Thesis (M.A.)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-115).

Thesis (M.A. in Theological Studies)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 2002. / "The present crisis in Bhartiya General Conference Mennonite Church in India can only be resolved by courageously addressing several key leadership issues"--T.p. A variant spelling of "Bhartiya" is "Bharatiya." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-114 ).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Iowa, 2009. / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 141-144).

Thesis (M.A. in Theological Studies)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 2002. / "The present crisis in Bhartiya General Conference Mennonite Church in India can only be resolved by courageously addressing several key leadership issues"--T.p. A variant spelling of "Bhartiya" is "Bharatiya." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-114 ).

Thesis (M.A.)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-115).

This dissertation analyzes the ways in which Mennonite rhetors used historical narratives to construct a coherent Mennonite identity in the 1940s and 1950s. During this era, U.S. American Mennonites faced a multitude of threats to their sectarian group identity, most especially during the Second World War. In response to these exigencies, a group of American Mennonite historians, who would later become known as the "Goshen Circle" of Mennonite historiography, discursively wove a new subject identity--known as a monogenic conception of Anabaptism--which reinforced Mennonite group identity and legitimated Mennonite faith convictions to outsiders. Until this point, Mennonite historians, sociologists, and others have only considered the discourse of the Goshen Circle along narrow lines. On the one hand, many historians have rejected the Goshen Circle discourse as simply partisan, and therefore "bad," history. On the other hand, other scholars still think that the historical work of the Goshen Circle simply "recovered" or "rediscovered" elements of Anabaptism which were implicit in the Mennonite tradition. In contrast to these positions, this dissertation argues that the establishment of an Anabaptist subjectivity was a rhetorical achievement and analyzes how several texts attempted rhetorical interventions to transform the already-given historical situations faced by twentieth-century Mennonites. I substantiate this claim by utilizing Maurice Charland's (1987) theory of constitutive rhetoric to analyze the discourse of three primary figures of Goshen Circle monogenic Anabaptist historiography: Harold S. Bender, Guy F. Hershberger, and J.C. Wenger. My analysis demonstrates: how these rhetors asserted the existence of a unified Anabaptist-Mennonite people, how they used "transhistorical" narratives to build networks of identification between sixteenth-century Anabaptists and their supposed twentieth-century Mennonite descendants, and how their constitutive rhetoric positioned Mennonites to take material action to confirm their place in the Anabaptist narrative.

This dissertation critically examines the ontological and epistemological significance of the concept of violence in French philosopher Jacques Derrida’s essay “Violence and Metaphysics” (Chapter 1), dialogues between Mennonite philosophical theologians who represent the Radical Reformation and John Milbank’s Radical Orthodoxy (Chapter 2), and the Death and the Displacement of Beauty trilogy by feminist philosopher of religion Grace Jantzen (Chapter 3). Although Derrida, Jantzen, and certain Mennonite philosophical theologians approach the problem of violence with very different concerns and frames of reference, each understand violence to have a distinctly ontological and epistemological character, while also suggesting that ontology and epistemology themselves are profoundly vulnerable to charges of violence. In Derrida’s essay “Violence and Metaphysics” language itself is imbricated in violence, and in their responses to John Milbank, Mennonite philosophical theologians Peter C. Blum and Chris K. Huebner situate their work both with and against Derrida’s supposed “ontology of violence” as they apply Christian pacifism to epistemology and seek to articulate an “ontology of peace.” In her late work in the Death and the Displacement of Beauty project, Grace Jantzen develops an epistemology that is similar to that of Blum and Huebner, while critiquing what she understands to be Derrida’s equivocation of linguistic with physical violence, all as part of her argument that the cultural habitus of the west is founded on an obsession with death that violently displaces natality with mortality. In bringing together these three sources, this dissertation uses “violence” as a diagnostic concept to assess the priorities and values of its users. Considering violence to be defined by the violation of value-laden boundaries, this study of three ontologies of violence interprets and critiques the values that Derrida’s deconstruction, philosophical Mennonite pacifism, and Jantzen’s critique of displacement seek to further and protect against violation. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation examines the early work of French philosopher Jacques Derrida (Chapter 1), debates between Mennonite philosophical theologians and John Milbank’s Radical Orthodoxy (Chapter 2), and the Death and the Displacement of Beauty trilogy by feminist philosopher of religion Grace M. Jantzen (Chapter 3). For Derrida, Jantzen, and certain Mennonite philosophical theologians the term “violence” is used to name ways of thinking, knowing, and speaking, rather than being restricted to the sphere of physical violations. This dissertation shows how these three sources each consider violence to be something that can inhere in ways of thinking about the world and our relation to it.

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The dissertation in hand is about the theological researches about the mission of the German Mennonite - Brethren - Church in Karaganda I Kasachstan from 1956 to 2000. The existing socialism with its atheistical values affected adversely the lives of the Christians and prevented them from missionary work. In spite of that mission was able to be practised. Experienced preachers and teachers in the church prepared the missionary work by instructing the Christians to be effective witnesses for the Lord. This was achieved by the training of young preachers. regular pronouncements of the Gospel and the work with children and young persons. The Christians retained this method until the middle of the 70ies when the regid laws concerning the missionary work were mitigated. Commited brothers. young persons, preachers and singers visited lonely Christians and churches in remote villages, had personal conversations with unbelievers and organized evangelizations. Members ofthe church were sent out as missionaries to erect parishes and carry out evangelizations / Missiology / M.Th.

The dissertation in hand is about the theological researches about the mission of the German Mennonite - Brethren - Church in Karaganda I Kasachstan from 1956 to 2000. The existing socialism with its atheistical values affected adversely the lives of the Christians and prevented them from missionary work. In spite of that mission was able to be practised. Experienced preachers and teachers in the church prepared the missionary work by instructing the Christians to be effective witnesses for the Lord. This was achieved by the training of young preachers. regular pronouncements of the Gospel and the work with children and young persons. The Christians retained this method until the middle of the 70ies when the regid laws concerning the missionary work were mitigated. Commited brothers. young persons, preachers and singers visited lonely Christians and churches in remote villages, had personal conversations with unbelievers and organized evangelizations. Members ofthe church were sent out as missionaries to erect parishes and carry out evangelizations / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th.