AMBS celebrates award-winning book at 42nd annual IMS Book Celebration

Published: June 13, 2024

By David C. Cramer

ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — The Institute of Mennonite Studies (IMS) and Academic Dean’s Office of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana, hosted their 42nd annual Book Celebration on June 5. The event honored AMBS faculty, staff and student publications and presentations from the 2023–24 academic year, as well as publications of IMS. Those in attendance received a copy of the annual Celebration bibliography.

One new book in particular received recognition: Proclaiming the Good News: Mennonite Women’s Voices, 1972–2006 (IMS, 2023), edited by Lois Y. Barrett, PhD, of Wichita, Kansas, Retired Professor of Theology and Anabaptist Studies; and Dorothy Nickel Friesen, MDiv, of North Newton, Kansas, a retired Mennonite pastor and denominational minister. This book combines first-person accounts and survey data to chronicle the expansion of leadership roles for women in the Mennonite Church over four decades. The State Library of Kansas has honored Proclaiming the Good News as one of 15 2024 Kansas Notable Books — an award given to books about Kansas or written by Kansas authors. The editors will receive medals from the State Librarian at the Kansas Book Festival Author Reception on Sept. 27 at Washburn University in Topeka.

Three other books were published by AMBS faculty members:

• Janna L. Hunter-Bowman, PhD, Associate Professor of Peace Studies and Christian Social Ethics, published the Spanish-language booklet Testificando a la Paz: Claves para la Acción Política Comunitaria Transformadora [Witnessing to Peace: Keys for Transformative Political Community Action], which summarizes her 2022 book Witnessing Peace: Becoming Agents under Duress in Colombia for the Colombian communities that inspired the book. 
• Mary H. Schertz, PhD, Professor Emerita of New Testament, published the much-anticipated volume Luke for the Believers Church Bible Commentary series, drawing on her decades of teaching about the Gospel of Luke at AMBS. 
• Daniel S. Schipani, DrPsy, PhD, DMin Faculty of Record and Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Care and Counseling, served as co-editor with Hans de Wit, PhD, of the Spanish-language book Hermenéutica Intercultural, Trauma y Acompañamiento Pastoral: Perspectivas Interdisciplinarias [Intercultural Hermeneutics, Trauma and Pastoral Accompaniment: Interdisciplinary Perspectives].

In addition to publishing books, AMBS and IMS were involved in the release of a documentary in 2023. IMS Director Jamie Pitts, PhD, Professor of Anabaptist Studies, and Nekeisha Alayna Alexis, MA, Intercultural Competence and Undoing Racism coordinator, collaborated on the documentary What Happened at Benham West: African American Stories of Community, Displacement and Hope. This documentary collects elders’ stories of Elkhart’s predominantly African American Benham West neighborhood and documents the process of the city’s eventual clearing of the neighborhood. What Happened at Benham West premiered May 19, 2023, at the Crystal Ballroom at Lerner Theatre in Elkhart and has been screened multiple times since. A book will be released to accompany the documentary.

Pitts also serves as Editor of the mission journal Anabaptist Witness, which published two issues this past year, “New Anabaptist Communities” (November 2023) and “Mission and Peace in Ethiopia” (April 2024). The latter was a special issue that was guest edited by Henok T. Mekonin, MA, Global Leadership Collaborative Specialist, and Interim Managing Editor James R. Krabill, PhD, Visiting Professor of Church and Mission. During his remarks at the book celebration, Mekonin noted that this issue, written predominantly by Ethiopian Mennonite authors, would be the go-to English-language publication on the Meserete Kristos Church (Ethiopian Mennonite Church) for years to come.

IMS also published two issues of Vision: A Journal of Church and Theology in partnership with the Centre for Faith and Life at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The fall 2023 issue, “Family,” was edited by Andy Brubacher Kaethler, PhD, Core Adjunct Faculty and DMin Faculty Mentor. The spring 2024 issue, “Commemorating Anabaptism’s 500 years,” was edited by Karl Koop, PhD, Professor of History and Theology at CMU.

In addition, AMBS faculty, staff and students published 30 essays and reviews in a variety of outlets — including Anabaptist Witness, Anabaptist World, Conrad Grebel Review, Journal of Latin American Theology, Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vision and more — and presented their research in 40 academic presentations and public workshops from Elkhart, Indiana, to San Antonio, Texas; Tübingen, Germany; Kolkata, India; and many places in between.

For a complete listing of publications and presentations, see Celebration, volume 42, on IMS’s Celebration webpage. To browse or purchase IMS and AMBS publications, visit the AMBS Bookstore located in the AMBS Library or online.

Located in Elkhart, Indiana, on ancestral land of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs — all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God’s reconciling mission in the world. ambs.edu

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