John Howard Yoder: Mennonite Patience, Evangelical Witness, Catholic Convictions [Paperback]

Mark Nation (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 2005

Foreword by Stanley Hauerwas John Howard Yoder (1927-1997) was a leading Christian witness against violence, articulating a theology from his own tradition so powerful that it compelled people from many other traditions to take notice. The war on terror, the temptations of nationalism, and the painful divisions between those who call themselves followers of Jesus signal our need to hear Yoders voice again at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In his book Mark Thiessen Nation provides an insiders introduction to Yoder, demonstrating how a committed Mennonite could also be profoundly evangelical in his witness and broadly catholic in his Christian sensibilities. Taking us into Yoders life and writings, Nation explores Yoders context, his keen interest in the Anabaptist tradition, his sustained engagement with other Christians and other faiths, and his claim that pacifism is inherent to Jesus message.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Thirty-four years after The Politics of Jesus challenged Christians to shoulder their responsibility as witnesses for peace, the author of that epoch-making work finally receives intelligent scrutiny from an insightful biographer. Beginning with an in-depth look at the Mennonite world in which Yoder grew to understand peace as a divine imperative, Nation chronicles the remarkable development of a theologian capable of putting the principles of Anabaptist pacifism at the very center of the twentieth century's ecumenical dialogue. Readers see how Yoder gave scriptural substance to a religious peace movement previously dismissed as mere naivete laced with sentimentality. But in reinforcing Christians' shared commitments, Yoder never ignored serious doctrinal differences, which he sought to resolve through intense engagement with scripture, not through the polite evasions acceptable to some ecumenical thinkers. It is this tough-minded integrity that Nation identifies as central to the legacy Yoder left to the theologians and activists who now carry on his work. A biography of great worth to Christians still struggling to understand how faith can open a path to peace. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 211 pages
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co (December 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802839401
• ISBN-13: 978-0802839404
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,668,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ecumenical, evangelical, catholic, December 20, 2007

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Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Howard Yoder: Mennonite Patience, Evangelical Witness, Catholic Convictions (Paperback)

John Howard Yoder, whom author Mark Thiessen Nation believes (correctly, in my estimation) to have offered "the most powerful articulation of a Christian theological rationale for pacifism that has ever been given," (p. 193), is sometimes dismissed by nonpacifist Christians as a theologian who speaks from a narrowly Mennonite perspective. Since he's not denominationally mainstream, these critics continue, neither is his defense of nonviolence. It's a Mennonite thing, if you will, the hobbyhorse of a traditional "peace church."

Nation's book has the very real merit of responding to such critics. He effectively argues that although Yoder was a loyal Mennonite his entire life and highly influenced by the Anabaptist tradition, he always intended his message to be ecumenically and evangelically addressed to all Christians and considered it to be catholic--that is, cross-denominational. After providing a quick biographical overview, Nation explores this reading of Yoder in a series of chapters that explore Yoder's call for "ecumenical patience," an "evangelical and catholic peace theology," and a social responsibility inspired by and squarely focused on the offense of the Cross.

This is a good, solid read of Yoder, who at least sometimes is a rather difficult, wordy (perhaps from all his years reading Barth!) author. But Nation's book, despite its exciting subject, is strangely lackluster. It relies a good deal on a staccato style that ticks off bullet points instead of offering sustained discussion, and often comes across as a rehashed but still dry doctoral dissertation (which I doubt it actually is). I found the ideas in the book interesting (although, in all honesty, somewhat obvious for readers with some familiarity with Yoder), but the book itself a bit of a chore to read. What's absolutely indisputable, though, is that Nation knows his Yoder. The documentation is impressive and really quite helpful.

Better treatments of Yoder, I think, are Craig Carter's The Politics of the Cross: The Theology and Social Ethics of John Howard Yoder (2001) and the essays collected in Stanley Hauerwas' and Chris & Harry Huebner's excellent The Wisdom of the Cross: Essays in Honor of John Howard Yoder (2005). In the latter volume, Nation kicks off the festschrift with a biographical essay that basically summarizes his thesis that Yoder's thought is Mennonite, ecumenical, evangelical, and catholic.

3.0 out of 5 stars John Howard Yoder, September 20, 2011

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Casper Denck (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: John Howard Yoder: Mennonite Patience, Evangelical Witness, Catholic Convictions (Paperback)

John Howard Yoder (1927-1997) was a fascinating theologian who is best known for his book The Politics of Jesus. Stanley Hauerwas has declared predicted that "when Christians look back to this century of theology in America The Politics of Jesus will be seen as a new beginning". Of course the fact that Yoder changed Hauerwas' approach to theology and partially resembles his own may have a part to play in this assessment!

Mark Thiessen Nation's John Howard Yoder is part-biography and part theological survey. The first two chapters respectively survey Yoder's Mennonite heritage and his involvement in the re-envisaging of Mennonite identity in Europe through the Concern group away from the sectarian impulse to a forthright advocacy of the believers church traditional in ecumenical dialogue. Nation's contention is that in this moment of theological revision all of the later themes of Yoder's thought were already present. The following three chapters each deal with an individual aspects of Yoder's vision. These are:

* Yoder's ecumenical challenge and the importance of orthopraxy (faithfulness) over orthodoxy,

* a brief overview of the crucial book The Politics of Jesus

* Yoder's understanding of Christian responsibility (shorthand for the Christians involvement in a society's political life).


If you are looking for an accessible introduction to Yoder's thought and life then this is the best I have read. However, the book is almost entirely absent of critical comment or more importantly surveys of others thinker's criticicisms or a larger theological context. Given this I would point those looking for this to Craig Carter's The Politics of the Cross which far surpasses Nation's book in this regard.

4.0 out of 5 stars Nation Is Knowledgeable Yet Slightly Dry, February 2, 2010

By 

Jeremy Griffin (Indiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Howard Yoder: Mennonite Patience, Evangelical Witness, Catholic Convictions (Paperback)

John Howard Yoder has contributed so much to the understanding of how Jesus offers the Christian community a social ethic that one would be at a loss if they did not read Mark Nation's overview of the life and writings of Yoder. Mark Nation is thoroughly acquainted with all of the writings and contributions of Yoder. He weaves together a good book through his knowledge of Yoder's ideas.

The best part of the book, I thought, was Chapter 4 entitled, "The Politics of Jesus, the Politics of John Howard Yoder: An Evangelical and Catholic Peach Theology". This chapter gives a great background sketch as to why "The Politics of Jesus" was written (it was to be an ecumenical book), has a great summary of the book, and gives some great insight as to how and why Yoder organized some of his arguments in the book.

On the negative side of things, the book is, to say the least dry and cumbersome at times and not that exciting of a read (which could also be the case with reading Yoder). But Nation's knowledge of Yoder makes up for the dullness of the book.

If you are looking for a book that covers Yoder's background, his ideas, his methodology of interpretation, and highlights of his most significant contributions, this book will be a helpful read.