A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

a review of Katie Funk Wiebe's book Who are (be Mennonite Brethren? 54 by a General Conference scholar, speaks further to the difference between General Conference and Mennonite Brethren: How can we be sure that the confessional issues at stake are gospel truth rather than incidents of language? . , , When General Conference Mennonites find themselves in dis- agreement on doctrine, they remind themselves that their conference has no official confession of faith and quickly move on to other matters on which they might agree such as the importance of overseas missions or, in a pinch, the 163 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH weather in California. We GCs tend to get nervous when others define us in doctrinal terms, as Howard Loewen does in his comparative study of Mennonite doctrine.*5 Mennonite Brethren, meanwhile, get nervous when schol- ars like Gordon Kaufman take it for granted, without argu- ment, that the Christian gospel cannot provide the center in the search for religious unity. He claims that "'modem histori- cal consciousness' requires us to abandon the claim to Christ's uniqueness and to recognize that the biblical view of things, like all other views, is the product of a particular culture."56 Mennonite Brethren become very uneasy when Menno- nite scholar Clyde Norman Kraus openly asks, "Is Christianity the only right religion? Must one belong to the Christian reli- gion in order to be included under God's covenant?"37 Doctrinal differences, however, provide no justification for isolationism in local church relations as it existed between the early Mennonite Brethren and others over the mode of bap- tism and the understanding of Scripture. The improved inter-Mennonite dialogue of recent years has enhanced mutual understanding in the larger Mennonite fellowship. Part of the Mennonite Brethren aloofness of the past decades must also be understood as part of the process of Mennonite immigrants finding their way in the North Amer- ican context. The current trend toward Mennonite ecu- menism, however, may generate new anxieties for Mennonite Brethren, especially in regard to the uniqueness of Christ in human redemption, FROM ISOLATION TO EXPOSURE For four centuries Mennonites lived in closed communi- ties. In Russia they settled in colonies isolated from the na- tional population, maintaining their own local government and educational system. Their school curricula featured a strong religious component. Each school day in the Menno- 164 MENNONITE IMMIGRATION TO CANADA DURING THE 1920s nite village opened with a devotional exercise, followed by a