Harold S. Bender

Harold Stauffer Bender (1897-07-19 – 1962-09-21) was a prominent professor of theology at Goshen College (Goshen, Indiana) and Goshen Biblical Seminary. His accomplishments include founding both the Mennonite Historical Library and the Mennonite Quarterly Review.

Bender is perhaps best known for authoring "The Anabaptist Vision" in 1944. "The Anabaptist Vision" was a short essay intended to refocus the Anabaptists and Mennonites during the trying years of World War II by re-examining the religious movement's historical context. Anabaptists distinctives were summarized as:ref|panabecker
# Discipleship is the essence of Christianity.
# Church as a community grows out of the central principle of newness of life.
# Love and nonresistance apply to all human relationships.

Bender was awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg. He served as President of the American Society of Church History.

Notes

Pannabecker, p. 394.

References

*Pannabecker, Samuel Floyd (1975), "Open Doors: A History of the General Conference Mennonite Church", Faith and Life Press. ISBN 0-87303-636-0
*Keim, Albert N. (1998). "Harold S. Bender, 1897-1962", Herald Press. ISBN 0-8361-9084-X

External links

* [http://www.mcusa-archives.org/library/anabaptistvision/anabaptistvision.html Full text of "The Anabaptist Vision"]
* [http://www.mcusa-archives.org/library/anabaptistvision/keim-historyofvision.html "The History of The Anabaptist Vision" by Albert Keim]
* [http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B449ME.html Harold S. Bender] in "Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online"