Overview

This scholarly biography and collection of writings by and about an early leader of the Hutterites, a pacifist communal Anabaptist group, sheds light on a persecuted religious minority during the Reformation. This comprehensive, annotated collection of Jakob Hutter’s letters and related documents begins with an extensive biography of Hutter and his wife Katharina, based on recent archival research. This introduction serves to contextualize the Hutterite movement, a communal and pacifist Anabaptist group that emerged as part of the Radical Reformation in sixteenth-century Tyrol and Moravia. The main text of the book opens with Hutter’s eight surviving letters, newly translated directly from the seventeenth-century codices where they have been preserved. As the leader of a scattered, persecuted movement, Hutter wrote pastoral letters of encouragement and admonition to various congregations in Tyrol and Moravia. The second chapter consists of material from Hutterite chronicles that describe Hutter’s life and context. Some of these are previously unpublished; in all cases, new translations have been made from the original codices. The third chapter is a collection of reports on government interrogations of Anabaptists who describe Hutter’s missionary activity, typically written by a state official during an interrogation process which often involved torture. Chapter four is a compilation of writings by fellow Hutterites written during Hutter’s life and in the decade after his death, which show the importance of Hutter’s life and teachings. The fifth chapter includes internal correspondence between government authorities trying to suppress the Anabaptist movement. The accounts offer insight into the government’s perspective on the significance of Hutter and the Anabaptist communities in his spheres of activity. Additional documents relating to Hutter’s death and legacy from both within and outside of the Hutterite tradition are included in a final chapter. This meticulously researched volume, peer-reviewed for inclusion in the Classics of the Radical Reformations series, is a valuable contribution to the scholarship of a volatile and fruitful chapter of church history.

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9781636080901

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Like so many of the early Anabaptist leaders, Hutter’s ministry lasted less than a decade before he was martyred. His leadership of the community that still bears his name nearly five centuries later lasted only two years. This biography reveals a complex character, criticized by contemporaries and some historians, but evidently a respected leader and community builder. The letters included in this comprehensive collection of writings by and about him reveal a pastor who was deeply concerned for the flourishing of those he served. This is a welcome addition to the Classics of the Radical Reformation series, in which we encounter not only Hutter but his wife, Katharina, and a number of other little known but significant early Anabaptist leaders. —Stuart Murray Williams, director, Centre for Anabaptist Studies, Bristol Baptist College In the years-long process of creating and editing their volume, Emmy Barth Maendel and Jonathan Seiling have produced a most worthy addition to the Classics of the Radical Reformation series. They have therein illuminated, brilliantly, the unique communitarian faith and early history of one of the three Anabaptist movements that would outlast the centuries. The in-depth and highly readable biographical introduction on Jakob Hutter brings together a whole spectrum of new scholarship. All eight of Hutter’s extant writings and a wealth of parallel contextual materials rounds out the scope of the volume. This is a must-read, particularly now as we celebrate five hundred years since the birth of Anabaptism, of which Hutterianism is an essential part. —Leonard Gross, author, The Golden Years of the Hutterites This volume is of great significance for the study of early Anabaptism. Jakob Hutter offered a vision of communal living that was more radical than others in the Radical Reformation. His call to mission was also a powerful feature of his leadership. The introduction sets Hutter carefully and clearly in his context. Then follows a comprehensive and splendidly scholarly range of primary source material. This task has never been undertaken before and it makes Jakob Hutter: His Life and Letters essential reading for all who wish to understand – and be challenged by – what Hutter said and did, in seeking to follow Jesus. —Ian Randall, Cambridge For many years, the sources on early Hutterite history most accessible to English-speakers have been dominated by the Hutterite Chronicle and the writings of Peter Riedemann and Peter Walpot. Now, for the first time, we have access to a remarkable collection of writings by and about the founding leader of the Hutterites: Jakob Hutter.  This exhaustively curated source collection gathers into one volume the primary sources relevant to Hutter's literary and historical legacy. I highly recommend Jakob Hutter: His Life and Letters not only to scholars but to anyone interested in the fascinating and inspiring story of Hutterite beginnings. —John D. Roth, Goshen College The letters of Jakob Hutter, newly translated here, supply a searing exposure to the profound inner life and pastoral compassion of a consequential Anabaptist leader. Written amid polarization within Reformation-era Christendom on the one hand and persistent schismatic conflict among the early Anabaptist fellowships in Central Europe on the other hand, Hutter’s letters acknowledge anxiety, display grief, summon solidarity, manifest longing, offer encouragement, and express joy. These letters also channel the emotional valence of Paul’s epistles in a way that brings Paul’s apocalyptic theology of grace to life, not in abstract doctrinal statements but in the heartfelt disclosure of God’s mercy amid extreme stress and suffering. The editors have provided many helpful tools for reading and understanding these letters well, from a detailed biographical introduction to a wealth of other primary sources that illuminate the context for Jakob Hutter’s life and letters. —Gerald J. Mast, series editor, Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History This volume provides the best scholarly introduction to the life and pastoral career of Jakob Hutter, the founding father of the Hutterites. This work has greatest emphasis on English translations of the eight preserved letters authored by Hutter, but it places them in the context of chronicle sources as well as published official records.  It helps us to understand how and why the continuing religious communitarian movement has retained the name of Jakob Hutter. —James M. Stayer, professor emeritus, Queen’s University

