A Pilgrimage of Faith: The Mennonite Brethren Church in Russia and North America 1860-1990

George A. Rawlyk is a history professor at Queen’s University and
author of Champions of the Truth: Fundamentalism, Modernism, and the
Maritime Baptists.

A Pilgrimage of Faith is an interesting blend of history and
denominational concern; the book is largely written for members of the
Mennonite Brethren Church, especially those in Canada. Toews knows his
Mennonite history. He also is very familiar with the strengths and
weaknesses of his denomination, the Mennonite Brethren Church (MBC).

The MBC was a primitivist/evangelical secessionist movement that split
the Russian Mennonites in the middle of the 19th century. After
consolidating its identity during the decades following the secession,
the MBC confronted a difficult period of transition in the
post–Russian Revolution period. During the past half-century, the MBC
has confronted in North America the disconcerting forces of change
unleashed by modernity.

This book is both a jeremiad and a sensitive analysis of some of the
major problems facing the MBC. Toews is aware of the growing theological
and regional tensions dividing his much-beloved denomination.
Underlining the concluding section of the book is a growing realization
that widespread indifference to the historical past and the essentials
of the MBC identity is gutting the denomination of its unique Mennonite
character and replacing it with a superficial, consumer-oriented North
American evangelicalism.