soon established thriving churches among them.

Part 5 shows how the many and varied Mennonite churches seek to serve God within their cultural traditions yet remain united as a people of God under the umbrella of the Mennonite conferences.

The Mennonites in Paraguay are like no other community anywhere in the world. In North America, the Mennonite churches function within a secular society, keeping their church life separate from national institutions such as education, medical care, business and economics, and law and order. In Paraguay, on the other hand, the communities are responsible not only for their members’ spiritual needs but also their physical and material aspects of life. They administer their schools, conduct their community services, have their political structures and maintain law and order in their colonies. Only in serious criminal cases do the national authorities step in.

Similar to the Mennonite commonwealth in pre-Soviet Russia, the Mennonites of Paraguay have become a state-church, or church-state, a situation in which religious affairs are interlinked with all other aspects of life. Thus education, medical care and business ventures, for example, are not seen as secular activities but as religious functions conducted as services under God.

While this close relationship between the religious and secular aspects of life can present problems, generally this church-state association works well.