Elizabeth Saxton
Professor Lubin
Religion 195B
March 31, 2003
Keywords:
Mennonites, Pennsylvania, Dutch, Anabaptist, Religion, Jacob Amman, Adult Baptism, Eternal Life, Salvation, Lancaster County
This paper discusses the Amish society in terms of their historical, theological, and technological perspectives. By exploring the Amish society’s history, one finds a persistent rejection of scientific as well as technological advancements through the years. The Amish believe that the Bible clearly teaches them to remain separated from society, and in the Amish people’s view, most of these aforementioned changes are a result and reflection of society itself. The Amish have historically relied strongly on tradition as one of the reasons for their separation from society, but, in addition to this respect of their forefathers, every Amish person very consciously reflects on the worldly luxuries of modernity and realizes that according to their Holy Scriptures, they must separate from this society around them. Therefore, this most conservative religion finds its members living very simple lives, trying their best to separate from the modern, amenity-filled world.
II. Scope and Purpose of the System
The Amish are gentle and hard-working farmers, and while they are found in twenty states in America, they are primarily located today in Pennsylvania, specifically Lancaster County. The group began as an offshoot of the Mennonites, and their name came from that of their founder, Jacob Amman. According to John A. Hostetler, the Amish people’s three most cherished values are “a devout religion, an agrarian way of life, and a cohesive family and community” (Hostetler, The Amish, 5). Amish theology is in many ways very similar to that of the evangelical Protestants, for the Amish believe in the supremacy of the Bible, the importance of religion being an individual matter, as well as eternal life. However, the largest difference between the two groups arises over the means to eternal life, for the Amish people believe that separation from society and the things of the world is a necessary means of the attainment of eternal life because of Scriptures that clearly speak of the necessity of this separation. In addition to the separation from society as a necessary means of gaining salvation, the Amish are also very strong believers in adult baptism as the appropriate time for an individual to announce their faith and receive the blessing of salvation. With this belief comes an opposition to many scientific and technological advances of the modern world, for these advancements are of the world and society (Hostetler, The Amish, 6-7).
III. Authority Structure
a. Sources and Criteria of Valid Knowledge
The Amish’s primary and most important source of knowledge is the Bible, for they believe the Bible to be inspired by God and in fact the actual word of God. They are also strong followers of their tradition and forefathers, for they feel that their tradition is based in the Bible, and therefore, if they follow their tradition, they will not fall astray from the Amish lifestyle and, in turn, risk eternal damnation (Seitz, Amish Country, 17). With regard to the avoidance of technological and scientific advances, the Amish believe that because their forefathers did not drive automobiles or trucks, talk on telephones, or experience electricity, there is no reason for the current generation of Amish people to partake in these advancements either. Therefore, even today, almost all Amish people farm with horses instead of tractors and travel by buggies instead of automobiles.
Put simply, the Amish believe the greatest wisdom is to despise “the world” and to love God. They feel that seeking wealth and prosperity means to depend on the world, and therefore, they choose a simple and very old-fashioned lifestyle free of modern amenities. Pursuing honors as well as trying to elevate oneself through certain dress, education, office holding are all worldly, and therefore to be despised because of their harmfulness to the soul (Hostetler 7-8).
b. Methods of Inquiry
When a child of an Amish family reaches an age of late adolescence, if he or she voluntarily chooses instruction and baptism, then this person will become a member of the Amish church. According to Hostetler, the vow of baptism “embodies the spiritual meaning of becoming and Amish person, an acceptance of absolute values, and a conscious belief in religious and ethical ends entirely for their own sake, quite independent of any external rewards” (Hostetler, Amish Society, 77). In other words, this baptism is an act of faith. By becoming a member of the Amish church, the individual must put into practice whatever duty, honor, or religious calling it may require of him or her, no matter what the sacrifice.
Several occasions for instruction occur for the adolescent before he or she actually receives his or her baptism and membership in the Amish Church. Directly after the spring communion, all youth that are interested in joining the church must attend a class of instruction called die Gemee nooch geh. In plain English, this phrase means, “to follow the church.” Each potential new member meets individually with the minister approximately six to eight times during each Sunday morning worship service from May until August. At these meetings, the Confession of Faith, or Dordrecht, serves as instruction for the youth, and in addition, the minister spends time explaining different Scriptures from the Bible which display the proper relationship with the Lord as well as the community. Once the adolescent completes these Sunday morning meetings, he or she is ready for baptismal service once the membership of the church approves the applicant for admission into fellowship (Hostetler, Amish Society, 78).
The ministers very adamantly educate the applicants in the importance of the decision that they are making and the difficulty that will come with choosing to walk the “road less traveled.” The Amish feel that it is better for someone not to take the vow of membership in the church than to take the vow and later deny it, and therefore, on the Saturday directly before their baptism, the prospective members meet with the ministers, and at this point, the applicants have one last chance to turn away from the Amish church. Assuming that an applicant is determined to follow through with this act of faith and does not turn away from the church at this point, he or she will be baptized the next morning and accepted into the Amish Church (Hostetler, Amish Society, 78).
c. Institutions and Professional Structure
Amish communities are found in 19 states in the U.S. as well as in Canada. The Amish community structure consists of a household, a settlement, a church district, and an affiliation. A settlement is a group of households that are geographically contiguous, a church district is a congregation or a ceremonial unit found somewhere within the settlement, and an affiliation is a group of church districts that share the same discipline and take communion together (Hostetler, Amish Society, 91-93).
