Troy Osborne

Contact:
519-885-0220 x 24260
t3osborne@uwaterloo.ca
Office: CGUC 2118

Education:
AA, Hesston College, 1991
BA, Goshen College, 1994
MA, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 1998
PhD, University of Minnesota, 2007
 

Research Areas:

Early Modern European Religious and Cultural History; The Dutch Republic; Mennonite History
 

Courses Taught:

Undergraduate
HIST 111 - Western Civilization II
HIST 235/RS 240 - History of Christianity
HIST 262 - Early Modern Europe, 1450-1700
HIST 348/RS 344 - The Radical Reformation
HIST 379/RS 343 - Reformation History 

Graduate
TS 601 - Special Topics in Theological Studies: Women in Christian History
TS 621 - Pastor’s Theology Seminar - "Marginal and Mainstream Mennonites: Separation in the Anabaptist Tradition"
TS 640 - The Mennonite Tradition in Historical Context

Selected Publications:

• Radicals and Reformers: A Survey of Global Anabaptist History. Herald Press, 2024.

• “Whether to Turn to the ‘Strong Hand’ of the State: The Role of the State in Dutch Mennonite Conflict Resolution.” In A Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace: Global Mennonite Perspectives on Peacebuilding and Nonviolence, edited by Fernando Enns, Nina Schroeder-van ’t Schip, and Andrés Pacheco-Lozano, 254–65. Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2023.

• “Anabaptists in the Netherlands.” In T&T Clark Handbook of Anabaptism, edited by Brian C. Brewer, 133–50. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

• “The Bottle, the Dagger, and the Ring: Church Discipline and Dutch Mennonite Identity in the Seventeenth Century,” The Conrad Grebel Review 35, no. 2 (Spring 2017): 114–50.

• “Honor and Charity in the Church: Mennonites and the ‘Disciplinary Revolution’ of the Dutch Republic.” In European Mennonites and the Challenge of Modernity over Five Centuries: Contributors, Detractors, and Adapters, edited by Mark Jantzen, Mary S Sprunger, and John D Thiesen, 265–83. North Newton, Kan: Bethel College, 2016.

• “Mennonites and Violence in Early Modern Amsterdam.” Church History and Religious Culture 95, no. 4 (January 1, 2015): 477–94. 

• Review of Sex and Drugs before Rock ‘n’ Roll: Youth Culture and Masculinity during Holland’s Golden Age by Benjamin B. Roberts. The Historian 76.4 (December 2014): 878–79.

• “The Development of a Transnational ‘Mennonite’ Identity among Swiss Brethren and Dutch Doopsgezinden in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries” Mennonite Quarterly Review 88, no. 2 (April 2014): 195–218.

• Review of Ernstige godsvrucht en gezond verstand.  Een selectie uit de dagboeken van Foeke Wigles Gorter (1756-1836), leraar van de Doopsgezinden in Sappemeer edited by Bert Dop and Piet Visser.  Church History and Religious Culture 92.2-3 (2012): 450-452. 

• Review of Mennonite German Soldiers: Nation, Religion and Family in the Prussian East, 1772-1880 by Mark Jantzen. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press. 2010.  Mennonite Life 66 (Summer 2012). 

• “Worthy of the Tolerance They’d been Given: Dutch Mennonites, Reputation, and Political Persuasion in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte/Archive for Reformation History 99 (2008), 256-279.
• Review of Faith on the Margins: Catholics and Catholicism in the Dutch Golden Age, Charles H. Parker.  The Historian 72.2 (Summer 2010): 483-484.
• Review of Eén grote famlie: Doopsgezinde elites in de Friese Zuidwesterhoek 1600-1850, by Cor Trompetter.  Church History and Religious Culture 90.1 (2010): 124-125.
• Review of “Just as in the Time of the Apostles”: The Uses of History in the Radical Reformation by Geoffrey Dipple. The Mennonite Quarterly Review 83.4 (October 2009): 641-643.

 Selected Activities:

• “‘Miseries...Fresh in the Memory of Us Netherlanders:’ Dissident Histories of the Dutch Revolt” Renaissance Society of America, Dublin, Ireland, March 30, 2022.

• “Dutch Mennonite Conflict Resolution in the Seventeenth Century” at the 2nd Global Mennonite Peacebuilding Conference & Festival, held 27-30 June 2019 in Elspeet, the Netherlands.

• “Mennonites turn to Luther.” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Milwaukee, WI, October 28, 2017.

• “Mennonites Remember the Martyrs” Remembering the Reformation Conference, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge University, September 9, 2017.

• “The Bottle, the Dagger, and the Ring: Church Discipline and Dutch-Mennonite Identity in the Seventeenth Century." Benjamin Eby Lecture, March 31, 2016.

• “Shunning as a Form of Early Modern Exile” Workshop presentation at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Vancouver, BC: October 24, 2015

• “Mennonite Memories of the Dutch Revolt.” Paper presented at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 16, 2014.

• “Mennonites and Varieties of Violence in the Dutch Republic”  Paper presented at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico:   October 26, 2013.

• “Dissenting across borders:  the Development of a transnational ‘Mennonite’ identity among Swiss Brethren and Dutch Doopsgezinden in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.”  Paper presented at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Fort Worth, Texas:   October 29, 2011.
• “Church Discipline and State Infrastructure.”  Paper presented  at the conference “Marginal or Mainstream? Anabaptists, Mennonites and Modernity in European Society” held at Bethel College June 25-26, 2010.
• “The “pillar” of Mennonite Discipline and Social Control in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam” paper presented at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 26, 2007.
• Invited response to Gerald J. Biesecker-Mast, “The Future of Radical Reformation Research,” at Future Directions in Anabaptist-Mennonite Scholarship: Mennonite Historical Library Centennial Conference, Goshen, Indiana, May 5, 2006.
• “Saints into Citizens: Dutch Mennonites, Church Discipline, and Religious Toleration” paper presented at Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Toronto, Ontario, October 29, 2004.
   

Fellowships and Awards:

• Netherlands America Foundation–Fulbright Fellowship for doctoral research in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2002-2003.