John Rempel

Professor of Theology and Anabaptist Studies; Associate Director, Institute of Mennonite Studies

• B.A., University of Waterloo, 1966
• M.Div., Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 1971
• Th.D., University of Toronto, 1987

E-mail: jrempel@ambs.edu
Phone: 574 296-6242
Curriculum Vitae

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Through his work as a chaplain, as a pastor and with Mennonite Central Committee’s advocacy with the United Nations, John Rempel has been on the frontier of the church. As a professor of theology and church history at AMBS, he brings his learnings from those contexts to the scrutiny and enrichment of his students. From 1991 until he joined the AMBS faculty in 2003, John served as MCC liaison to the United Nations in New York City. He was pastor of Manhattan (N.Y.) Mennonite Fellowship from 1989 to 2000, and was ordained in Mennonite Conference of Eastern Canada in 1982. John served on the worship committee for Hymnal: A Worship Book and as editor of the Minister’s Manual used in Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA.

"Historical theology is the field of scholarship that studies what the church believed in past eras and why it held those beliefs. Teaching historical theology involves experiencing the communion of saints. By that I mean that I accompany students into the past, especially into the origins of Anabaptism, to meet Christian thinkers —both those we agree and disagree with—and re-enter their passion for the gospel. But that is only half of the adventure. The other part is to make judgments about where the past still speaks the gospel to us and where we have to go back to the Bible to find our own life-giving word."

Scholarship

• “Anabaptist Religious Literature and Hymnody” in Brill’s Companion to Anabaptism and Spiritualism, 1521-1708, (Brill, 2007)
• “Ritual as my third language: an autobiographical account,” in Mennonite Quarterly Review (January 2005)
• “Worship in the Anabaptist Tradition,” in The Oxford History of Christian Worship (Oxford University, 2005)
• “Communion as a gathered body, or the body of Christ mystical and sacramental” in The Measure of My Days: Engaging the Life and Thought of John L. Ruth (Cascadia, 2004)
• “In the Halls of Power” (DVD) (Mennonite Central Committee, 2003)
• The Fragmentation of the Church and Its Unity in Peacemaking (Eerdmans, 2001), co-editor
• Later Writings by Pilgram Marpeck and his Circle (Pandora, 1999), translations by W. Klaassen, W. Packull, J. Rempel
• The Lord’s Supper in Anabaptism (Herald, 1993)

Speakers Bureau Presentations

• What do we believe about the Lord's Supper?
• Exploring the new Minister's Manual
• Speaking truth to power: my years as MCC representative to the United Nations
• Anabaptist recovery of the New Testament church: does it have a word for us today?
• Rethinking Mennonite Identity