Like so many of the early Anabaptist leaders, Hutter’s ministry lasted less than a decade before he was martyred. His leadership of the community that still bears his name nearly five centuries later lasted only two years. This biography reveals a complex character, criticized by contemporaries and some historians, but evidently a respected leader and community builder. The letters included in this comprehensive collection of writings by and about him reveal a pastor who was deeply concerned for the flourishing of those he served. This is a welcome addition to the Classics of the Radical Reformation series, in which we encounter not only Hutter but his wife, Katharina, and a number of other little known but significant early Anabaptist leaders. —Stuart Murray Williams, director, Centre for Anabaptist Studies, Bristol Baptist College

Like so many of the early Anabaptist leaders, Hutter’s ministry lasted less than a decade before he was martyred. His leadership of the community that still bears his name nearly five centuries later lasted only two years. This biography reveals a complex character, criticized by contemporaries and some historians, but evidently a respected leader and community builder. The letters included in this comprehensive collection of writings by and about him reveal a pastor who was deeply concerned for the flourishing of those he served. This is a welcome addition to the Classics of the Radical Reformation series, in which we encounter not only Hutter but his wife, Katharina, and a number of other little known but significant early Anabaptist leaders. —Stuart Murray Williams, director, Centre for Anabaptist Studies, Bristol Baptist College In the years-long process of creating and editing their volume, Emmy Barth Maendel and Jonathan Seiling have produced a most worthy addition to the Classics of the Radical Reformation series. They have therein illuminated, brilliantly, the unique communitarian faith and early history of one of the three Anabaptist movements that would outlast the centuries. The in-depth and highly readable biographical introduction on Jakob Hutter brings together a whole spectrum of new scholarship. All eight of Hutter’s extant writings and a wealth of parallel contextual materials rounds out the scope of the volume. This is a must-read, particularly now as we celebrate five hundred years since the birth of Anabaptism, of which Hutterianism is an essential part. —Leonard Gross, author, The Golden Years of the Hutterites

Author Information

In 1529, after the last of the Anabaptists’ first leaders had been burned at the stake, the recent convert Jakob Hutter became a missionary and leader in their underground congregations. These fellowships held their goods in common and abjured violence, seeking to live according to Jesus’ teachings. Ferdinand, ruler of Austria (later Holy Roman Emperor), sought to stamp out this movement through a campaign of surveillance, torture, and executions. Many Anabaptists fled to more tolerant Moravia; as the repression in Austria intensified, Hutter and his future wife Katharina followed them. But in 1535, Ferdinand pressured the governor of Moravia to expel the refugees from their homes. The Hutters returned to the mission field in Tyrol, where they were soon captured by Ferdinand’s forces; Jakob would be burned, Katharina was drowned two years later.

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