Concern Pamphlets Movement - Revision history

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-Concern is the name given to a series of pamphlets initiated by a group of young American Mennonite graduate students, relief workers, and missionaries who met in [[Amsterdam (Noord-Holland, Netherlands)|Amsterdam]] in 1952 to address issues confronting the Mennonite church in Europe. Although the "Concern Group" preferred not to be known as an organization or even as a fellowship with defined membership, the initiating participants consisted of Irvin Horst, David Shank, Orley Swartzendruber, John W. Miller, Paul Peachey, Calvin Redekop, and [[Yoder, John Howard (1927-1997)|John Howard Yoder]]. They felt led to further discussions focusing upon the condition of the American Mennonite church in relation to its founding principles as represented by the "Anabaptist Vision."
+Concern is the name given to a series of pamphlets initiated by a group of young American Mennonite graduate students, relief workers, and missionaries who met in [[Amsterdam (Noord-Holland, Netherlands)|Amsterdam]] in 1952 to address issues confronting the Mennonite church in Europe. Although the "Concern Group" preferred not to be known as an organization or even as a fellowship with defined membership, the initiating participants consisted of Irvin Horst, David Shank, Orley Swartzendruber, John W. Miller, [[Peachey, Paul (1918-2012)|Paul Peachey]], Calvin Redekop, and [[Yoder, John Howard (1927-1997)|John Howard Yoder]]. They felt led to further discussions focusing upon the condition of the American Mennonite church in relation to its founding principles as represented by the "Anabaptist Vision."
 [[File:RedekopCal.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''Cal Redekop in 1978'']]
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 The Concern group was affected by theological postwar developments by virtue of the fact that several of its initiating participants studied under Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, and Oscar Cullmann. Others participated in ecumenical discussions about church renewal. Thus within the European theological context, Mennonite students were led to ask fundamental questions about Mennonite theology, questions having to do with the nature of the church, its mission, its polity, and its relation to Christendom and society at large.
-[[File:PeacheyPaul.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''Paul Peachey'']]
+[[File:PeacheyPaul.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''[[Peachey, Paul (1918-2012)|Paul Peachey]]'']]
 An examination of the early issues of the pamphlet series would give some indications of major themes and Concern's point of view. In the first pamphlet (1954), Paul Peachey presented an article titled "Toward an understanding of the decline of the West." This article illustrates both the manner and the content of Anabaptist-Mennonite thinking at that time. It was ideological in manner and sectarian in content. It was ideological in the sense that it attempted to bring all relevant considerations together in relatively simple, comprehensible, and uncompromising terms; and it was sectarian in the sense that it relied upon the methodologies and sharp antitheses of [[Troeltsch, Ernst (1865-1923)|Ernst Troeltsch]] in <em>The social teachings of the Christian churches</em>.

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 Concern is the name given to a series of pamphlets initiated by a group of young American Mennonite graduate students, relief workers, and missionaries who met in [[Amsterdam (Noord-Holland, Netherlands)|Amsterdam]] in 1952 to address issues confronting the Mennonite church in Europe. Although the "Concern Group" preferred not to be known as an organization or even as a fellowship with defined membership, the initiating participants consisted of Irvin Horst, David Shank, Orley Swartzendruber, John W. Miller, Paul Peachey, Calvin Redekop, and [[Yoder, John Howard (1927-1997)|John Howard Yoder]]. They felt led to further discussions focusing upon the condition of the American Mennonite church in relation to its founding principles as represented by the "Anabaptist Vision."
-[[File:RedekopCal.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''Cal Redekop in 1978
+[[File:RedekopCal.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''Cal Redekop in 1978'']]     It is difficult to characterize Concern as a group because of its informal way of working. For a number of years Concern held annual retreats but elected no officers. The Concern pamphlet series appeared without an announced editor, though an editorial secretariat and an editorial council appeared with issue no. 5 in 1958. Concern's reluctance to define itself seems to have been deliberate. It preferred not to add to the organizational structures of the Mennonite church, which were considered excessive. Ambiguity regarding Concern's identity led to recurring internal questions as to what Concern is and gave rise to external fears that it might become an alienating movement or even a dissenting church. Eventually suspicions were allayed somewhat as internal dynamics demonstrated less than unanimity among its participants. As its early supporters scattered and assumed professional duties, and as publication tended to take precedence over fellowship, Concern came to be remembered primarily for its pamphlet series.
 In order to understand Concern, we must recall theological developments following World War II. With respect to Mennonite theology, the dominating themes were set by the "Anabaptist vision" as articulated by the first generation of American Anabaptist-Mennonite scholars, of which Harold S. Bender may be considered the most influential advocate. Early participants in Concern were young second-generation Mennonite scholars who, having received their undergraduate [[Education, Mennonite|education]] at Mennonite institutions, were committed to the extension of theology based upon Anabaptist studies.
