Who Is Arnold Snyder?
by Phyllis Pellman Good
A slim little book is traveling the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ world these days. Its size belies its subject. Its style of language gives no hint of its academic authorship. The booklet is the 54-page From Anabaptist Seed: The Historical Core of Anabaptist-Related Identity. Its author is C. Arnold Snyder, professor at Conrad Grebel College in Ontario, Canada. The book is being enthusiastically claimed by Anabaptist-Mennonite leaders in many places around the world. How has this happened, and who is the person behind it?
Snyder wrote a textbook, Anabaptist History and Theology, which caught the attention of MWC's Executive Secretary, Larry Miller. (Miller was carrying the question that is on many people's minds these days, and was formulated at the MWC Assembly, India 1997: "What indeed does it mean to believe and act as Anabaptist Christians today, not only in thousands of different local settings, but also as a global family of faith?")
Miller thought Snyder might be able to help by providing a starting point for a global discussion of that question. "Is it possible to speak of an 'historical core' of Anabaptist-related identity?" Miller asked Snyder. "In spite of significant diversity from the beginning, can one identify a 'common core' of conviction and practice in early Anabaptism?" Miller went on.
"I think so," Snyder responded, "and I will do my best to summarize it simply and clearly."
And he has. Not only that. Snyder came to the MWC General Council meetings in Guatemala City in July, 2000, and allowed himself to be riddled with questions from Council members who are trying to put this ideal into full practice. The leaders pointed out the gaps in the booklet; they highlighted issues they believed were over-emphasized or understated. Snyder received the advice, asked questions of clarity, and became a full participant in the discernment process, without a breath of defensiveness.
He was simply continuing a discipline he practices at home. "I've been doing a series of 20 or so sessions in local churches in Ontario, each lasting six or eight weeks. I use history as a kick-off to talk about what the church is today.
"I feel it's part of my teaching — to take from academia and give back to the church. I'm not strictly an academic. I'm also a church person. And I get a lot back; I enjoy it. It's been very revealing. It gets you out of the ivory tower pretty quickly."
Snyder, who has been on the faculty of Conrad Grebel College since 1985, teaches on both undergraduate and graduate levels in the areas of church history, western civilization, Anabaptist history, and Anabaptist spirituality.
"I don't seek my validation only from the academic world," says Snyder, a statement substantiated by his interaction with the spread of international leaders in Guatemala City. "I do have a worry about the book From Anabaptist Seed, though," he reflected. "I am concerned that some will think this is a normative statement, that it is a 'blueprint' for the 'authentic' church. That's not the way the church works. I write as a North American Mennonite — and the church and this 'blueprint' look very different to an Ethiopian Mennonite, for example. It's in the reaction to the book that I'm finding excitement.
"We North Americans need to be in a listening mode these days. That's new for us. How do churches throughout the world discern? That's of great interest to me."
Snyder's fluency in Spanish and comfort in an international church setting began in his childhood. "Mom grew up in Argentina. I was born in Chicago, and soon after that, she and my dad, who was a pastor, felt a call to mission." The young family decided to go to Argentina. "But Dad died on the high seas on the way to South America." Doris Swartzentruber Snyder continued on to Argentina with her two small children. In her new circumstances, Doris felt the need to complete her college degree, so eventually she and her youngsters went to Goshen, Indiana, for that purpose. That accomplished, the family of three went to Puerto Rico as missionaries.
Now a historian, Arnold Snyder allows his broad background to continue to inform his work with an honesty and freshness: "One of the things that's bothered me is that Anabaptism often acts like it discovered discipleship. But as I read medieval pious texts, I see Anabaptism as a continuation of spiritual streams. Anabaptism was locating those spiritual streams in a tradition."
Phyllis Pellman Good, Lancaster, PA, USA, is assistant editor of Courier.
