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ABSTRACT
The idea of living sacrificially in radical obedience to Christ, whatever the consequences and regardless of the cost, especially in an environment that is powerfully hostile, is alternatively appealing in being something so worthy of giving one’s life to and terrifying in being the very thing that could well mean giving one’s life up for. This paper explores a particular life, that of Menno Simons, in such a context of extreme tribulation in the sixteenth-century Radical Reformation. The resultant theology of suffering is compelling and provides, should we allow ourselves to hear it, a challenge to the very fabric of how we perceive our own lives as part of the precious and fragile Body of Christ.
Notes on contributor
Sue Sainsbury received her PhD from London School of Theology (Brunel University) in 2004 and has research interests in Incarnational Systematic Theology, Theologies of Suffering and Forgiveness, Anabaptist History and Reflective Practice in Practical Theology. She is a Visiting Lecturer at Mattersey Hall, working with the Doctor of Ministry Programme; is Coordinator of the NW Regional Learning Centre and Visiting Lecturer at Nazarene Theological College, Manchester and is involved with Leadership and Ministerial Training for the Free Methodist Church in the UK.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Clasen, Anabaptism.
2 Despite “urgent” calls being made since the 1960s for a critical edition of Menno’s corpus (for example, Krahn, “Menno Simons Research”) none is yet available. For the purposes of this study, we have engaged original texts and diverse translations whilst citing, unless otherwise stated, the most comprehensive English translation: Simons and Bender, The Complete Writings of Menno Simons (hereafter CWMS).
3 Reply to Gellius Faber, CWMS, 668–74.
4 Brief Biography, CWMS, 24. Such was the hostility of his context and the sensitivity to information which might result in his capture that very few trial records mention him. Menno himself says it is ‘for the sake of modesty’ that he has not until this point spoken of his own service of God. Reply, CWMS, 667.
5 Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, 125.
6 Reply, CWMS, 554; Exhortation to a Church in Prussia, CWMS, 1031; Incarnation, CWMS, 832.
7 ‘If then they who persecute us are Christians, as they think … . Why have they their thoughts still fixed upon perishable and temporal things, being concerned therewith day and night?’ Cross, CWMS, 601.
8 Brief Biography, CWMS, 10f.
9 In describing the persecution horrors of the ‘invincible knights and devout witnesses of Christ’ as opposing the bloody opposition of the ‘tyrants’, he expresses their battle in global, timeless, terms. ‘This was the practice and way of the old serpent from the beginning; it may still be observed daily, alas, at many places in our Netherlands.’ Biography, CWMS, 21.
10 Reply, CWMS, 666.
11 ‘For all seek their own and not the things which are Jesus Christ's, their own ease, and not the salvation of their neighbor.’ Reply, CWMS, 666.
12
I would earnestly beseech [Gellius] and all the preachers to reflect a little in the fear of God, for before the flaming eyes of the Lord, which penetrate heaven and earth, nothing wrong will remain hidden, however artfully it may be covered before man's eyes, and decked and adorned with smooth words. (Reply, CWMS, 666)
13 Cross of the Saints, CWMS, 608.
14 Only ‘the narrow way of life’ with the resultant fruit of persecution, Menno Simons considers comparable with ‘all the prophets, apostles, and faithful servants of God … for their faithful labors’. Brief Biography, CWMS, 17, 21.
15 Ibid., 23.
16 Ibid., 14.
17 Ibid., 15.
18 Ibid.
19 ‘For all seek their own and not the things which are Jesus Christ’s, their own ease, and not the salvation of their neighbor.’ Reply, CWMS, 666.
20 Reply, CWMS, 15; Meditation, CWMS, 77.
21 ‘[M]y admonitions had little effect, for I myself did that which I knew was not right.’ Brief Biography, CWMS, 12.
22 Cross, CWMS, 611.
23 Brief Biography, CWMS, 17.
24 Ibid., 17ff.
25 Brief Biography, CWMS, 20ff.
26 Ibid., 21. ‘You must be conformed into a Christian mind, spirit, heart, and will, both in doctrine and life.’ Kind Admonition on Church Discipline, CWMS, 409.
27 Brief Biography, CWMS, 23.
28 For example, ‘Because of this I with my poor, weak wife and small children for eighteen years have had to endure an excessive amount of anxiety, distress, sorrow, misery, and persecution.’ Ibid.
29 Ibid.
30 ‘Christ is called captain of the hosts of the martyrs.’ E. Stauffer, ‘The Anabaptist Theology of Martyrdom’, MQR, 190.
31 Christian Baptism, CWMS, 284–5.
32 ‘For the sake of the glorious witness they have faithfully given their possessions as well as blood, body, and life itself as at this moment may daily be seen. These are not the fruit or signs of false doctrine under which God does not work.’ Brief Biography, CWMS, 21.
33 ‘See, this is our calling, doctrine, and the fruit of our service.’ Ibid., 21.
34 ‘They are enemies of the cross; they serve their own bellies.’ Gellius, CWMS, 666.
35 Why I Do Not Cease Teaching and Writing, CWMS, 300.
36 Brief Confession, CWMS, 439.
37 Note Wessels’ slightly mocking response to the question posed in his title: ‘If, by Christianisation, one understands the reception of Baptism and certain ritual practices – such as attendance at Mass on certain days – then England, France and much of Germany were “Christianised” by 750.’ Wessels, Europe: Was It Ever Really Christian? 3.
38 Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 45.
39 Yoder, The Schleitheim Confession.
40 Sattler’s letter to the church at Horb, cited in van Braght, The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians who Baptized Only upon Confession of Faith, 418.
41 Klaassen, Anabaptism, 26.
42 Magistrates, CWMS, 530.
43 Clasen notes how few cases were charged with outright violation of civil law or rebellion. ‘Most executions were based on the charge of heresy or of both heresy and rebellion.’ Clasen, Anabaptism, 374f.
44 See Bullinger’s arguments in Whether the Government May Punish the Honor, Body or Property of People who Deceive or Have Been Deceived in Matters of Faith, quoted in F. H. Leu, ‘‘A Memorandum of Bullinger and the Clergy Regarding the Punishment of the Anabaptists (May 1535)’, MQR LXXVIII (2004), 109–32, 126ff. This provides a direct contrast to the Menno’s key concern of the preservation of the spiritual purity of the church rather than society as a whole.
45 Sutherland, “Persecution and Toleration in Reformation Europe,”153–61, 159. Horst, “Menno Simons,” in Horst, 194–206.
46 Cross, CWMS, 593.
47 New Birth, 91f. Further, 219.
48 Foundation of Christian Doctrine, CWMS, 106.
49 Cross, CWMS, 582.
50 Because those who persecute are ‘nothing but earth and flesh’, the only ‘reward of gratitude’ which can be expected for the Anabaptists’ faithfulness is ‘the stake, water, fire, wheel, and sword’. Brief Confession, CWMS, 425.
51 Cross, CWMS, 591f.
52 Ibid., 615.
53 Ibid., 582ff.
54 Ibid., 582.
55 Ibid., 583.
56 Ibid.
57 This he does by ‘personalising’ Mark 10 directly to them, Cross, CWMS, 583.
58 Ibid., 608.
59 ‘Suffering [for the early Christians] was not a metaphysical problem needing a solution but a practical challenge requiring a response.’ Hauerwas, Naming the Silences, 51f.
60
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ … . Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: ‘ye were bought at a price’, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God. (Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 36f)
61 ‘Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.’ Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 36.