“Expanding the Table”
A Review of
Forming Christian Habits in Post-Christendom:
The Legacy of Alan and Eleanor Kreider.
edited by James R. Krabill and Stuart Murray
Paperback: Herald Press, 2011.
Buy now: [ Amazon ]
Reviewed by Josh Wallace
I’ve been to a few weddings. Weddings and other rites of passage (births, anniversaries, retirements, funerals) gather us together. The far-flung corners of the honoree’s social network bump into one another. Gathered around a table or a punch bowl, we ask a seeming stranger, “How do you know so-and-so?” And as they respond, we see a new perspective on our loved one opening up to us.
Forming Christian Habits in Post-Christendom: The Legacy of Alan and Eleanor Kreider is one such gathering, here in literary form. James R. Krabill and Stuart Murray invite conversation and reflection from the scores of individuals connected to and shaped by the Kreiders, whether through their speaking, writing, or their warm invitation to the dinner table at the London Mennonite Center or in their present home in Elkhart, Indiana. The list of contributors to the volume includes academics and activists, pastors and entrepreneurs and farmers. Keeping with Eleanor Kreider’s plea for “multi-voiced worship,” Krabill and Murray arrange what they style a “veritable multivoiced choir, counting almost fifty in number.”
Just like any event where guests various and sundry mill about, Forming Christian Habits in Post-Christendom has its awkward moments. For instance, Krabill and Murray wait until after an initial career retrospective for Alan and Eleanor (and a poem) to introduce the project for which the crowd has gathered. Meanwhile, the reader stands uneasy, shifting from foot to foot, wondering what she’s gotten herself into. Some contributions are more engaging than others. At time the reader feels backed into a corner, stuck in a conversation that she’s bored with.
But these moments are few and far between. I won’t hesitate to name some of the many high points of this literary gathering: Kim Tan’s analysis of what happened to a holistic mission during Christendom, Chris Marshall’s reflection on ethics in Jesus’ new reality, Andy Brubacher Kaethler’s expression of catechesis as training in practices of resistance in post-Christendom culture, J. Nelson Kraybill’s meditation on footwashing and the subversive social practices of the early church, Sian Murray Williams exploration of prayer and Scripture in church practice, and (especially) Erin Dufault Hunter’s warnings about the burgeoning popularity of Neo-Anabaptism.
Each entry in the heart of the book is short, the longest running no more than seven or eight pages. The structure of Forming Christian Habits in Post-Christendom seems to favor these brief interactions. After the biographical overview, poem, photos, and editorial introductions of Part One, Parts Two, Three, and Four each take up a familiar locus of the Kreiders’ scholarship, life, and ministry: Mission, Community, and Worship. Each part, then, is subdivided into four chapters. For instance, Part Two, Community, comprises chapters on Catechism and baptism, Friendship, Peace church, and the early churches. Finally, three contributors discuss the theme of each chapter. The first, often a scholar, expert, or veteran practitioner, gives a longer and (usually) substantive reflection on the chapter’s theme, while the second and third contributors (often individuals newer to or less accredited on the scene) respond in a handful of paragraphs, drawing on their own wells of experience.
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