According to Hostetler, “among the Amish--who have rejected coercive powers as worldly, and who cultivate humility, obedience, and simplicity--the selection of leaders is a delicate process” (Hostetler, Amish Society, 105). Criteria for a leader include proof of good farming and family management. Elected officials of the Amish church are called Diener, or servants. Three groups make of this larger group of servants, and these groups are the Voelliger-Diener, or “ministers with full powers,” the Diener zum Buch, or preacher, and the Armen-Diener, or deacon. The Voelliger-Diener has full authority and power in the church, for he is the ultimate leader of the congregation. In addition to the Voelliger-Diener, a church district usually possesses two preachers, and these preachers are also expected to preach to the entire congregation whenever necessary. Lastly, the Armen-Diener reads a chapter from the Bible at each Sunday worship service, and he often works behind the scenes when ceremonial occasions occur (Hostetler, Amish Society, 105-108).
IV. History
At the time of the Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli’s Reformations of the 16th century, a third group of reformers by the name of “Anabaptists” was also taking shape in a movement often called the “Radical Reformation”. The Amish people claim direct decent from the Swiss Anabaptists. This particular group believed that baptism was only for adults who professed their faith, and therefore they baptized those who had already received an infant baptism in the Roman Catholic Church (Kraybill 3). Many of the early “rebaptizers” experienced persecution from the Protestant and Catholic Churches, and therefore they had to flee their homelands and move to foreign countries. Unfortunately, many did not escape, for thousands of Anabaptists died as a result of execution from civil and religious authorities. Despite these difficult times in the early years of Anabaptism, most of the persecution is believed to have subsided, at least in Switzerland, by 1614 (Kraybill 4). Soon after, the Anabaptist movement began to take shape.
A large portion of this group quickly became known as the Mennonites because a former Catholic priest by the name of Menno Simons was one of the powerful leader of the dissenters, and in 1694, the Amish finally evolved as an offshoot from the Mennonite Anabaptists (Seitz, Amish Country, 16). Like the Mennonites, the Amish took their name from the leader and founder of their movement, Jacob Amman, an Anabaptist from Bern, Switzerland (Seitz, Amish Ways, 10). Jacob Amman believed that the Mennonite Church at the end of the 17th century was too lax when dealing with the issues of church discipline, and therefore, he quickly began encouraging several different practices, the most important being the “social avoidance of people who were expelled from the church” (Seitz, Amish Country, 17). He felt that the Bible clearly spoke of God’s requirement of separation from the ungodly and worldly people. In just a few short years, his ideas would spread across the Atlantic Ocean.
The first Amish people of the New World appeared in the early 1700’s, and the first two Amish settlements appeared in 1737. Unfortunately, one of the two first settlements, located in Berk County, Pennsylvania fell to Indian raids and crop failure, but the people of this settlement gave rise to three Amish settlements in Somerset County that would later move the Amish movement into Ohio. Ever since their arrival, the group has migrated and split many times because of disagreements concerning specifics of the religion. When each new Amish group formed, this group determined how much distance they would place between themselves and the modern world, and therefore, different Amish groups have different standards concerning the issue of separation from society (Seitz, Amish Ways, 10).
In the early 1800’s, this previously mentioned migration led many Amish people from southwestern Pennsylvania to eastern Ohio. Once there, the Amish settlers quickly began building and growing crops for themselves in this area. In addition to new settlements in Ohio, Amish settlements began to arise in Canada in the early 1800’s as well. In 1822, Christian Nafziger, an Amish farmer in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania decided to migrate to Canada in search of cheaper farm land. Once in Canada, this man struck quite a deal with the governor of Canada, and Amish German settlers began arriving in Canada, forming their first settlement, the Wilmot Township, directly west of Kitchener-Waterloo. A happy and peaceful lifestyle existed with this Canadian Amish for approximately 50 years until conflicts, which once again caused splits in the Amish, arose over the proper place of worship (Seitz, Amish Ways, 11).
Today, approximately 16,000 Amish people reside in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, their largest concentration. Their culture is still alive and well, and they are often the focus of much interest from outsiders. This interest is a result of the many riddles and “simple” practices tied up in their religious practices and avoidance of societal and technological change.
V. Representative Examples of Argumentation
The Amish’s overriding principle of Meidung, or shunning, is strictly defined as “not traveling, doing business, or eating with a former church member,” and this principle originated from Jacob Amman in the developing years of the religion (Seitz, Amish Country, 17). There are several verses in the Bible, the Amish’s supreme and ultimate source of knowledge, which the Amish use to defend their practice of separation from society. Two verses in particular are I Corinthians 5:11 and II Thessalonians 3:14. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he states, “But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, and idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat” (I Corinthians 5:11). Again, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul says that “If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed” (II Thessalonians 3:14).
