Peace in the End Times
This study challenges the prevailing assumption in Anabaptist historical theology that sixteenth-century Anabaptist apocalyptic expectation was necessarily violent. Historical theologians of sixteenth-century Anabaptism have tended to distance the origins of Anabaptism from apocalypticism, given its close association with radicalism and violence, to keep the tradition and its peace witness free from the stains of Münster, Hans Hut, Thomas Müntzer and other violent extremists closely associated with Anabaptist apocalypticism. While this desire is somewhat understandable, it has led Anabaptist historiography to largely avoid exploring apocalypticism beyond its violent expressions in the Anabaptist tradition. This study explores the connections between apocalyptic thought and nonresistance in sixteenth century Anabaptism, arguing that apocalyptic thinking in Anabaptism also has the possibility of leading to a nonresistant position, pointing to Clemens Adler and Menno Simons as examples of this phenomenon. This study pays special attention to both Anabaptists’ theological writings and biographical details to describe the nature of their visions of the End Times and how they developed, reflecting the fact that apocalypticism is understood intellectually, but is lived out physically. The point of this argument is not to suggest that Anabaptist approaches to apocalypticism were always peaceful or rooted in nonresistance, but rather to broaden the understanding that Anabaptist apocalyptic thinking is not always violent. It is to broaden the apocalyptic lens for the study of sixteenth-century Anabaptism. This study does this by first outlining the biographical details of Clemens Adler, paying close attention to the context that his apocalyptic thought emerges from, as biographies can work to locate and contextualize the apocalyptic theologies of these sixteenth century Anabaptists. Then this study is be able to examine more thoroughly his theological writings, paying special attention to how his apocalyptic beliefs led him to develop his position of nonresistance. This same method is then used to explore the life and writings of Menno Simons, investigating how his apocalyptic thought led him to develop his nonresistance. This study suggests a reconsideration of apocalypticism in the study of sixteenth century Anabaptism, to understand it as more than a synonym for violence, but as a worldview that was formative in early Anabaptist ethics. On this basis, apocalypticism can be used as an historiographical lens to analyze the origins of sixteenth-century Anabaptism.