Fred Saldana was a US Marine during the Vietnam War whose platoon saw intense combat during the Tet Offensive and other significant battles throughout the war. Wounded many times and awarded multiple Purple Hearts, Fred eventually left the Marine Corp full of bitterness, trauma, and anger. For years afterwards he searched for meaning, and ultimatel…

Siam had been dealing with Christian missionaries for centuries, but from the 1830s a new wave of Protestant missionaries began to work in Siam, just as the European imperial powers were encroaching on Southeast Asia. They brought with them modern science and technology, which was of interest to the Siamese elite, but at the same time they challeng…

When we are young life is filled with ambitions, dreams, and possibilities, but life happens and we easily become cynical. Merle Burkholder gives practical steps and challenges us to become people who do the work God has given us to do. Read the essay and comment at https://anabaptistperspectives.org/essays/how-passionate-25-year-olds-become-fruitf…

The purpose of Evil: A North Korean Christian Refugee Perspective (American Society of Missiology, 2024) is to describe how the North Korean refugee understanding of evil can shape missionary practice in the Korean Peninsula. The central research question guiding this study is, How do North Korean Christian refugees describe evil based on their liv…

Do the debates about Christianity that stirred so much violence in the 1500’s still matter? Stephen Russell and Dean Taylor emphasize the importance of a believer’s church and the church refusing to adopt governmental power. “The same theology in similar circumstances will likely produce similar results” Love Is Like a Fire: Stephen Russell talks a…

Why did so many rulers throughout history risk converting to a new religion brought by outsiders? In his award-winning Unearthly Powers (2019), Dr. Alan Strathern set out a theoretical framework for understanding the relation between religion and political authority based on a distinction between two kinds of religion - immanentism and transcendent…

Jeff and Deana Swanson spent years searching the Scriptures to find what Christ was calling them to. They share their story of looking for a community that they could plug into, and how they came to the Anabaptist worldview. This is the 267th episode of Anabaptist Perspectives, a podcast, blog, and YouTube channel that examines various aspects of c…

The English Bible is a translation of manuscripts in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. How did we get the manuscripts that Bible translations use? Why do we see differences between different translations of the Bible, and should this concern us? Andrew Lamicela pulls from his experience as a teacher of biblical Greek to explore why biblical languages mat…

The Anabaptists, alongside the Lutheran and Reformed churches, were the third major current in the sixteenth century Reformation movements. From their beginnings, the Anabaptists were highly diverse and yet they shared some central beliefs and practices for which they were quickly persecuted – for example, defenselessness and nonresistance, the ref…

A cornerstone of the evangelization of early New Spain was the conversion of Nahua boys, especially the children of elites. They were to be emissaries between Nahua society and foreign missionaries, hastening the transmission of the gospel. Under the tutelage of Franciscan friars, the boys also learned to act with militant zeal. They sermonized and…

Susie Coyne grew up in Slovakia and was part of the Gothic underground. She later became involved in New Age Spiritualism and other dark practices, and had no interest in Christianity. In this episode, Susie tells her story of how she came to see that every knew will bow to Jesus, and ultimately how her and her husband left the New Age world behind…

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? Charles Moore joins us to discuss a radical picture of truthful, peaceable, subversive allegiance to Jesus. The conversation is framed around Stanley Hauerwas’s latest book which Moore helped him produce. Moore also reflects on the significance of Hauerwas’s work for his own Christian journey and for the…

Christian mission in the modern era has generally been conceptualized as a Western endeavor: “from the West to the rest.” The rise and explosive growth of world Christianity has challenged this narrative, emphasizing Christian mission as “from everywhere to everywhere.” Dr. Las Newman contributes to this revitalized perspective, interrogating our u…

There are many forms of addiction. What causes it? How can we relate to those suffering from an addiction, and what are tools for dealing with addictions? Michael Hochstetler, a counseling that focuses on helping those trapped in addiction, gives insight into how we as individuals and churches can properly care and help those in addiction. Essays F…

The hosts of Anabaptist Perspectives respond to concerns that some of our guests are “woke” (or associated terms). This term can be used to identify awareness of social dynamics, to advocate for specific agendas regarding gender and sexuality, or as a catch-all term of critique. The currently popular “anti-woke” movement brings its own set of dange…

Do medical "sharing plans" give an example of bearing one another's burdens or do they make us self-sufficient and individualistic? Marlin Sommers argues they are an economic tool distinct from brotherly aid. He challenges us to share to address actual needs and to pool our resources to support ambitions Christian teaching. https://anabaptistperspe…

Edsel Burdge walks us through plainness, starting with the Quakers, addressing concerns of plainness at various points of conservative Mennonite history, and makes a case for why considerations of plainness should matter to Christians today. Burdge thinks of plainness as an approach to life that identifies a person with God’s people while resisting…

