Upcoming Events
January 29 through June 30, 2010
8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. weekdays
Young Center Lobby
Exhibit
Reflections of the Martyrs Mirror
Various editions of the Anabaptist martyrology, the Martyrs Mirror, are featured in this exhibit, in recognition of the 350th anniversary of its first publication in Dutch in 1660. The exhibit includes some of the earlier compilations of martyr stories that Thieleman van Braght drew on to create his first edition in 1660, and features books from Muddy Creek Library and the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
7:30 p.m.
Young Center
PANEL DISCUSSION
"Sustainable Agriculture in Old Order Communities"
Donald B. Kraybill, moderator
Kraybill will present an overview of the changing practices in the Amish communities of North America that support sustainable agriculture and energy use. Following his presentation, panel members Dennis Eby of the Lancaster County Conservation District, Casey Spacht of Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, and representatives of Lancaster’s Plain community will discuss local initiatives that promote sustainable living including produce farming, organic products, conservation, grazing methods, marketing cooperatives, and the use of solar power. A question-and-answer period will conclude the evening.
Donald B. Kraybill is distinguished college professor and senior fellow at the Young Center. He is the author of The Amish of Lancaster County, The Riddle of Amish Culture, and other books on the Amish.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
7:30 p.m.
Young Center
LECTURE
"Being Mennonite in a Changing World: Mennonite Women’s Diaries, 1920-1970"
Diane Zimmerman Umble
Kreider Fellow, Spring 2010
The 2010 Kreider Lecture will focus on two Mennonite women’s diaries (1920-1970) to explore how they made sense of their lives in the midst of personal and social change. Their stories illustrate the complex structuring of gender and religious practice as a religious community resists and accommodates to a changing world.
Diane Zimmerman Umble is a professor of communication at Millersville University. Her scholarship includes studies of the Amish and the media, communication practices among Old Order Amish and Mennonites, and Anabaptist women’s history.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
7:30 p.m.
Young Center
LECTURE
"Balthasar Hubmaier’s Use and View of the Church Fathers"
Andrew P. Klager
This lecture will explore the specific sixteenth-century editions of the Church fathers that Anabaptist theologian Balthasar Hubmaier may have used in his own writings, as well as the treatises, commentaries, and epistles of the Church fathers that he read. The lecture will conclude with a look at how Hubmaier understood the value and authority of ancient Christian writers.
Andrew Klager, Young Center scholar in residence for Spring 2010, is completing his doctoral degree at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. The focus of his research is sixteenth-century Anabaptist theologian Balthasar Hubmaier, and Hubmaier’s use and view of the Church fathers as transmitted by humanists.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
6:00 p.m.
(Reception at 5:30 p.m.)
Susquehanna Room, Myer Hall
ANNUAL YOUNG CENTER BANQUET
Socialize with faculty, staff, students, church leaders, and friends of the Young Center and learn about the Center’s activities and programs. Cost of the banquet is $18, and reservations are required by March 24.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
7:30 p.m.
Susquehanna Room, Myer Hall
DURNBAUGH LECTURE
"Caught Between Anabaptists and Modernity: Guy Hershberger's Faith in His Church"
Theron F. Schlabach
Schlabach will discuss how historian and ethicist Guy F. Hershberger’s messages of biblical pacifism and biblically based social gospel proceeded from both his theology of church and church as he experienced it as a Mennonite. Schlabach will also juxtapose Hershberger’s perceptions of church with some literature that uses alternative definitions of politics—John Howard Yoder’s Politics of Jesus and other, more recent formulations—to ask just how much and in what ways Hershberger’s teachings were “political.”
Theron F. Schlabach is professor emeritus of history at Goshen College, a noted Mennonite historian, and former acting director of the Young Center. He is the author or editor of numerous publications. In his most recent book, War, Peace, and Social Conscience: Guy F. Hershberger and Mennonite Ethics, Schlabach analyzes Hershberger’s thought and impact on Mennonites in the twentieth century.
Friday, April 9, 2010
10:00 a.m. to noon
Young Center
DURNBAUGH SEMINAR
"Heavenly Hopes for Earthen Vessels: Church Ideals/Church Programs"
Theron F. Schlabach
Guy F. Hershberger had ideas, and also a penchant for engineering policies, programs, agencies, and institutions to put those ideas—or ideals—into practical forms that he thought would make for the church’s faithful discipleship. From another perspective, those forms certainly borrowed from Western culture and modernity, and they communicated the ideals only in translation. So there was the perennial problem of ideals vis-a-vis practice. How true were the translations to the original message? Schlabach will outline basic facts and issues, and then give opportunity for responses both to that introduction and to the Thursday evening lecture.
An optional lunch with Schlabach is available at noon for $8. Lunch reservations are required by March 24.
Theron F. Schlabach is professor emeritus of history at Goshen College, a noted Mennonite historian, and former acting director of the Young Center. He is the author or editor of numerous publications. In his most recent book, War, Peace, and Social Conscience: Guy F. Hershberger and Mennonite Ethics, Schlabach analyzes Hershberger’s thought and impact on Mennonites in the twentieth century.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
7:30 p.m.
Young Center
LECTURE
"The Amish CEO: The Role of the Owner-Entrepreneur in Amish Business Success"
Erik Wesner
Old Order Amish run 9,000 firms across North America, from roadside stands to building and manufacturing operations registering multi-million dollar annual sales. In this lecture, which is based on his recent book, Wesner examines the key role Amish entrepreneurs play in small business prosperity.
Erik Wesner was the 2008 Young Center Snowden Fellow, during which time he researched Amish business. He is the author of Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, the upcoming Polish-language Kim sa Amisze? (Who are the Amish?), and the Amish America blog.
