Dean, Associate Professor of History of Conrad Grebel University College
Biography
Education
- A.A. Hesston College, 1991
- B.A. Goshen College, 1994
- M.A. Associated Mennonite Seminary, 1998
- PhD University of Minnesota, 2007
Research and teaching interests
- Early modern European religious and cultural history
- The Dutch Republic
- Mennonite history
Courses taught
- HIST 111 Western Civilization II
- HIST 262 Early Modern Europe 1450-1700
- HIST 348/RS 344 The Radical Reformation
- HIST 235/RS 240 History of Christianity
- HIST 379/RS 343 Reformation History
Recent publications
- “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
- “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
Awards and achievements
- Netherlands America Foundation–Fulbright Fellowship for doctoral research in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2002-2003