Anabaptist Martyrs and the Ambivalence of Mennonite (Non-)Violence

Contemporary Mennonites link their theological commitments to nonviolence, peacemaking, and non-Christendom ecclesiology with the witness of the 16th-century Anabaptist martyrs, executed by collaborating church and civic authorities. Yet, interpreting Anabaptist deaths in a martyrdom paradigm implies the denunciation of the Catholic, Lutheran, or Reformed persecutors who acted in “hatred of the faith,” an implication typically denied or forgotten, yet one which resurfaces in Mennonite theologies and practices in problematic ways. In this presentation, I argue that a confessional martyr tradition cannot itself sustain a nonviolent witness without a more direct reckoning with its own complicity in church division. While Anabaptist martyrs may inspire peace practices, their legacy may also foster self-righteousness, sectarianism, settler colonialism, the denial of violence within Mennonite communities, and resistance to external critique. Mennonite theology must reflect more deeply on how its martyrdom identity is implicated in patterns of violence.