Friday, July 20, 2012

Women's Studies Shelf

Women in Early Austrian Anabaptism, Their Days, Their Stories
by Linda A. Huebert Hecht

Previously untold stories of women persecuted for their faith during the  early years of the Reformation are revealed in Austrian Anabaptist court records. In the turbulent years of the early 1500s, women chose to express their personal faith publicly through adult baptism which was outlawed.
They took the initiative to proselytize among family members and neighbours. Their commitment to the Anabaptist movement demonstrated a profound faith and courage. Their willingness to suffer for their faith should inspire readers today.

Published by Pandora Press   ISBN: 978-1-926599-05-2
290 pages, colour illustrations
Price: $32.50




Sunday, July 15, 2012



Windflower Communications
67 Flett Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R2K 3N3
Ph: 204-669-4439 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            204-669-4439      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

TRANSITIONS:
Whatever Happened to Mennonite Brethren Churches?
       
By: HERBERT J. BRANDT

Price: $10.00

International Standard Book Number:  1-895308-29-1
Publication Date: May 1, 2012
Size: 5½ by 8½, 81 pages


From the Introduction:
Founded in 1860, the Mennonite Brethren Church has experienced many changes in its 150 years. That it has been in transition throughout its life is borne out both in its conference yearbooks and in its compilations of resolutions and recommendations. My account of changes in the church as well as conference is based primarily on my experiences during my eighty-seven years including sixty years of ministry in the church. I realize that my experiences may not necessarily apply to every local congregation or to individuals in these congregations. My perspective and interpretation of events and situations may differ from those of the reader. Nonetheless, my thoughts and experiences in the MBC may be of interest and even benefit to the generations that will follow.
I may well be justified in asking the question: Whatever happened to Mennonite Brethren Churches?... I believe that without change there is no growth; growth is necessary for the well-being of a church as well as for the individual. However, have all the transitions in MB churches led to their well-being and growth?  
About the Author:
Herbert J. Brandt has spent some fifty years in ministry within the Mennonite Brethren Conference. Besides pastoring several churches in BC, he was, at various time, moderator of the Canadian Conference, the North American Conference and chair of the M.B. Mission Board. He writes from this background.

Sunday, December 18, 2011


Jesus and Paul before Christianity


Jesus and Paul before Christianity: Their World and Work in Retrospect, by V. George Shillington
Who was the real founder of Christianity as it is known today—Jesus or Paul? What, if any, was the connection between them? These and other questions about the two historical figures have occupied biblical scholars and the Christian church for many years up to the present time. This book proposes new ways of framing the questions as well as new approaches to answering them.
Neither Jesus nor Paul spoke of a new world religion, separate from Judaism, that would envelop the planet and last for millennia. This study seeks to locate both figures in their respective places in the first century, in Jewish contexts and within the larger Greco-Roman society. The aim is to transcend the language and thought patterns of later generations of theologians in order to hear more clearly the prophetic voices of Jesus and Paul on their terms and in their social locations.
By so doing, Shillington lays the groundwork for a more authentic translation of their vision and mission into modern alternatives, including better Jewish-Christian relations.
“This is a book for the reasonable and responsible reader that addresses the best of recent scholarship. It will prove invaluable to students of Christian origins.” –William S. Campbell, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David
Product Information
Pages: 244 ISBN: 978-1-60899-694-0 Retail price: $27.00
Paperback, published by Cascade Books

Children's Book: On the Zwieback Trail


On the Zwieback Trail by Lisa Weaver, Julie Kaufmann, Judith Rempel-Smucker
This delightful children's alphabet book takes you along the Dnieper River, into the kitchen for Zwieback and back to your Anabaptist roots.
"Anyone with Verenike strengthening their muscles and Borscht flowing in their veins knows that Z could only stand for Zwieback. Join a voyage of discovery down the alphabet trail to celebrate the history, culture and service of this branch of Anabaptist believers. From the early 1500s to the present it's all there for young and old to enjoy."
Katie Funk Wiebe, author

Cities of Refuge, Harry Loewen



Cities of Refuge

Stories from Anabaptist-Mennonite

History and Life

Harry Loewen

“Cities of Refuge is Harry Loewen’s most recent collection

of historical stories about Anabaptists and their quest for

permanence and security away from their homeland. Spanning

500 years of Anabaptist migration from 16th century Europe to

modern day Canada, Loewen’s stories centre on the Mennonite

struggle to find a sense of home in the world but not of the world.

Most of the stories deal with what lies at the heart of being

Mennonite, namely the faith that goes back to the

Anabaptists of the 16th century and that of their

Dutch leader Menno Simons, whose name they bear.”

-From the cover

Mennonite History

ISBN 978-1-926599-18-2

342 pages - Softcover

$32.50 Canadian and U.S.

Collected Stories by Rudy Wiebe

"Best known as one of the province's pioneering authors, Rudy Wiebe's new release has the celebrated writer revisiting more than 50 years of writing fiction, from the story he wrote as a high school student to pieces he wrote this year.... Wiebe was born in Saskatchewan, where he spent his early childhood in a remote Mennonite village raised by parents who had escaped Stalinist Russia. But Wiebe moved to Alberta with his family when he was 12 years old. So he is best known as a pioneering Alberta author, a chronicler of Prairie life who often explores religion, community, nature and native stories in his writing. He has twice won the Governor General's Award for literature (for The Temptations of Big Bear, A Discovery of Strangers) and, as a creative writing teacher at the University of Alberta, helped groom Alberta literary stars such as Aritha van Herk, Myrna Kostash and Tom Wharton, who pens the introduction for this collection. But while Wiebe has traditionally shied away from discussing his legacy as a bedrock for Alberta literature, revisiting half a century of his short stories makes a self-examination inevitable.

From the Cover

For more than fifty years, Canadian literary legend Rudy Wiebe has been defining and refining prairie literature through his oeuvre of world-renowned novels, histories, essays, and short stories. He has introduced generations of readers far and wide to western Canadian Mennonite, aboriginal, and settler culture. Some say he “wrote the book” on historical prairie fiction. In fact, he’s written quite a few. This volume contains the fifty short stories that Wiebe completed between 1955 and 2010, including four previously unpublished stories. This is an essential book for aficionados of great world literature, fans of prairie fiction, and Wiebe’s faithful readers.

Rudy Wiebe was born in the Mennonite homestead community of Speedwell, east of Turtle Lake, Saskatchewan. Since the 1950s, he has been inspiring readers with over twenty-five books, including nine novels, four collections of stories, and ten creative nonfiction volumes of essays, biography, and autobiography. Wiebe received the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 1973 for The Temptations of Big Bear and again in 1994 for A Discovery of Strangers. In 2004 he won the Charles Taylor Prize for his memoir, Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest. Wiebe is an Officer of the Order of Canada. He lives with his wife Tena in Edmonton, Alberta.






Product Details

Paperback:
552 pages
Publisher:
University of Alberta Press (October 31, 2006)
Language:
English
ISBN-10:
0888645406
ISBN-13:
978-0888645401
Product Dimensions:
8.9 x 5.9 x 1.7 inches