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 The Concern group was affected by theological postwar developments by virtue of the fact that several of its initiating participants studied under Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, and Oscar Cullmann. Others participated in ecumenical discussions about church renewal. Thus within the European theological context, Mennonite students were led to ask fundamental questions about Mennonite theology, questions having to do with the nature of the church, its mission, its polity, and its relation to Christendom and society at large.
-[[File:PeacheyPaul.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''Paul Peachey
+[[File:PeacheyPaul.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''Paul Peachey'']]     An examination of the early issues of the pamphlet series would give some indications of major themes and Concern's point of view. In the first pamphlet (1954), Paul Peachey presented an article titled "Toward an understanding of the decline of the West." This article illustrates both the manner and the content of Anabaptist-Mennonite thinking at that time. It was ideological in manner and sectarian in content. It was ideological in the sense that it attempted to bring all relevant considerations together in relatively simple, comprehensible, and uncompromising terms; and it was sectarian in the sense that it relied upon the methodologies and sharp antitheses of [[Troeltsch, Ernst (1865-1923)|Ernst Troeltsch]] in <em>The social teachings of the Christian churches</em>.
 In one grand sweep, Peachey attributed the "Decline of the West," to the "dilution of christianity itself rather than to the secularization of culture in general." Such sectarian interpretation of western history rests upon Troeltsch's typology in which the church-type and the sect-type were thought to represent fundamental and inexorable alternatives facing Christendom. The mission of Concern was to develop a consistent sectarian theology and a practical polity based upon Anabaptist sectarian principles.
-[[File:YoderJohnH1.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''John Howard Yoder
+[[File:YoderJohnH1.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''John Howard Yoder'']]     In the same pamphlet John Howard Yoder offered a seminal article entitled "The logic of the place of the disciple in society," in which he set out some of the assumptions of a sectarian ethic, such as the lordship of Christ, [[Discipleship|discipleship]], and separation from the world. Without apologies and without concessions to those who commonly interpreted withdrawal as personal conviction or "talent," Yoder advocated "social withdrawal" as a consequence of the uncompromising ethic of Christ. "The Anabaptist-Mennonite position of 'dissent' represents an historical incarnation of an entirely different view of the Christian life, of the work and nature of the church and fundamentally also the meaning of redemption."
 Although the development of a consistent Mennonite sectarian theology persisted, a diffusion of interests and points of view characterized later pamphlets. Ideological consistency waned in the 1960s as problems became increasingly practical in nature, and as authors were featured from a rather broad spectrum of Mennonite life. Eventually non-Mennonites found their way into Concern's pages. Reprints from such prominent theologians as Karl Barth, Edmund Perry, and Hans-Rüdi Weber were featured. Even such an occasional problem as "the meaning of Christmas" merited an entire issue (no. 16, 1968). Sometimes articles reflected a tendency toward self-criticism. As reported in pamphlet number 3 (1956), the leaders, having returned from Europe, held a retreat at Camp Luz in Ohio and discussed the meaning of fellowship. Out of this emerged questions as to whether Concern itself should function as a [[Community|community]] along New Testament lines.
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 With respect to the nature of the church, articles appeared from the outset that expressed disillusionment with the Mennonite church for its alleged conformity to [[Denominationalism|denominational]] patterns of organization and religious life. Especially offensive was the apparent identification of the church with vertical structures, as represented by conferences, ministerial boards, and institutions. Also, it was claimed that ethnicity was frequently confused with spiritual reality. Members of Concern insisted that tendencies, both social and theological, that led historically from New Testament Christianity to the Corpus Christianum and from early [[Anabaptism|Anabaptism]] to Dutch Mennonite formalism, were at work among American Mennonites as well. What emerged was a vision of the church according to which spirit supersedes structure, essence transcends form, and the simple resists the complex. The church is not to be understood as a building or as an institution but as an intimate fellowship of believers within which interaction includes mutual support, Bible study, edification, and discipline. The church is defined as "where two or three are gathered together in the presence of Jesus.
-[[File:MillerJohnW.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''John W. Miller
+[[File:MillerJohnW.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''John W. Miller'']]     "Intimations of Another Way" is the title that C. Norman Kraus and John W. Miller gave to a seminal article appearing in Concern no. 3 (1956), in which the church was defined in singular terms as a fellowship. To "gather" in Jesus' name is to bring together the essentials of what it means to be the church. The church is where Christ is and "not necessarily where the membership rolls are kept, not necessarily where the preacher stands Sunday by Sunday to present his discourse ... but where Christ is reigning in the midst of His gathered people."
 With the church defined as koinonia (community), many questions emerged as to just what the church should do. Subsequent issues filled out the vision of a renewed Mennonite church. Articles supporting small-group dynamics, Bible study, ethical discernment, discipline, mutual aid, caring, vocational counseling, teaching, and preaching appeared. All of these functions were to be located in the local congregation meeting possibly, though not necessarily, in homes (house churches).