Participating Witness. Anthony G. Siegrist

GAMEO, s.v. “Dordrecht Confession of Faith (Mennonite, 1632).”

11. Leland D. Harder, GAMEO, s.v. “Age at Baptism.”

12. The reference is to the article cited above, but the data Harder is referring to here is from the 1973 study of the Brethren in Christ Church published as Kauffman and Harder, Four Centuries Later.

13. This is demonstrated by a study done by Donald Kraybill, Conrad Kanagy, and Ronald Burwell. These sociologists have published various aspects of their study in diverse venues; however, data related to baptism was shared with me in private correspondence, June–July, 2008. Some of the data from this survey was published by Kanagy in Road Signs for the Journey.

14. Garrett, “Baptists Concerning Baptism,” 65. Also see George, “Southern Baptists,” 47.

15. Haymes, “Baptism,” 125.

16. Nolt, History of the Amish, 87–88.

17. Hostetler, Amish Society, 77–78, 365–66.

18. Ibid.

19. 1001 Questions and Answers, 43–44. This text appears to be an anonymously redacted version of one written by Daniel Kauffman in 1907 entitled, 1000 Questions and Answers on Points of Christian Doctrine, which seems to have been later published by Mennonite Publishing House of Scottdale, PA in 1933. The “Thirty-Three Articles of Faith” is a reference to “The Confession of Faith” published in Winchester, Virginia in 1837. This was an English translation of the much older Belydenisse near Godts heylig woort, which appeared in the Hoorn Martyr Book (Historie der warachtighe getuygen) in 1617. It was published most influentially in the Martyr’s Mirror in 1660. The confession itself is believed to be an edited compilation of sentences from Menno Simons. For more information and an English translation, see GAMEO, s.v. “Confession of Faith (1617).”

20. Miller, Our Heritage, 148–69.

21. Hostetler, Amish Society, 79–81.

22. Kraybill reports that the Amish have a retention rate above 90 percent (Amish Culture, 186). Other sources describe a range between 65 and 95 percent, depending on the community.

23. MacIntyre, After Virtue, 263.

24. T. Schlabach, “Mennonites, Revivalism, Modernity,” 398–415.

25. Juhnke, “Review of Mennonite Tent Revivals, 484–85.

26. GAMEO, s.v. “Revivalism.”

27. Mennonite General Conference, “Nurture and Evangelism of Children.”

28. Miller, “Mennonites,” 23.

29. Rom 6:3–4.

30. Mark 8:34–35.

31. Matt 19:14.

32. Matt 28:19–20.

33. Augustine, Confessions, 10. Though the Wills translation is not an academic one, I appreciate the candor with which he renders Augustine’s reflections.

34. This document can be found under the “Beliefs” heading on the Assemblies of God website, http://www.ag.org/top/Beliefs/gendoct_11_accountability.cfm.

35. Similar passages include 1 Sam 3:7; Jer 1:4–7; and Luke 2:52.

36. Finger, Contemporary Anabaptist Theology, 131.

37. Jeschke, Believers Baptism for Children, 103–24.

38. As quoted in Wood, Flannery, 23.

39. Snyder, Following in the Footsteps, 109–10.

40. See the MWC map on the Mennonite World Conference website: http://www.mwc-cmm.org/en15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=17&lang=en.

41. See the NA Anabaptist map available on the Mennonite World Review website: http://media.mennoweekly.org/ static/images/anabaptist_map.pdf.

42. A variety of reference works can provide details. For example, see Kraybill, Concise Encyclopaedia. The variety of Anabaptist groups is not merely geographical. Kraybill reports that in 2001 there were more than thirty Anabaptist groups and 370 congregations in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania alone (Amish Culture, 15).

43. Koop provides a helpful introduction to the status of confessions of faith in Anabaptist studies as well as an analysis of key seventeenth-century confessions in his Anabaptist-Mennonite Confessions.

44. This and following references to the Conservative Conference view of baptism are drawn from the CMC “Statement of Theology” and the “Statement of Practice.” These can be found at http://cmcrosedale.org/index.shtml. For each denominational description discussed I choose to reference official documents posted on the web since this is the most public and accessible venue in which these views are expressed. However, this means that quotations will not be cited with page numbers. Instead, in the text I will try to make clear to which section of the document I refer.

45. This and following references to the Mennonite Brethren view of baptism are drawn from the “detailed version” of the CCMB “Confession of Faith”: http://www.mbconf.ca/home/products_and_services/resources/theology/confession_of_faith/detailed_version/.