First-generation Anabaptist ecclesiology, 1525-1561

by Dennis E. Bollinger

Detractors of sixteenth-century Anabaptism used Anabaptist teachings to justify persecuting them during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. What did Anabaptists teach that warranted such relentless opposition? In succeeding centuries and in modern studies, varied movements ranging from socialists to charismatics have claimed the first-generation Anabaptists as their ancestors. For example, some socialists look to the doctrine of some Anabaptists regarding community of goods by the congregation to support socialism, and some charismatics look to the occasional emotional excesses in a congregational meeting to support their teachings. Do such claims accurately reflect the views of this sixteenth-century movement? To answer questions such as these it is vital to discover what the first-generation Ecclesial Anabaptists actually taught regarding the church, allowing them to speak in context for themselves. - Statement of purpose.