An ancient Anabaptist hymnal The Ausbund is a very important book for the Amish. This hymnal contains centuries-old songs originating with Anabaptist captives held at the Oberhaus castle prison in Passau, located in present-day southeastern Germany. Amishman Benuel Blank wrote The Amazing Story of the Ausbund about this remarkable songbook. About the Ausbund Blank writes: The [...]
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Traveling through Amish settlements you may notice something like this: That’s not a Plain people hauler, nor the caboose of some sort of horse-drawn train. This bulky vehicle is a church wagon, and you’ll see them throughout Amish America. Each Amish church district will have its own wagon, used to transport benches from one location [...]
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Which Bible do Amish use? Typically, the Amish use the German Martin Luther version, particularly for church readings. For an English version, the most favored translation is the King James edition (KJV). Some Amish use the New International Version (NIV) as well. Often, the Bible Amish read in the home will have a dual format-German [...]
Continue reading The “Amish Bible”, and the appeal of Bible story books
The concept of “Amish community” has a number of meanings The term “Amish community” is often used to refer to the Amish in general. For instance, you might hear the questions, “What does the Amish community do when a barn burns down?” or ”What does the Amish community believe about technology?” Sometimes the term is used [...]
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As I write this I’m sitting at home late Sunday morning, happily munching on bread slathered with Amish peanut butter, trying to keep it from sticking my laptop’s keys together. Amish across America will soon be doing the same at the after-church fellowship meal (the peanut butter, not the laptop part), at which the Amish [...]
Continue reading Amish Peanut Butter: Resistance is futile
I’m happy to share the Amish Way winners with you today. It was a lot of fun to run this contest and I much enjoyed the interview with authors Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher (if you missed it: Part 1 and Part 2). I particularly appreciated the point they make about shunning–that it [...]
Continue reading The Amish Way: 10 contest winners and book excerpt
“Brimming with many children,” write the authors of The Amish Way, “most Amish homes produce eight or more sets of dirty dishes three times a day. That means at least twenty-four glasses, dozens of plates, and countless pieces of silverware, not to mention pots, pans, mixing bowls, platters, and serving utensils.” Yet you won’t find [...]
Continue reading Part 2 of The Amish Way interview and 10-book giveaway
Are Amish “born again”? Are cars immoral? When describing church, why do Amish use the term “Gmay” instead of “Kirche”? And who actually decides the rules that guide Amish life? The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World is the first book to explore Amish spirituality and religious practices in-depth, addressing these and many [...]
Continue reading The Amish Way: 10-book giveaway & interview with Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher
