Kratz, Maxwell H. (1875-1939)
Maxwell H. Kratz was born at Frederick, Pennsylvania on 17 November 1875. His early years were spent there and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied at Sumneytown Academy, Perkiomen Seminary, and Princeton University, where he graduated in 1899 with honors. Later he served as Vice Principal of Perkiomen Seminary. From 1905 to 1908 he attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School, was admitted to the bar, and practiced law until his death. In the last ten years of his life he conducted his own private law course, and it is estimated that about half of the 5,000 law candidates in Pennsylvania attended his school. He was a deep thinker, and he served more as an adviser and interpreter of the law than as a practitioner. His emphasis was always on the essentials of the law and the righteousness of the law. To him law was a sense of divine justice. He was a legal theologian. He was baptized in the Schwenksville Mennonite Church (General Conference Mennonite) and became an active member in the Second Mennonite Church, Philadelphia. He was a fervent speaker and promoter of the work of the church. Throughout the Mennonite church he will be best remembered as one of the three men elected to the first Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) on 27 September 1920. He was active in the leadership of the MCC during its first projects of Russian relief, the purchase of land in Paraguay, and its incorporation. He was also one of the pioneers of laymen's work in the Mennonite church (GCM), being one of the founders of the Brotherhood in the Eastern District Conference in the early 1920s. He died 19 November 1939.
Bibliography
Obituary in General Conference Mennonite Church Yearbook for 1941: 31.
Unruh, J. D. In the Name of Christ. Scottdale, PA, 1952.
| Author(s) | J. Herbert Fretz |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1957 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Fretz, J. Herbert. "Kratz, Maxwell H. (1875-1939)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 19 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Kratz,_Maxwell_H._(1875-1939)&oldid=82921.
APA style
Fretz, J. Herbert. (1957). Kratz, Maxwell H. (1875-1939). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Kratz,_Maxwell_H._(1875-1939)&oldid=82921.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 233. All rights reserved.
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