Amish

Amish farm in western Pennsylvania.

The Amish are a Christian people whose movement is descended directly from the Anabaptists of the Protestant Reformation of the early 16th century. In the early years of the 1700s, many of them emigrated from their homeland in Europe to take up farming in colonial Pennsylvania, in the present-day territory of the United States. From there, they spread to other areas of the U.S. and Canada and today number about 200,000 adherents, most of whom are concentrated in the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana.

The Amish are divided into several major sub-groups all of which share the same basic precepts of simple living and adherence to the fundamental principles contained in the Schleitheim Articles, an early Anabaptist document which sets forth the concept of a "Christian brotherhood living in a viable community" (Hostetler, Amish Society, page 28). They are also united by their common ancestry, language, and culture. The major Amish groupings differ from one another in the details of how they implement their ideas concerning simple living, that is, how they live their lives and define their relationship to the rest of the world and to modern society, in particular, their relationship to modern technology.

It is this latter aspect of Amish life which has, more than anything else, fired the interest of the larger society around them. For, in stark contrast to that larger society, the Amish have steadfastly resisted the encroachments of modern conveniences and technology, eschewing even the most ubiquitous aspects of modern civilization, such as the automobile, electric appliances, and the computer. Instead, the Amish have retained many of the key elements of the past, including horse drawn vehicular transportation, horse-powered farming, and what seems to the society around them, an oddly anachronistic form of dress.

By standing as an almost singular exception to the reducing forces of the American "melting pot", the Amish have inspired reactions ranging from distrust and hostility to an idealized, Romantic notion of pastoral simplicity. In this latter connection, the Amish have become the centerpiece of a burgeoning tourist industry in those areas where they can be found, an industry which feeds upon and nourishes the Romantic image while at the same time it may subtley be undermining the very lifestyle they idealize.

The pressures towards conformity and modernity on the Amish emanating from the larger society around them will continue to exert themselves raising the question as to whether the Amish will be able to survive in the long run or whether they will eventually succumb to those pressures or be fundamentally changed by the process of dealing with them.

Origins and history

Although the Amish trace their spiritual origins back to the time of Christ, it is the Anabaptist movement of the early 16th century, which in turn grew out of the Protestant Reformation, to which we must look to find the roots of their social origins as a distinctive people. Throughout the 15th century, economic and social pressures which threatened the existing social order had been mounting. Adding to the pressures, dissatisfaction with the Roman Catholic Church and calls for widespread reform had surfaced in many forms and were given voice by a number of critics, including John Hus, John Wycliffe, and others. These forces came to a head, especially in regards to the Church, when Martin Luther, in 1517, posted his famous 95 theses on the church door at Wittenberg, calling for broad reforms in the Church.

Swiss Brethren

Most of the early Protestant reformers favored the institution of an official, state religion under the auspices of a Reformed Church which was intended as a replacement for the Roman Catholic Church. In such an approach, the church would be territorially defined in conjunction with a temporal power. This was the case in Zurich, in present day Switzerland, where a Reform Church led by Huldrych Zwingli was established in conjunction with the Zurich Council.

In contrast to this approach towards reform, a number of people, dissatisfied with what they felt to be interference in church affairs by the Zurich Council, and Zwingli's acquiesence therein, proposed that the Church should be completely independent of the state. In particular, they rejected the practice of infant baptism, asserting that an infant could not have the capacity to understand Christian doctrine. They held that, instead, the church should be composed of practitioners who were voluntarily baptised as adults.

The rejection of infant baptism struck at the very basis of religious and civil life in a way which can be difficult for modern people in the West to understand. In the early 16th century in Europe, the concept of separation of church and state was not well established. In such a case, membership (as indicated by baptism) in the church, which in both Catholic and Reform models, was a state church, was closely akin to the modern concept of citizenship.

Infant baptism, as understood in the early 16th century, like the modern concept of citizenship, was based on the idea that one could be a member of a group (church, or state) without their consent. This is a direct consequence of such a group (state, church, or both in the case of a state church) claiming suzereignty of some kind over a territory and all the inhabitants thereof. The concept of church put forth by the Anabaptists, as those who rejected infant baptism came to be known, was that of a union of believers, that is, those who voluntarily ascribed to the religious tenets of the group, rather than a union of residents of a particular territory. The two concepts are incompatible.

Adult, voluntary baptism, with its rejection of infant baptism, thus appeared to the state and its associated state church as a form of sedition in that the practitioners were, in effect, denying loyalty to the sovereign state (and its associated church) which claimed such allegience based on territorial considerations. This was compounded by the early Anabaptists' rejection of military service as well as the fact that they accepted foreigners to their communion.

The issue was joined in early 1525 when a small group of religious believers baptized each other into a "believers' church"; the Swiss Brethren were formed.

Religious beliefs and practices

In stark contrast to the trend towards mega-churches, the Amish continue to worship in small groups of families that reside in relatively close proximity to one another. In fact, worship takes place in member's homes rather than in separate church buildings.

Each local congregation, or church district, consists of between about 20 and 30 families who also interact socially and in other ways outside of church. Thus the worshippers are all quite well acquainted with one another. When a district grows to the point where it is no longer possible to accommodate the worship service in private homes, the district is divided, thus keeping the congregations numerically small and preserving the personal nature of the services.

The congregations are led by a team of ordained men, including a bishop, a deacon, and 2 or 3 ministers. These men are chosen from among the members of the congregation and serve in a voluntary capacity.

Bibliographical essay

For a detailed, authoritative examination of the Amish, covering their history, culture, and traditions, the reader could do no better than turn to the work of John Hostetler (Amish Society, 4th edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993). Hostetler is an Amishman turned professor of sociology and anthropology and his book reflects his academic qualifications. This book, intended as a description of the Amish people for non-Amish, has been widely reviewd and highly acclaimed in academic circles, and is used as a standard text in many college level classes, and is definitely not light reading.

For those wishng a somewhat more accessible introduction, the book by Steven M. Nolt (A History of the Amish) can be highly recommended.While not lacking in the academic department, many may find Nolt's work to be somewhat more readable.

A number of books explore in more detail the current lifestyles and social condition of the Amish. Among the best is The Riddle of Amish Culture by Donald Kraybill which covers such topics as the Amish relationship to technology, their interactions with the government on issues like education and social security, their system of education and upbringing of the young, their social values and institutions, and their religious beliefs.

Over the centuries and continuing into current times, the Amish have engaged the larger society around them in ways which have raised fundamental legal and social questions. In our own times, in the United States, issues concerning child labor, private education, conscription, social programs, and the like have challenged both the Amish and the larger society. These issues are explored in a volume edited by Donald Kraybill (The Amish and the State) which consists of a number of essay articles by leading authorities on these and other issues related to the Amish.