Marpeck: A Life of Dissent and Conformity (Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History No. 44), Walter Klaassen and William Klaassen. Waterloo: Herald Press. 422 Pp. 2008. $32.99. ISBN 978-0-8361-9234-4.
Holding graduate degrees from McMaster Divinity College and Oxford University, Walter Klaassen is an adjunct professor at the College of Emmanuel and St. Chad and an adjunct professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan. William Klassen is adjunct professor and Principal Emeritus at St. Paul s College, University of Waterloo, Ontario, and he possesses a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. Corporately, they offer this biography of the brilliant engineer and passionate theologian committed to justice and nonviolence, Pilgram Marpeck.
Pilgrim Marpeck (ca. 1495-1556) was a dedicated Anabaptist leader who possessed a keen intelligence and a passion for biblical theology. As such, he was one of the most original and eclectic Anabaptist thinkers; however, until recently his significance and influence was not greatly recognized. The authors seek to bring both of these aspects of Marpeck to light in this volume. Because he often wrote collaboratively larger projects, authorship of some writings has to be ascribed not only to Markpeck, but to the ‘Markpeck Circle’. Shortly after 1600, however, his writings and his ‘circle’ seemingly disappeared, and no distinctively Marpeckite Anabaptist community survived past the seventeenth century. However, his legacy continues to this day.
Indeed, in twenty-one chapters, the authors detail how, for example, Marpeck was an early advocate of the separation of church and state, an advocate of adult baptism, and an advocate of non-violence, all of which are widely recognized within orthodox Protestant theology today. Only the usage of the sword of the Spirit was advocated by him; the sword made of steel was not to be employed (348). Marpeck was thoroughly committed to creedal Christianity (345), though he emphasized the working-out of creedal belief in praxis by a life of conformity to Christ. For him, that meant a conscious choice to be a disciple of Jesus in which neither the church nor the state was determinative. He was not a radical Anabaptist like Münster or a radical Reformer like Calvin, but sought to establish God’s reign amid the kingdoms of the world instead by reforming the one, true church (31).
While thousands died during the years of the Reformation, Marpeck consistently stood up to the reigning powers-that-be. In fact, like the apostle Paul, Marpeck was more than willing to lose wealth, position, and reputation in order to gain Christ (105). Drawing threads together from secondary accounts, the authors postulate that Marpeck probably received his adult baptism in Kramu, in the year 1528, shortly after which he assumed leadership within the Anabaptist church (111–12). In position as a leader, Marpeck commenced to explain the breadth and depth of Anabaptist theology, a project that occupied the remainder of his life (132). Somewhat counter-intuitively, Marpeck’s influence in his community via his secular job enlarged all the while his theological output increased. Apparently this was due to Marpeck’s ability to dichotomize his secular functioning within society from his role within the Anabaptist church (ref. 149, 301–314, 352). In this respect, Marpeck gives one a model to emulate in today’s environ. The disunity within the emerging Protestant church, particularly within the Anabaptist communities, deeply distressed Marpeck, and as a result he consistently sought to reunite the various branches of Anabaptism (including, for example, the Hutterites, the Moravian Brethren, the Appenzell Anabaptists, and the Swiss Brethren) (215–230). Interestingly, the authors highlight that Marpeck’s theology, specifically his Christology, began with the humanity of Jesus, and as such it could perhaps be aptly labeled a Christology from below (cf. 331).
By holding a proverbial mirror to the life and times of Marpeck, the authors contend that we may in the current era capture an image of who we are – and who we are not – in today’s pluralistic and secular society. Marpeck made significant contributions to the advancement of the role of women in the church. Perhaps most important, however, was the refusal by Marpeck to separate religious realities into inner and outer, spiritual and material distinctions (353). Moreover, by placing Marpeck’s life, work, and theology in the context of his violent, changing times, this thorough biography shows how he, perhaps more than any other early Anabaptist figure, helped lay the theoretical and practical foundations of the believer’s church in the twenty-first century. Without hesitation, I recommend this title for usage for Reformation-era history classes.
Bradford McCall, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.