Credit Worthy
Anabaptist Debt and the Material Bases of Coexistence
Early Swiss Anabaptism was defined by its emphasis on separation from the world, a response to authorities’ attempts to repress dissenting communities out of existence. And yet, Anabaptists survived amidst a rural population charged with rejecting them.
This lecture looks beyond theological, legal, and political explanations for this curiosity to the evidence of mutual dependency found in debt registers. Coexistence, from this perspective, was based not on creed but on credit, and the ongoing evaluation of reputation, construction of moral knowledge, and building of trust across religious difference that it entailed.
2026 Benjamin Eby Lecturer
David Neufeld is a historian of religion, culture, and everyday life in early modern Europe. His research and writing examine post-Reformation dynamics of conflict and coexistence, processes of minority formation, and archival cultures and practices through investigation of the experience of Anabaptists.
He teaches in the areas of the history of premodern Europe and the world, the history of Christianity, colonial Latin American history, and historiographical methods. He is associate director of the Institute of Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies at Conrad Grebel University College.
Location
Great Hall
Conrad Grebel University College
140 Westmount Road North, Waterloo
Registration
This is a free event, open to the public.
Reception to follow lecture.
Please register in advance for planning purposes.
What is the Eby Lecture series?
The Benjamin Eby Lecture is an annual lecture that presents the research of a faculty member at Conrad Grebel University College. The series is named after Benjamin Eby (1785-1853), a leading shaper of Mennonite culture in Upper Canada in the early 1800s.