Mennonite Soldier

Check out masthof.com for more great books like this one! Mastie and Ira Stoltzfus, Mennonite brothers in Lancaster, Pa., face the draft in World War I. Ira chooses the traditional Mennonite position of conscientious objection to war. Mastie, on the other hand, joins the Army and is excommunicated from the church. As the story shifts back and forth between Ira and Mastie, you will be caught up in a powerful examination of love and war, duty and conscience, and the starkly different experiences of two boys from the same Mennonite home. This classic retelling of the prodigal son story set in World War I America includes a thoughtful foreword essay on Mennonites and the military by Professor Joel Hartman of the University of Missouri. Reprinted so a whole new generation can enjoy!

Mennonite Soldier is one of those novels that portray the tragedies that befall persons who for generations have lived in small and fairly secure communities. When they are catapulted into the larger world, especially in wartime, their plight is a hard one. . . This novel helps the reader understand the significance of World War I as a great watershed in Twentieth Century Mennonite history. --Grant M. Stoltzfus, Professor of Church History, Eastern Mennonite College

Guaranteed, Mennonite Soldier will dog you . . . It's the story of two prodigal sons, clothed in Mennonite tradition: one driven home at last; the other driven away at last, with the whys left up to you. . . . The story is rhythmic, intense, suspenseful . . . Reed catches well the sometimes evasiveness of faith when one most intends to practice it, here in the lives of two young brothers, their worried parents and lonely girlfriends. --Phyllis Pellman Good, "Festival Quarterly"

Guaranteed, "Mennonite Soldier" will dog you . . . It's the story of two prodigal sons, clothed in Mennonite tradition: one driven home at last; the other driven away at last, with the whys left up to you. . . . The story is rhythmic, intense, suspenseful . . . Reed catches well the sometimes evasiveness of faith when one most intends to practice it, here in the lives of two young brothers, their worried parents and lonely girlfriends. --Phyllis Pellman Good, "Festival Quarterly"