New JPAC Issue Out Now: Amish Relief Work, Extinct Settlements & More
Just in time for Christmas! The newest issue of the Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities (Volume 5, Issue 1) is now released. It is chock full of goodies for your reading stocking, with articles and reviews on a great range of topics.
Amish Relief & Development Work
The dynamics of continuity and change in Plain communities are especially evident in the opening article by Joseph Miller. Miller’s leadership roles at Mennonite Central Committee, an inter-Anabaptist service agency, have given him a front row seat to observe recent Amish relief and development work.
Such work, Miller contends, is both an expression of traditional Amish religious values and commitments and a new sort of venture expressing increased Amish agency and decision-making over where and how they will be engaged in helping others beyond their communities.
Extinct Amish Settlements
Population and settlement growth are large parts of the Amish story in the 21st century. Often forgotten is the decline and dissolution of communities.
Amish historian David Luthy documented settlements that failed in a Family Life series that later became a book, first issued in 1985, and in a series of booklets that he produced over the years.
In that tradition, sociologist Joe Donnermeyer has built on and continued Luthy’s efforts by creating an updated list of extinct Amish settlements and analyzing the most common reasons for their demise. The article includes trends overtime of extinctions, average years from founding year to the year of extinction, and states with the most extinct communities.
Brethren Values & Elizabethtown College’s Lone Season of Football
In a third article, Gerald G. Huesken Jr., a teacher and regional historian in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, uses athletics as a lens to explore the issues of assimilation and resistance to change among Plain Church of the Brethren members in the early twentieth century.
The story of an unofficial 1928 football team put together by students at Elizabethtown College, a school then controlled by decidedly Plain Brethren, and the reaction to the team’s short-lived existence, offers a memorable window into the dynamics of continuity and change in this group, but does so with several surprises and with all the excitement of a gridiron season.
The Growth of Old Order Mennonite Schools
Mark Dewalt, professor emeritus at Winthrop University, provides an important research note on the rise of Old Order Mennonite schools and their characteristics.
Although most research on schooling among Plain groups has focused on Amish schools, Dewalt reminds us of the parallel growth and development of Mennonite schools.
As of the 2022–2023 school year, some 427 Old Order Mennonite schools existed in 14 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. Dewalt charts change over time, including a shift to more two-teacher schools and more special education classrooms.
Amish & Mennonite Libraries
In previous issues of JPAC, research centers with holdings related to Plain groups were featured, including: the Hess Archives and Special Collections at Elizabethtown College and the Muddy Creek Farm Library (Volume 4, issue 2), both of which are located in Lancaster County; and the Ohio Amish Library near Berlin, Ohio and the Geauga Amish Historical Library in Middlefield, Ohio (Volume 4, Issue 1).
This issue includes the two Indiana libraries, Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College and the Northern Indiana Amish Library, which has a location in LaGrange County and another near Nappanee.
Book Reviews
Volume 5, issue 1 also features six book reviews, including one review of two distinctive memoirs of individuals who grew up in Amish homes, and books on Amish and Ultraorthodox Jewish women’s use of technology, Plain Mennonites in southern Illinois, Low German Mennonites in Latin America, Joseph O. Wenger who is an Old Order Mennonite bishop, plus a memoir of a convert to the Amish.
About the Journal
The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities is dedicated to publishing both empirical and theoretical work related to Plain Anabaptist communities, including, among others, the Amish, conservative Mennonites, Amish-Mennonites, Apostolic Christians, Brethren, Bruderhof, and Hutterites.
JPAC articles may include emerging issues associated with Plain Anabaptist communities, diverse theoretical perspectives, and methodological approaches to the study of Plain Anabaptist groups, and significant research findings about Plain Anabaptist populations.
JPAC is a jointly sponsored journal of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center in Berlin, Ohio, The Ohio State University Libraries, and Amish America.
JPAC’s predecessor at OSU was the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies (JAPAS). Articles from volumes 1–6 of JAPAS can be accessed in the Knowledge Bank of the OSU Libraries.
To discuss ideas for manuscripts for possible publication in the journal, contact Steve Nolt (nolts[at]etown[dot]edu) or Joe Donnermeyer (donnermeyer.1[at]gmail[dot]com).
For details about JPAC, including author guidelines, visit the About the Journal page. And don’t forget to register for JPAC updates (see “register” link at upper right of JPAC homepage).
Thanks for advising Amish America readers that a new issue has been released. This issue
is great with a good variety of topics addressed. I’ve already read three articles and will read the remainder over the holidays.