Clearly, the Amish read and interpret these verses of the Bible very literally, and because they believe the Bible to be the word of God, they strongly desire to obey and act upon this commandment from the Lord. They feel that since the Lord commands this separation from a society that has turned its back on Him, this separation is necessary for the achievement of eternal life. According to Ruth Hoover Seitz, an Amish person, the previously mentioned verse from I Corinthians is a clear explanation for the actions that the Amish take in avoidance of “worldly” ventures, for she says that that these words led Jacob Amman to promote the idea of the removal of association with those who have left the Amish Church (Seitz, The Amish Country, 17). The verse from Thessalonians is a clear defense for the treatment that the Amish give to people who leave their community. In other words, anyone that lives in sin while claiming to be a brother in the Lord, or has heard the truth and turns his back to it should not receive the attention of the Amish society, for these are the people who God despises.
VI. Suggested Position in
Comparative Scales
The following is a set of standard scales that will hopefully shed a certain degree of insight on the overall stance that Amish societies take concerning the major theological issues of religion. On a scale of 1-10, the lower the score, the closer the religion is to the description on the left, and the higher the score, the closer the religion’s stance is to the description on to the right.
a. Relative emphasis on traditional authority------or testimony of experience (1)
As discussed in the previous sections of this paper, the Amish strongly emphasize the importance of traditional authority, for they primarily turn to the Bible as their ultimate source of knowledge. The Bible is a very traditional means of authority, and the Amish’s total emphasis is on this work. In addition, the Amish place all authority in the Lord, a very traditional means of authority as well.
b. Relative
centralization of authority-------or decentralization (3)
This religion places all authority and power in its Lord. By believing that the Bible is the complete and utter word of the Lord, the Amish follows its words so strictly because they believe the Lord to be the only real authority in their lives. However, there is a certain level of leadership in the church, placing most power in the Voelliger-Diener, “minister with full powers.” In addition, each church district possesses two other preachers as well as a deacon, and these officers do have some authority within the individual Amish Church.
c.
Relative emphasis on invisible realities-------or material, earthly ones (1)
In terms of the emphasis on invisible realities versus material, earthly ones, the Amish’s stance is very clear, for the main thrust of the Amish religion is the separation from society and all of the material aspects of it. The Amish have a focus on eternal life and the invisible reality of their Lord, and they therefore disregard most earthly realities as a means of attaining salvation and in turn, eternal life.
d. Mainly
spiritual or moral objectives-------or pragmatic aims (prediction,etc.) (1)
Every Amish community’s objectives are definitely spiritual as well as moral. They desire to obtain eternal life with their Lord, and this objective is a very spiritual one. The Amish strive to live lives as free of sin as possible, and their main purpose here on this earth is to worship the Lord, gain knowledge of the Lord, separate from society and its many sins, and enjoy in the communion with like-believers.
e. Most
power reserved for a divine being-------or realizable in individuals (1)
As mentioned in several of the previous scales, the Amish most definitely reserve the most power for their Lord, a divine being.
For almost all of these scales, the Amish religion receives a score of 1, for the Amish religion is extremely conservative, perhaps the most conservative. Obviously, the items on the left of the “scale” are more or less the polar opposites of the item to the right of the “scale,” for the items to the left describe a very conservative religion, and the items to the right describe a more liberal one. Beginning with its conservative founder, Jacob Amman, the Amish religion has continued to this day to remain one that leans very strongly on the conservative edge of religion.
Primary:
This source was most useful, for it is the Amish’s primary source of knowledge and faith. In Section V of the paper, several quotations appear from the Bible, for through study of this source, one can try to understand the Amish people’s theological ideas and how they defend them.
Seitz, Ruth Hoover. Amish Country. New York: Crescent Books, 1987.
This source is excellent for basic background information concerning the Amish people. This source appears most often in the History section of this particular paper, but it was also useful when writing Section III of the paper.
Seitz, Ruth Hoover, Amish Ways. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: RB Books, 1991.
Another Seitz book, this source was also useful for background information on the Amish community, and it was also used in the History section of the paper.
Secondary:
Hostetler, John A. The Amish. Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Herald Press, 1982.
This pamphlet serves a great source for someone who wants to learn the basics about the Amish people in a very short amount of time. Since it primarily contains background information, this source is found in Section II of the paper (Scope and Purpose of the System).
Hostetler, John A. Amish Society. 4th ed. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University
Press, 1993.
This book is a wonderful resource of information on the Amish people and their society. It contains much detail on most every subject concerning the Amish. This source contains information related to all sections of this paper, but it primarily appears in Section III of the paper.
Kraybill, Donald B. The Riddle of Amish Culture. Baltimore: The John Hopkins
University Press, 1989.
A very interesting source that, as its title suggests, primarily addresses the many riddles that appear in the Amish religion. For the purposes of this paper, the book served as a great source for the history section of the paper.