The Roots of Concern

by Vogt, Virgil

• ISBN13: 9781597521895
• ISBN10: 1597521892
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-01
• Publisher: Cascade Books

Summary

In the aftermath of World War II, seven American Mennonite graduate students spent eleven days together in Amsterdam discussing their concerns around the state of North American Mennonite churches. Out of this historic gathering came a publication project known as Concern: A Pamphlet Series for Questions of Christian Renewal. While the series extended from 1952 to the early 1970s, the first four volumes, now printed in this single volume, comprise the roots, that is, the foundations that preceded the many articles that were written thereafter.Throughout The Roots of Concern, the discussion revolves around the recovery of an Anabaptist view of church life and discipleship. Here we find the seeds of a theme that would gain much attention in later years: the primary identity of the church as alternative community as opposed to its positive identification with the world. The fourteen articles in this volume cover a variety of issues such as form and spirit in the church, preaching, fellowship, discipleship, dissent, and property. An article coauthored by Yoder reveals his seminal thoughts around Mennonite church organization in relation to both biblical and contemporary denominational structures.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
The Historical Genesis of the Concern Project	p. xi
The Original Frontispiece of Concern Volumes 1-4	p. xiii
1954
Introduction	p. 1
Toward an Understanding of the Decline of the West	p. 5
The Anabaptist Dissent: The Logic of the Place of the Disciple in Society	p. 29
1955
Preface	p. 45
The Church in the Old Testament	p. 47
Spirit and Form in the Church of Christ	p. 57
Biblicism and the Church	p. 67
Close Communion-On What Lines?	p. 102
1956
Preface	p. 107
Intimations of Another Way: A Progress Report	p. 109
Preaching in the Church?	p. 122
A Concern Retreat	p. 129
The Call: Journal of Spiritual Reformation	p. 136
Notes on Books	p. 140
1957
Preface	p. 143
Epistolary: An Exchange by Letter	p. 145
What Is CONCERN?	p. 158
What Are Our Concerns?	p. 164
Organization and Church	p. 177
Property: A Problem in Christian Ethics	p. 185
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