Book Reviews

Leo Driedger, Mennonites in the Global Village (Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, 2000)

Reviewed by John J. Friesen

In this, his latest book in a very active publishing schedule, Leo Driedger sets an ambitious agenda. His aim is to study the intertwining premodern, modern, and postmodern forces upon Mennonite identity, with special emphasis on the past 30 year. Driedger says it is possible to document that in every part of the world there are Mennonites who are premodern, modern, and postmodern. In this study the focus is on Mennonites in North America because here the "modernization process is much more advanced."(15)

A further reason for limiting this study to North America, a reason which Driedger does not explicitly mention, is that in North America there are two major studies of Mennonite beliefs and practices, one done in 1972 by Kaufman and Harder, and the other done in 1989 by Kaufman and Driedger. These studies provide a wealth of data for making comparisons and for studying trends. Driedger tests this data gathered from Mennonite church groups against data from similar studies done of other church groups in Canada, or of the Canadian society in general. In the process he engages this data with various well known social theories. The result of this study of the effects of modernization is a complex, multi-layered set of discussions analyzing the effects of modernization upon Mennonite beliefs and practices.

In an introductory section, Driedger begins by noting the rapidly changing face of world Mennonites. Within two generations, Mennonites have changed from being largely of European descent, concentrated in Europe and North America, to being a world community of more than a million people, in which the majority live in the developing world, and in which by far the fastest growth is in Africa and Asia. How has this change affected Mennonite identity, Driedger asks.

Have Mennonites become fully postmodern, or have they remained premodern or modern? Has the impact of modernization caused Mennonites to lose their identity as Mennonites, or have they been able to retain their identity?

The study is divided into three sections. Part I is entitled "The Information Revolution." In this section he treats two themes: the emerging urban professionals, and individualism. Drawing heavily upon the studies done by Kaufman and Harder in 1972, and Kaufman and Driedger in 1989, in which the first one was entitled: Anabaptists Four Centuries Later, A Profile of Five Mennonite and Brethren in Christ Denominations, he shows the influence that professionalism and individualism have had upon various Mennonite ideas and practices. The areas he tests range all the way from beliefs, to moral issues, to in-group identity, to openness to the larger society. In the section on individualism using four types individualism he accepts from Robert N. Bellah, et al, Individualism and commitment to American life: Readings on the Themes of Habits of the Heart (Harper, 1985), he tests a wide range of issues to see how they have been influenced by me various kinds of individualism.

In Part II, called Symbolic Extensions and Challenges, Driedger uses the same methodology, in which he takes the two studies Anabaptists Four Centuries Later, and tests various theories about the kind of influence that modernization has worked upon Mennonites. The three areas he specifically studies in Part II are: Cultural changes in the Sacred Village, Media shifts toward Global Village, and the Politics of homemaking and career.

Part III deals with reconstruction for Post-Modern Diversity. The four themes he deals with are: Teens growing Roots and Wings, Mennonite Educational Institutions: blending monastery and marketplace, the emergence of women as leaders, and peacemaking as ultimate extension. In each of these sections, in tables and charts, he indicates the changes in Mennonite beliefs and practices. He shows changes from 1972 to 1989, differences in changes in the various age groups, and differences in views and practices between Mennonites and the Canadian society. In the section of teens, he concludes that in numerous practices and beliefs, there are significant differences between Mennonite teens and Canadian teens in general.

One of the questions that is raised by this study is what is postmodernism? Is postmodernism something that is known and clearly understood and something against which Mennonite views and practices can be tested as to whether Mennonites are post modern? Or is postmodernism an era, and what happens in this postmodern era helps to define what postmodernism is? The study moves from one view to the other. In one instance, when the teens' responses are different than Driedger thinks they should be, he concludes that Mennonite teens an still in a modem, or premodern stage of thinking or development. At other times Driedger will speak about postmodern generation, as though teens by definition are postmodern because of when they were born.

What is not clear in this book is the relationship of this study to the global Mennonite community. The study begins with a reference to the changing global Mennonite world but then the study proceeds to deal only with changing North American world. None of the data is taken from the Asian or African settings. It seems that the global part of the title merely sets a context but does not become part of the data for analysis.

Mennonites in the Global Village is a provocative book. It discusses changes that are happening in the contemporary North American Mennonite world. These changes are discussed in the context of various important social issues. All of this is tested against the literature and theories of major writers.

In a sense the statistical data Driedger presents in this study is not new, it is the data in the studies of 1972 ind 1989. However, what is new is the way he analyses the data, namely in the light ov various theories about the influence of modernity. In the process Driedger provides an interesting and readable study. In each of the chapters, Driedger shows a variety of influences. He does not have a chapter, though, in which he summarizes the conclusions from the various sections into one overall summary. Readers are left with fragmentary conclusions, and have to draw their own general conclusions about the results of this study.

This book is available from Mennonite Books.