Reviews
Expansive and thought-provoking...The book's percipient and fascinating analysis of the origins of anabaptism in Europe, including Mennonite and Amish sects, highlights sectarian differences within the Protestant Reformation and how questions of political power shaped and sustained those differences...Martyrs Mirror: A Social History is a significant entry in religious scholarship that deepens our understanding of anabaptism and Christianity in general.
Required reading for those interested in religious history.
Waever-Zercher is to be congratulated for his contribution to Anabaptist and Mennonite history, but also for his excellent example of work in book culture, in a fashion both enlightening and engaging.
... an enduring classic...
Shows how a single text can take on different meanings, infusing a cultural identity in an increasingly disparate and diasporic global community. The book is richly researched, it marks an ambitious project, and it offers new insight into the very foundation of Mennonite history.
Well-conceived, well-written, and well-researched, Martyrs Mirror is a terrific book and an absolute pleasure to read.
An ambitious and unprecedented undertaking, this book brings together an accessible summary of scholarship about the Martyrs Mirror with fresh interviews and comments from diverse Anabaptist groups. Weaver-Zercher has a knack for highlighting conflicts and dramas associated with the text's history.
Presently in religious history there is a critical discussion afoot to understand religion and print culture. This is an important book that significantly advances the way scholars consider not only Martyrs Mirror, but also how texts help to create communities, how religious communities create and sustain memory, and how the roles of narrative production and audience reception are organically related.
Book Details
Preface
Part I
The Prehistory and Production of The Bloody Theater
1. Anabaptism
2. Memorializing Martyrdom before The Bloody Theater
3. Thieleman van Braght and the Publication of The Bloody Theater
4. The
Preface
Part I
The Prehistory and Production of The Bloody Theater
1. Anabaptism
2. Memorializing Martyrdom before The Bloody Theater
3. Thieleman van Braght and the Publication of The Bloody Theater
4. The Bloody Theater
Part II
Van Braght's Martyrology through the Years
5. The Bloody Theater Illustrated
6. A North American Edition
7. Martyrs Mirror in Nineteenth-Century America
8. Martyrs Mirror in Twentieth-Century America
Part III
Contemporary Approaches to Martyrs Mirror
9. Tradition-Minded Anabaptists and the Use of Martyrs Mirror
10. Assimilated Mennonites and the Dilemma of Martyrs Mirror
11. The Most Usable Martyr
12. Going Global
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index