The Mennonite Encyclopedia. A Comprehensive Reference Work on the Anabaptist-Mennonite Movement.

Kansas, Mennonite Brethren Publishing House, 1976 (third printing)- 1990 (volume V), complete set of V volumes, original linen bindings, good set. This gigantic resource covers the 435-year history of the faith, life, and culture of Anabaptists in Europe and Mennonites throughout the world. Presented are people, movements, and places in their relation to Mennonites. A few of the many articles covered are Argentina, Arminianism, Baptism, Baptist, Brazil, Calvin, Church, Communion, Congo, Deaconess, Education, Farming, Furniture, Grebel, Hubmaier, Hymnology, Industry, Literature, Marriage, Publishers, Reedley, Ukraine, and Zurich. he Mennonite Encyclopedia published in four volumes from 1955 to 1959 (with a supplemental fifth volume in 1990), is the most accessible and authoritative reference work available on a host of Anabaptist and Mennonite topics. Published jointly by the Mennonite Church, the General Conference Mennonite Church, and the Mennonite Brethren Church, the four-volume set contains maps, illustrations, and 13,688 articles contributed by more than 2,700 writers. In 1945, at a meeting of the Mennonite Research Fellowship in Bluffton, Ohio, historian C. Henry Smith proposed that American Mennonites translate and expand the Mennonitisches Lexikon, a German project that had been nearly halted during World War II. Smith and his colleagues formed a "Lexikon Committee." Three years later, the scholarly effort had grown to include a network of editors and a 50-member council representing 13 Mennonite groups and 6 non-Mennonite denominations. Smith's death in 1948, however, was a blow to the project. The Encyclopedia's continuing editor, Harold S. Bender, and associate editor, Cornelius Krahn, wanted to stimulate young adults to pursue Anabaptist and Mennonite studies and sought to share contemporary research with a wide circle of non-Mennonite church historians and theologians. They included articles of the following types: doctrinal, denominational, institutional, ecclesiastical, biographical, and cultural. They also included articles on publications and on family and place names. Less than one-sixth of the completed work contained translated Lexikon material.Scarce. The Mennonite Encyclopedia was jointly edited by historians and scholars of the Mennonite Church, General Conference of Mennonites, and Mennonite Brethren Church. More than 2,700 writers contributed articles to this reference work. Volume V includes updates on materials in the first four volumes plus nearly 1,000 new articles edited by Cornelius J. Dyck and Dennis D. Martin.…