AMBS, IMS host 40th annual Book Celebration
Published: May 9, 2022
By Institute of Mennonite Studies staff
ELKHART, Indiana — On Thursday, April 28, 2022, the Institute of Mennonite Studies (IMS) and Academic Dean’s Office of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana, hosted their 40th annual Book Celebration, honoring AMBS faculty, staff and student publications from the 2021–22 academic year as well as publications of IMS. As part of the event, David C. Cramer, PhD, Managing Editor of IMS, shared a retrospective of 40 books published by IMS and AMBS faculty over the 40 years since the first Book Celebration.
Cramer noted that the 2021–22 academic year was one of the most productive publishing years on record at AMBS, including 10 books, 11 journal issues and more than 30 articles, essays and reviews. In addition, AMBS faculty, students and staff presented their research in more than 65 academic presentations, public workshops and podcast appearances.
In conjunction with UK publisher T&T Clark, IMS published the third volume of its Studies in Anabaptist Theology and Ethics series, Secular Nonviolence and the Theo-Drama of Peace: Anabaptist Ethics and the Catholic Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar by Layton Boyd Friesen. IMS also published volume 28 of its Occasional Papers series, Hardship, Resistance, Collaboration: Essays on Dutch Mennonites during World War II and Its Aftermath by Alle G. Hoekema with Gabe G. Hoekema.
In January 2022, IMS partnered with the Mennonite Quarterly Review to publish an issue devoted to the scholarship of AMBS, including articles by Rachel Miller Jacobs, DMin, Associate Professor of Congregational Formation; Jamie Pitts, PhD, Associate Professor of Anabaptist Studies and IMS Director; Drew Strait, PhD, Assistant Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins; Janna Hunter-Bowman, PhD, Associate Professor of Peace Studies and Christian Social Ethics; and David C. Cramer, who served as guest Co-editor with Editor John D. Roth.
IMS also published two issues of Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology. The fall 2021 issue was guest edited by two recent AMBS alumni, Michelle Christian Curtis and Scott Litwiller, and dedicated to Mary H. Schertz, PhD, Professor Emerita of New Testament and former IMS Director. The spring 2022 issue features the essay “Three Mennonite worship spaces: On the interplay of culture, theology and aesthetics in Mennonite worship,” by Beverly Lapp, EdD, Vice President and Academic Dean. Andy Brubacher Kaethler, PhD, Associate Professor of Christian Formation and Culture and IMS Associate Director, serves as the AMBS Editor of Vision, and IMS Director Jamie Pitts serves as Editor of the mission journal Anabaptist Witness, which published issues this past year on Mission and Protest (October 2021) and Mission and Formation (April 2022).
Susannah M. Larry, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, published her first book, Leaving Silence: Sexualized Violence, the Bible and Standing with Survivors (Herald, 2021), and David C. Cramer published his first co-authored book (with Myles Werntz), A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence: Key Thinkers, Activists and Movements for the Gospel of Peace (Baker Academic, 2022).
Drew Strait co-edited the book Living the King Jesus Gospel: Discipleship and Ministry Then and Now (Wipf and Stock, 2021), published in honor of New Testament scholar Scot McKnight. Strait also contributed an essay to the book, “From Salvation Culture to Peace Culture: Luke’s Gospeling of Christ’s Peace.” In addition, he served as the New Testament editor of the journal Currents in Biblical Research, which published two issues this past year.
Daniel S. Schipani, DrPsy, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Care and Counseling, wrote a new introduction to a reprint of the book Freedom and Discipleship: Liberation Theology in an Anabaptist Perspective (Wipf and Stock, 2021), which he edited for its original 1989 release. He also published the Spanish-language book Paulo Freire: Vigencia y Desafío: Crítica para la Educación Cristiana y Teológica (Asociación para la Educación Cristiana y Teológica, 2022).
Katerina Friesen, MDiv, Core Adjunct Faculty, edited Stories of Repair: A Reparative Justice Resource toward Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery (Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Coalition, 2021), which included the essay “Returning Land to the Siletz Tribe” by current AMBS student Deb Coates of Brush Prairie, Washington.
James R. Krabill, PhD, Core Adjunct Faculty, co-edited Unless a Grain of Wheat: A Story of Friendship Between African Independent Churches and North American Mennonites (Langham Global Library, 2021). Krabill also serves as Senior Editor of the journal Ethnodoxology: A Global Forum on Arts and Christian Faith, which published its ninth annual issue in 2021, and he serves as Series Editor of Missio Dei, which published volume 31, Remembering Forward: Celebrating a Century of Mennonite Ministry in Argentina by Linda Shelly (Mennonite Mission Network, 2021).
For a complete listing of publications and presentations, see IMS’s Celebration webpage or download the 2021–22 issue. To browse or purchase IMS and AMBS publications, visit the AMBS Bookstore in the AMBS Library or online.
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