Mennonites and Baptists: A Continuing Conversation

T.D. Regehr is a history professor at the University of Saskatchewan and
author of The Beauharnois Scandal: A Story of Entrepreneurship and
Politics.

In 1992, a group of scholars representing the Mennonite World Conference
and the Baptist World Alliance met in Amsterdam to discuss matters of
mutual interest. Amsterdam had been chosen because 17th-century English
Baptist history was closely intertwined with that of Dutch Anabaptism,
particularly with the Waterlander Mennonite church of Amsterdam.

Mennonite Brethren have had much closer relations with Baptists than
have other Mennonites, and eight of the eleven essays in this volume
focus on continuing contacts between Mennonite Brethren and Baptists.
The first three articles deal with early–17th-century connections
between Dutch Anabaptists and English Puritans and/or Baptists; Baptist
historiographic interpretations of Anabaptist history; and
Baptist–Mennonite contacts in Poland and Prussia.

The next six articles examine the close connections between the
Baptists and the emerging Mennonite Brethren Church in Russia, and the
subsequent weakening of those close ties in the United States and
Canada. Baptist influences were strongest in the early years of the
Mennonite Brethren church, in a joint mission venture in India, and in
the post-revolutionary era in Russia. Similarities and differences in
the two religious groups are examined to explain those developments. The
fundamental similarities identified are biblicist
experiential/conversion-oriented religious approaches, while the
differences pertain mainly to the Mennonite peace/nonresistance
teachings, cultural/ethnic factors, and forms of church governance and
leadership. The last two chapters deal with theological issues.

Thoroughly researched, well documented, and scholarly in language and
methodology, these articles significantly increase our understanding of
the continuing conversation between Baptists and Mennonite Brethren.