Review – The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith

The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith by Stuart Murray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been seeing increasing mentions of Anabaptists recently. Like many American Christians, probably the only associative reference I have of Anabaptists are groups such as the Amish, Mennonites, and Quakers. This book was a good introduction on some of the history, the core values, and how these values are practiced in contemporary society.

The title The Naked Anabaptist comes from the purpose of the book: to strip away group and cultural accouterments that are associated with forms of Anabaptism and get at the core values that are shared across most, if not all, who belong to it. There are seven such values, and among them are what is likely familiar to many Christians: peacemaking, community, and social justice. There are others that are less familiar, but no less important such as methods of reading and interpreting scripture; engaging the public sphere; and ministry according to gifts, not culturally and culturally-informed theologically based roles (aka, gender roles, women's roles in the church, etc.).

One of the key principles used throughout the book is the distinction between Christianity and Christendom. The first is faithful to Jesus and gospel; the second is a creation of (literally) men. The former is the first two to three centuries of the Church; the latter is what happened when Church and Rome came together and continues to be a priority of most Christian groups and denominations today. Even among those who claim separation of church and state, many look with nostalgia on the time when the public sphere had the imprimatur of the Church and vice versa, and the hierarchical structure taken from secular power reign in most formal church organizations. Anabaptists are very much for Christianity, but are strongly against Christendom.

The book ends with a chapter on some of the criticisms and critiques that Anabaptism has received, some of its shortcomings and dangers.

The book is evangelistic, but not proselytizing: i.e., it seeks to spread the good news that is found in Anabaptist values. And there are many. There are parts of the original gospel, hidden and minimized in many forms of more mainstream Christianity, that are emphasized in Anabaptist values. These can provide correctives to some skewed expressions of Christianity, and offer hope and a new vision to Christians disillusioned by what they see and don't see in current forms of popular Christianity. But it does not seek to turn people into Anabaptists. The room is big enough for many strands and expressions of Christianity. Anabaptist values can be incorporated into existing frameworks, providing a more robust and more genuine expressions of what it means to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(This review is based on ARC supplied by the publisher through NetGalley.)

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