Together, the adherents of Christianity and Islam make up over half of the world's population, and their numbers are expected to keep growing. The influence of these two faiths—and their relations with each other—is seen in politics, economics, and social interactions. Religious identity and aspirations remain powerful and appealing to people aroun…

Trauma is complicated, with many different opinions and stigmas surrounding it. But what are basics all of us should know about trauma, to help us be more caring and gracious towards those that have experienced it? Michael Hochstetler is a counseling that speaks from his experience of helping those who have experienced trauma. Frank Reed Course: Th…

How did Mennonite thinking develop in the two centuries after they arrived in North America? Edsel Burdge reflects on their concerns and the social conditions to which they responded. Shippensburg Christian Fellowship History Series: “Building on the Gospel Foundation” by Edsel Burdge and Samuel Horst: This is the 259th episode of Anabaptist Perspe…

Romans 9 is often used as an example for predestination and Calvinism. But does Paul actually teach predestination? Or did Calvin miss something significant in this passage? David Bercot explores the challenges of free will versus predestination, and shows a framework for what Paul was communicating in Romans 9. David Bercot’s Romans commentary: Da…

Saher Haddad was a nominal Christian in Baghdad. He fled Iraq as a refugee and settled in the Netherlands, where he lost his faith. Over time, Saher came back to Christ, and in this episode tells the story of his faith journey. Saher lives in the Netherlands with his family. Episode on the church in the Middle East: This is the 257th episode of Ana…

Conscience made Adam and Eve hide from God. Fred Wiebe explores the way we all experience this separation due to sin and God’s solution to bring us from shame and guilt to joy and belonging as children of God. Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers, and he is the hero we attentively model ourselves after.…

Romans is often considered one of the hardest and confusing books of the New Testament. What is Paul telling us through this complex book? David Bercot breaks down what the early church believed about the book of Romans before the time of Augustine, and why it matters to our understanding of Romans today. David Bercot’s Romans commentary: I Was An …

In Paul’s New Creation: Vision for a New World and Community (Lexington Book, 2023), Sejong Chun presents inter(con)textual readings of Paul’s new creation passages from the perspective of the Korean immigrant church in America. Chun focuses on Paul’s new creation’s cosmic dimension and ecclesiastical character and proposes the ekklēsia as a tangib…

The Crisis of Colonial Anglicanism: Empire, Slavery and Revolt in the Church of England (Hurst, 2025) by Dr. Martyn Percy offers a bold and unsettling truth: the British Empire and Great Britain are primarily English constructions, and the Church of England benefited from English enterprise and exploitation, serving as the spiritual arm of the impe…

Communication is something we do every day. But why does communication matter, and why should we try to do it well? Rick Rhodes describes how this should inform our churches and the way we present the message God has given us, while also giving many practical tips for learning to communicate better. Rick Rhodes’ communication conference: This is th…

When we think of the sixteenth-century arrival of European missionaries in East Asia, there is a tendency to imagine this meeting as a civilizational clash, a great meeting of two fixed cultures. This clash is symbolized in the ‘Ricci map(s)’: a map created by a Jesuit missionary to bring scientific cartography to East Asia. Remapping the World in …

Palestine's Christians and the Nationalist Cause: The Late Ottoman and Mandatory Periods (Routledge, 2024) provides an historical overview of Palestine's Christian communities and their role in the Palestinian nationalist movement during the late Ottoman and British mandatory periods. More than being a history of Palestine's Christian Arabs, the bo…

Theological seminaries and Bible institutes find themselves at the crossroads of preserving biblical faithfulness and of maintaining contextual relevance. What does faithful contextual relevance look like? How can theological institutions steer a course that will engage and serve the church through the men and women they equip for ministry and serv…

Many people assume that the first introduction of Christianity to the Chinese was part of nineteenth-century Western imperialism. In fact, Syriac-speaking Christians brought the gospel along the Silk Road into China in the seventh century. Glen L. Thompson introduces readers to the fascinating history of this early Eastern church, referred to as Ji…

In this episode Matthijs Blom shares his journey of searching for a fellowship of likeminded believers. And sheds light on the state of the Anabaptist church in Europe. Episode with sister Judy: This is the 254th episode of Anabaptist Perspectives, a podcast, blog, and YouTube channel that examines various aspects of conservative Anabaptist life an…

Supporting those suffering from mental illness is hard, complicated, and fraught with many opinions. Elizabeth shares some principles for how our communities can care for, and be gracious towards, those suffering from mental illness. Episode on Abuse in the Church: Trauma Informed Churches: This is the 253rd episode of Anabaptist Perspectives, a po…