by Donald B. Kraybill, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner and Steven M. Nolt
Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Md. 500 pages REVIEWED BY LAWTON POSEY
Those oddly dressed people, women with bonnets and men with suspenders and full beards may interest and intrigue people unacquainted with these folk. For many, they are inhabitants of another world and objects of the curiosity of tourists. What is known of their lack of dependence on highline electricity and social security is often misunderstood.
These are the Amish. While they are related in some ways to the more familiar Mennonites, they would not, as many Mennonites do, drive automobiles and wear colorful clothes. Yet, they will ride in hired vans, ride on buses, and — in many cases and these days — may work for non-Amish employers called English. They are not all farmers with horses or mules. Some are craftspersons. Some work long miles from their homes.
Donald Kraybill and his associates have presented us with a monumental overview of the people who may profess the same faith, but quarrel over whether the tops of carriages should be black or yellow!
Kraybill knows the answers and lets us have a deep look into the practices of a Christian people who often puzzle us. In short, while they may adhere to dress codes that seem as quaint as the clothing of monks and nuns, they are clever and ingenious. If you can’t have a clothes washer running on electricity, then use one that is operated by a gasoline motor. If you have a woodworking shop that is prevented from electricity, then develop a way to get around this by using pneumatic pressure powered by a diesel motor. This growing group of citizens, whom many would think would shrink by the erosion caused by the acids of modernity, are Christians who do not seek converts, but may shun members who diverge from the community standard. They are, in the biblical sense, “a peculiar people” (1 Peter 1:9). To put a lot into a very small compass, the Amish seek Heaven, and to gain that goal they need to obey the laws set forth not so much by a national church body, but by their own Gmay, meaning congregation.
Kraybill and his associates do a great job, and I admit that I read every page of the book. I still do not fully understand the Amish, nor do I understand why some other peoples adopt certain types of clothes to say “I am different.” All that being said, I believe the book could have been shorter. At times a great deal is said about too little. I was reminded at least three times that Amish are not Luddites (which caused me to do a bit of research on that group). There are several helpful lists, but some of the graphs seemed to me to be less helpful.
If you have the time, take up this book and read. If you have less time, a list of Kraybill’s many works show shorter volumes. I have compared this new book with John Hostetler’s fine book “Amish Society,” and find that Hostettler, who was in his younger years Amish, gives a more personal view.
LAWTON POSEY is honorably retired in West Virginia.
