by Donald B . Kraybill (Author), Carl Desportes Bowman (Author)
On the Backroad to Heaven is a unique guide to the world of Old Order Anabaptist groups. Focusing on four Old Order communities-the Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren-Donald B. Kraybill and Carl Desportes Bowman provide a fascinating overview of their culture, growth, and distinctive way of life. Following a general introduction to Old Order culture, they show how each group uses a different strategy to create and sustain its identity. The Hutterites, for example, keep themselves geographically segregated from the larger society, whereas the Brethren interact more freely with it. The Amish and Mennonites are more alike in how they engage the outside world, adopting a complex but flexible strategy of compromise that produces an evolving canon of social and religious rules. This first comparative study sketches the differences as well as the common threads that bind these groups together.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Edition: New edition
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 03 Sep 2002
ISBN 10: 0801870895
ISBN 13: 9780801870897
Book Overview: In sorting out the puzzles and complexities of the Anabaptist movement in America today, there are no other social scientists doing more important work than Donald Kraybill and Carl Desportes Bowman. In their new book, On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren, they have done it again. They perform the most significant comparative analysis of these faith traditions to date. Their work not only informs us of the different strategies they pursue in surviving the challenges of the modern world, but it also provides a prism through which we see the weaknesses and deficiencies of contemporary American culture. -- James Davison Hunter, author of Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America and The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age Without Good or Evil