You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
In a compelling, honest, and transparent account, Ralph Friesen tells the story of his father, Reverend Peter D. Friesen of Steinbach, Manitoba. He also tells his own story, of the search for his father and a crisis of faith. Growing up in a fundamentalist Mennonite community as the son of a minister, Ralph resisted the pressure to be "saved" and struggled to find a spiritual alternative. His father suffered a debilitating stroke when Ralph was a young teenager, but it is only now, in his seventies, that Ralph has delved into the meaning of that event. Dad, God, and Me is Ralph's quest to discover and convey the man his father was-with all of his strengths, faults, aspirations, and regrets. Drawing on journal entries, old photographs, and personal memories, this memoir welcomes readers into a particular time, place, and family. An engaging read for anyone who appreciates that "real life" can be challenging, painful, and beautiful all at the same time....
Donna McCart Sharkey and Arleen Paré , sisters and writers, have co-edited an anthology Don' t Tell: Family Secrets, about what may be hidden in families. For each individual, even in the same family, what is secret and what is not, may be different. In Don' t Tell: Family Secrets, fifty-nine writers tell their stories in either prose or poetry, of their own family secrets. So often, mothers bear the burden, stand over time as the keepers of these secrets, trying to keep families intact. Spanning continents, cultures, wars, belief systems, and the private lives of families, the secrets in this book range from over one hundred years ago to the present and include stories &– some serious, others quirky, some resolved, and still others that remain a mystery.
From the 1930s to the 1980s, the North American countryside faced a profound cultural transformation in which a once-unified rural society became fragmented and dispersed. Families wishing to remain on the farm were required to accept new levels of automation, while others, unwilling or unable to make the change, migrated to nearby towns or regional cities. The cultural reformulation that resulted saw the emergence of a genuine rural diaspora. The growing cultural and physical separation was especially true for close-knit, ethno-religious communities, Mennonites, in particular. Forced into regional cities, the kaleidoscopic urban culture further fragmented the Mennonites into disparate socia...
For decades, the field of Mennonite literature has been dominated by the question of Mennonite identity. After Identity interrogates this prolonged preoccupation and explores the potential to move beyond it to a truly post-identity Mennonite literature. The twelve essays collected here view Mennonite writing as transitioning beyond a tradition concerned primarily with defining itself and its cultural milieu. What this means for the future of Mennonite literature and its attendant criticism is the question at the heart of this volume. Contributors explore the histories and contexts—as well as the gaps—that have informed and diverted the perennial focus on identity in Mennonite literature, even as that identity is reread, reframed, and expanded. After Identity is a timely reappraisal of the Mennonite literature of Canada and the United States at the very moment when that literature seems ready to progress into a new era. In addition to the editor, the contributors are Ervin Beck, Di Brandt, Daniel Shank Cruz, Jeff Gundy, Ann Hostetler, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Royden Loewen, Jesse Nathan, Magdalene Redekop, Hildi Froese Tiessen, and Paul Tiessen.
This book provides students, activists, community organizers and the general public with a concise and clear guide on how to approach, analyze and address conflict in order to transform relationships and work towards peace with justice. In doing so, it details a systematic process to analyze conflict, and offers an understandable framework in which to situate and choose strategies of building cultures of peace. It acknowledges the academic divide between the disciplines of peace studies and conflict resolution studies, yet is relevant to students of both fields. The volume draws on relevant theory and research from sociology, psychology, critical studies and anthropology, and starts from the assumption that conflict analysis and transformation must include a critical analysis of hegemony and power.
None
The history of the twentieth century is one of modernization, a story of old ways being left behind. Many traditionalist Mennonites rejected these changes, especially the automobile, which they regarded as a symbol of pride and individualism. They became known as a “horse-and-buggy” people. Between 2009 and 2012, Royden Loewen and a team of researchers interviewed 250 Mennonites in thirty-five communities across the Americas about the impact of the modern world on their lives. This book records their responses and strategies for resisting the very things—ease, technology, upward mobility, consumption—that most people today take for granted. Loewen’s subjects are drawn from two dist...
On Stony Ground presents a historical ethnographic account of a generation of Mennonites from the Soviet Union who, following Russia’s revolution and civil war, immigrated to Manitoba during the 1920s. James Urry examines how they came to terms with a new land and with their new neighbours, including other Mennonites, Ukrainians, French Canadians, and Indigenous Peoples. The book discusses the impact of the Great Depression and how the immigrants struggled with their identity in Canada as Hitler and Stalin rose to power in Germany and the USSR. It reveals the immigrants’ desire to maintain their faith, language, and culture while encouraging their children to take advantage of an education conducted mainly in English. On Stony Ground explores how prosperity following the Second World War helped the immigrants to build a community in conjunction with others, including Mennonites and non-Mennonites, and to accept their new home in Canada.
None