Täufer

Alongside the Lutherans and the Reformed, the Anabaptists are the third major current within the Reformation movement of the sixteenth century. From the outset they were marked by great diversity, yet they shared some central beliefs on account of which they quickly came under persecution: for example, nonviolence, the refusal to swear oaths, and the separation of “state” and church. The book presents the development of the first Anabaptists and of the Mennonites, Hutterites, and Amish who emerged from them. Phases of traditionalization and separation alternated with phases of renewal and opening. The diversity of their ways of life and of their differentiations in doctrine remained a constant characteristic of the Anabaptists, whose eventful history is retold here in light of the current state of research.