Text Reader Series

The Institute of Mennonite Studies Text Reader Series seeks to make available resources that have promise for seminary classroom use. Priority is given to publishing materials with an orientation toward or relevance for Anabaptist-Mennonite theological tradition.

Publications in the series

• Education for Peoplehood: Essays on the Teaching Ministry of the Church (TR 8)
• Theology for the Church: Writings by Marlin E. Miller (TR 7)
• Understanding Ministerial Leadership: Essays Contributing to a Developing Theology of Ministry (TR 6) (out of print)
• Essays in Anabaptist Theology (TR 5) (out of print)
• So Wide a Sea: Essays on Biblica1 and Systematic Theology (TR 4)
• Monotheism, Power, Justice: Collected Old Testament Essays (TR 3) (out of print)
• One Lord, One Church, One Hope and One God: Mennonite Confessions of Faith (TR 2)
• Essays on Biblical Interpretation: Anabaptist-Mennonite Perspectives (TR 1) (out of print)

Details about publications in the series

Education for Peoplehood: Essays on the Teaching Ministry of the Church (TR 8)

Ross T. Bender

Bender served from 1962 to 1979 as Dean and Professor of Christian Education at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. He also made a substantial contribution to the formative role of education in the Mennonite Church. This volume brings together a wide range of Bender's contributions. It reflects his fundamental convictions that God is deeply interested and involved in forming us as people of God and that through the church's teaching ministry we collaborate in the process of learning, growth, formation and transformation.

0-936273-25-9/1997

245pp paper $15.00

Theology for the Church: Writings by Marlin E. Miller (TR 7)

Richard A. Kauffman, Gayle Gerber Koontz, editors

This volume brings together previously published writings of Marlin E. Miller who became the first president of AMBS in 1990 and served until his untimely death in November 1994. He was a gifted Mennonite leader with incisive theological vision. These writings focus on several areas of Miller's theological interest. 

0-936273-24-0/1997

235pp paper $15.00

Understanding Ministerial Leadership: Essays Contributing to a Developing Theology of Ministry (TR 6) Out of print

John A. Esau, editor

Ten essays dealing with the meaning and practice of Christian ministry. Most of the writers begin on a biographical note as they seek to relate their experiences in ministry to issues concerning the development of a "theology of ministry." In an effort to encourage a greater balance between the notions of equality and egalitarianism which have become prevalent and an understanding of the office of ministry which both defines responsibility and empowers one to carry out the assigned tasks, the essays presented here have an obvious and intentional bias.

0-936273-22-4/1995

123pp paper $15.00

Essays in Anabaptist Theology (TR 5) Out of Print

H. Wayne Pipkin, editor

Twelve essays by scholars on themes of Anabaptist theology and an annotated bibliography are included in this volume. Several of the essays are reprints from the Mennonite Quarterly Review. Topics include baptism, hermeneutics, the life of the Spirit, discipleship, sin, the new creature, ecclesiology and martyrdom. The opening essay by C. Arnold Snyder, "Beyond Polygenesis: Recovering the Unity and Diversity of Anabaptist Theology," adds a fresh point of view to an important debate.

0-936273-21-6/1994

271pp paper $15.00

So Wide a Sea: Essays on Biblica1 and Systematic Theology (TR 4)

Ben C. Ollenburger, editor

The relation between biblical and systematic theology is once again the subject of vigorous debate. In the volume, biblical scholars and systematic theologians enter into this debate which has significant consequences for theological education and the church. The book's title derives from Gabriel Biel's observation, five hundred years ago, that Scripture is "so wide a sea." Since then, this sea has sometimes divided biblical and systematic theologians. The authors make a significant contribution to understanding and bridging this division.

0-936273-18-6/1991

145pp paper $10.00

Monotheism, Power, Justice: Collected Old Testament Essays (TR 3) Out of print

Millard C. Lind

This is a series of 24 essays by Professor Millard C. Lind, some of them published in various journals; some heretofore unpublished. As the four divisions in the Table of Contents indicate, these essays represent significant theological reflection in at least four areas of probing in the Hebrew Scriptures: method; aspects of law, justice and power; war and economics; worship, mission and community.

0-936273-16-X/1990

273pp paper $10.00

One Lord, One Church, One Hope and One God: Mennonite Confessions of Faith (TR 2)

Howard John Loewen

Thirty-four different Mennonite confessions of faith used by various branches of the Mennonite Church over the last 350 years. The introduction seeks to analyze the common strands of belief. Extensive tables of analysis show frequency of scripture use, frequency of specific doctrinal articles, and a Mennonite genealogical tree showing the interrelationship of historical developments to the chronology of the confessions.

0-936273-08-9/ 1985

369pp paper $12.00

NOTE: The initial printing of Text-Reader No. 2 had some deficiencies in layout and design. These were corrected in a second printing (now out of print) and sold for $12. "Deficient" copies are still available and are being sold at half price ($6). The deficiencies are minimal and a copy of the corrections is sent with each book.

Essays on Biblical Interpretation: Anabaptist-Mennonite Perspectives (TR 1) Out of print

Willard Swartley, ed.

Twenty essays by a variety of Mennonite scholars. The essays in the first section describe Anabaptist hermeneutics in the sixteenth century. Those in the second section reflect upon how the Bible was understood through Mennonite history, noting the influences of other traditions. The third section includes essays which show Mennonite responses to the modern historical-critical methods. The last section includes three essays on the use of the Bible in preaching and teaching.

0-936273-07-0/1984

334pp paper $10.00