Customer Reviews

Old Order Amish: Their Enduring Way of Life (Center Books in Anabaptist Studies)

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Old Order Amish: Their Enduring Way of Life, explores the Amish in modern American in general, and the settlement of Amish people in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, in particular. This book not only has fascinating text which throws the reader right into the heart of what it means to be Amish, but also has breathtaking photographs of life in and around the village of Intercourse, just some 60 miles west of Philadelphia. The author explores many of the differeent aspects of Amish life, such as: farming, religion, courting, marriage, childbirth, business & industry, education & politics. This book is well worth the price; I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I highly recommend this book. This is a gorgeous book from the cover on. The color pictures are so vivid you almost ache to be there seeing those places and events. It text is detailed enough to cover most of what the non-Amish want to know. We English can gain a lot of insight into their way of life and why they make the choices they do, their history, and the future they see for themselves. Looking at any group from the outside carries risks and I am not knowledgeable enough to judge the accuracy of the information but the author is an academic expert so it should be credible even if there is a misleading detail or two.

The book looks at the beauties, purpose, struggles and successes of their way of life. I was struck by the way the book describes the reasons for some of their choices and how the different groups that comprise the religion make different choices. And it talks about how they reconcile them at the higher levels of the church. In a away it is attractive to imagine being Old Order but when you look at how much they do not take on of the world most of us live in, you have to wonder if you could do it. Even if I don't agree with them, they have made the necessary choices to live in this world without being of this world, as they say.

I think the main thing I carried away from this book is the way it depicts the every day life of these people. It isn't romantic, but illustrates an ordinary life that is different from mine but contained within the world I live in.