European Origins of the Brethren: A Source Book on the Beginnings of the Church of the Brethren in the Early Eighteenth Century, A Two-Hundred-Fiftieth Anniversary Volume, and: The Brethren in Colonial America: A Source Book on the Transplantation and Development of the Church of the Brethren in the Eighteenth Century (review)

Book Reviews53 European Origins of the Brethren: A Source Book on the Beginnings of the Church of the Brethren in the Early Eighteenth Century, A Two-Hundred-Fiftieth Anniversary Volume. Edited by Donald F. Durnbaugh. Elgin, Illinois: The Brethren Press. 1958. 463 pages. $4.75. TL· Brethren in Colonial America: A Source Book on tL· Transplantation and Development of tL· Church of tL· Brethren in tL· Eighteenth Century. Edited by Donald F. Durnbaugh. Elgin, Illinois: The Brethren Press. 1967. 659 pages. $10.00. Of the three major Pennsylvania German "plain" traditions, the Amish seem to have attracted the most sociological and anthropological scholarship. Barred from producing such scholarship by the tenets of their church, the Amish themselves have fascinated a number of disciplines because of their rigid nonconformity and their strong community cohesion. The Mennonites and Brethren, with no objection to higher education, have in the twentieth century produced much excellent historiography and analysis of their own traditions from within their own group. For instance, American Mennonites have produced what I consider the finest denominational encyclopedia produced thus far in the United States, TL· Mennonite Encyclopedia, 4 volumes, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, 1956-1959, as well as one of the top-ranking church-historical periodicals in the world, TL· Mennonite Quarterly Review, published since 1927. The Church of the Brethren, through the work of Professor Donald F. Durnbaugh of Bethany Biblical Seminary, Oak Park, Illinois, has recently produced the most impressive collection of sources dealing with the church's history and tradition. Because of the relation of the peace churches to each other in the colonial period as well as their drawing together in common interests in the twentieth century, Professor Durnbaugh's work will be of more than passing interest to Quaker scholars. The first two of the series of source books projected by Professor Durnbaugh have appeared. The first is entitled European Origins of tL· Brethren. The Brethren tradition, which with its many offshoots forms a kind of Brethren family among American denominations, has by now become the largest of the peace churches of German origin in the United States. It arose in the first decade of the eighteenth century, in the Wittgenstein area of Westphalia, a region famous for its radical pietist groups and propagandists. Contrary to a common misconception, the Brethren were derivative not from Anabaptism but from Pietism, although certain Anabaptist influences were absorbed along the way, and once they settled together in eastern Pennsylvania the Brethren and Mennonites have certainly shared some similar goals and analogous practices, as for example, plain dress as a symbol of nonconformity with the world. For American readers this book lightens whole new areas in European church history. While the book deals with Brethren origins, the Brethren, like the Quakers in the Puritan context, were influenced by a fascinating crisscross of forces in the larger Pietist awakening that was sweeping the German churches. Hence in passing we learn a great deal about the work of such radical pietists as 54Quaker History Hochmann von Hohenau, who influenced and corresponded with Brethren leaders , and Gottfried Arnold, the irenic church historian who produced the first modern church history to treat sectarian movements fairly; and other German figures such as Gerhard Tersteegen whose devotional works continued to influence the Pennsylvania Germans in the nineteenth century. The book itself is divided into six lengthy chapters of documents. The subjects covered are separation from the state church, formation of the actual denomination , expansion through Europe, suppression by governmental edicts and persecution , emigration, and publication efforts. The documents are meticulously edited and with the editor's always pointed and illuminating headnotes give a running account of the development of the Brethren tradition as seen both from within and from without. Other Brethren centers besides Wittgenstein are treated as well, as the movement spread to Marienborn, Krefeld, Schriesheim, Basel, and Surhuisterveen in Holland. Among the heroes of the movement who came to Pennsylvania were the Macks, Alexander Sr. and Jr., and Christopher Sauer. Quaker contacts with Brethren in Krefeld are referred to (pp. 190, 216), and Quaker accounts of the Brethren movement in Europe are cited (pp. 319-320). Dr. Durnbaugh's second volume of the series is TL...