Anabaptism: Neither Catholic nor Protestant

Anabaptism: Neither Catholic nor Protestant by Klaassen, Walter. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780969045816.

Author Walter Klaassen posits, and provides evidence, that the roots of Anabaptism itself positions the movement apart from the roots of the Lutheran and other Protestant movements against the Roman Catholic church. Key to this understanding is the point that the movement was both largely pacifistic and revolutionary, as opposed to one of rebellion against the established order to the point of taking up arms. In this way, the early Anabaptists might be seen as more interested in rebirth and renovation of their religion, almost without a care for what Protestants, reformists or the orthodoxy wished to achieve. The content of this book was originally delivered as a series of lectures at the Mennonite Graduate Seminar near Denver, Colorado in 1969, then again, with additions, at the Rockaway Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ontario between 1970 and 1973.