Mennonite Weekly Review

ELKHART, Ind. — Hidden in Swiss archives for centuries, a collection of early Anabaptist writings is now available in English.

John Rempel says the letters to early Anabaptists have led him to examine his own faith. — Photo by Mary E. Klassen/AMBS

The collection, known as the Kunstbuch, was edited over the past six years by John Rempel, professor of theology and Anabaptist studies at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

The Kunstbuch contains letters and other documents written in the 1500s by members of the Swiss and South German Anabaptist communities, including Pilgram Marpeck, an early Anabaptist leader.

The book contains meditations on God’s provision for people who lived a very insecure existence, Rempel said. It also includes theological treatises by Marpeck and pastoral letters with counsel to congregations about church discipline and the threat of persecution. Also included are personal confessions of faith, pieces by three Anabaptist mystics and poems.

“What attracted me to these writings is that these Anabaptists were able to take what was good from other movements,” Rempel said. “It seems that the Marpeck circle grappled with the question of unity, but had only a few defining doctrinal points.

“They placed more emphasis on a personal experience of Christ, and then had more tolerance for differences of practices than other Anabaptist groups had.”

Rempel believes this book has significance beyond the historical record of the early Anabaptist theology and practice.

“These are believable people living precariously, having a depth of faith I would like to emulate. These writings can be lessons for people today who want models for holy living that are within reach. As we seek a deeper life of faith we will find our own struggles mirrored in those of these authors.”

The Kunstbuch’s compiler was Jörg Maler, a painter, who gathered documents that the scattered Anabaptist congregations had found life-giving. As he rewrote them into one manuscript, he added his artistic illuminations to the text. This manuscript circulated among the Swiss Anabaptist congregations, and at the end of the 17th century it ended up in the Bern city archive. Rempel surmises it was held initially as evidence against Anabaptists.

In 1950, Delbert Gratz, a member of the Bluffton (Ohio) College faculty, discovered it. However, it wasn’t until 1956, when it was rediscovered by German historian Heinold Fast, that it came to the attention of Reformation scholars. In that year, the top journal of Reformation history featured an article on the manuscript, acknowledging it as important evidence of the thinking and beliefs of Swiss and South German Anabaptists.

The book documents the influence of Marpeck as an Anabaptist leader. Sixteen of Marpeck’s pastoral letters are included. Because he was not as authoritative a leader as Menno Simons, his influence had not been as easy to identify prior to the discovery of this manuscript.

Jörg Maler’s Kunstbuch: Writings of the Pilgram Marpeck Circle, has been published by Pandora Press of Kitchener, Ont.