There are a lot of dilettantes and pseudo-theologians from the Reformed Tradition who have argued online and in their publications (which will be dealt with in the near future) that John Howard Yoder has some skewered, unbalanced view of the Reformation outside the Radical Reformers.
This of course is not at all true, and here is what John Howard Yoder has to say about church unity within the Reformation in Zurich:
“The first baptisms in Zurich in January 1525 brought into being a movement that spread widely and incorporated people and ideas from other sources. The issue of war did not create the division. Zwingli himself had been a kind of pacifist, as had his teacher Erasmus.”
And there you have it, political realist, biblically objective (as in fair) scholarship from John Howard Yoder.
As a response to Joel’s post on the original Green Lantern’s coming out party, I have offered some thoughts thanks to Yoder’s Non-Violent theology.
Rod the Rogue Demon Hunter, Preacher of Hope | Black Scholar of Patristics | Writer for Nonviolent Politics. Destroyer of Trolls. It must be that angry puppy.
I am new to Yoder, but I have become intrigued quite quickly. What would you recommend as a book of his I should start with?
Classics of the Radical Reformation (available for pre-order at Logos Bible Software) contains a couple of his books… I’m excited for that to ship!
Jon
Greetings Jonathan,
The best book to read by Yoder as an intro is his ground-breaking The Politics of Jesus.