Charles D. Thompson, Jr. The Old German Baptist Brethren: Faith, Farming, and Change in the Virginia Blue Ridge. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. 240 pp. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-252-03103-8; $20.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-252-07343-4.

Reviewed by Astrid von Schlachta (Institut für Geschichte und Ethnologie, Universität Innsbruck)
Published on H-German (May, 2007)

In this volume Charles D. Thompson tells the story of the Old German Baptist Brethren in Franklin County, Virginia. The Old German Baptist Brethren are an old order branch of the German Baptist Brethren, founded in 1708 in Schwarzenau (in the Grafschaft Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein) by Alexander Mack. Today the German Baptist Brethren are subdivided in five groups: the Old German Baptist Brethren, the Church of the Brethren, the Dunkard Brethren, the Brethren Church, and the Grace Brethren Churches. The Old German Baptist Brethren, which emerged from a split in 1881, make up approximately 10 percent of the whole Brethren population. Although its members have not spoken German since the turn of the nineteenth century, they retain the name and feel a great affinity with the term. A special identity is bound up in the word "German," which is explained by one elder of the German Baptist Brethren as follows: "The name German had two reasons. One, because the church actually originated in Germany. Another is the word German means a family. It means children of the same parent or cousins. So it really means 'brethren,' when you get it all summed up" (p. xix). Today the Brethren still try to practice their separation from "the world," and to keep away from politics and public speaking. In Franklin County, Virginia, the German Baptist Brethren have 500 members still living in rural communities. Thirty of the seventy-three dairy farms in Franklin County are operated by Old German Baptist Brethren, many of the remainder by members of the Church of the Brethren.

In a rather lengthy introduction, the author outlines the problems and the changes the Brethren have to face today. The story of the Brethren in the twenty-first century, similar to that of other old order groups, is marked by attempts to maintain and tell the old story of persecution and survival, while at the same time living a lifestyle that reflects and remains true to the ancient order bequeathed in the tradition of the group. Both are central elements of group identity that constantly come under pressure due to changes in surrounding society. Economic and agricultural innovations offer new possibilities that often present themselves via the allure of larger markets and chances for expansion. The consequence is that many Brethren have left traditional agriculture, a process that has threatened to wipe out older traditions and values, such as mutual aid in cases of hardship or illness, in some communities. The author emphasizes repeatedly the blessings of traditional Brethren community.

Under the title "Saints in the Wilderness," Thompson turns to the history of the Old German Baptist Brethren, a group with origins in central Germany under Alexander Mack. From around 1708 on Mack, who came from a Reformed background, gathered a group of believers around himself, who were called Schwarzenauer Neutäufer due to their practice of baptizing adults by immersion. This special practice was also the reason why outsiders gave them the name "Die Tunkenden," later in English "Dunkards." However, the sudden appearance of persecution forced Mack and his group to emigrate from Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein in 1720. They went first to Frisia, and in 1729 they left the Reich for Pennsylvania. At the same time, another group of Brethren had emerged in the Wetterau under the leadership of Peter Becker. They were also forced to migrate, first to Krefeld and then, in 1719, to Pennsylvania. Becker later became the first church elder of the Neutäufer in Germantown. Thompson traces the path of the Brethren into Virginia and into Franklin County and describes their problems during the Civil War and splits in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Following this historical outline the author turns to present times, in a section titled "Wilderness No More," in which he offers the reader interviews with members of the German Baptist Brethren in Franklin County, as well as statements of Brethren neighbors and business partners, recorded with the aim "to understand their own words about what they believe about issues of faith, farming, change, in the past, present and future" (p. 41). The author tries to give the publicly rather quiet and "silent" Brethren a voice by telling their story through the personal words of members. The interviews, recorded in 2001 and 2002, illustrate the tension between tradition and modernity the Brethren face today. These tensions are also portrayed by the interview partners who come from outside the community. The interviews offer interesting, illuminating insights into the life, thinking, and faith of the Brethren. The dominant role economy and agriculture play in the lives of the Brethren is developed; additionally, the social environment and changes in it are presented directly and immediately. Unfortunately, the emphasis on economy and farming leaves little room for further discussions of Brethren spirituality or the deeper substance of the faith and pious practice. It appears, quite astonishingly, that many Brethren seem to equate "faith" with "farming" and define their identity through it. This impression may, however, be influenced by the questions given the interview subjects.

Brethren life today is characterized by many tensions between the strong emphasis on community and family inside the group and influences from the outside. Despite the fact that the Brethren in Franklin County still live in rural communities mostly occupied with dairy farming, changing surroundings have a strong impact on their congregations. The impact of these changes can be seen most obviously near the town of Roanoke, the largest city in Virginia's southwest. Franklin County is now a popular recreational area and land prices are constantly rising. Agriculture, organized in larger productive units than the old methods allowed, as well as jobs in construction promise a better, more profitable income for Brethren families. In addition, the extension of Interstate 73, which cuts through Brethren land, affects Brethren agriculture. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the Brethren to maintain their traditional understanding of farming, based not only on the idea of producing necessary food, but also as the point of departure for building a family and a religious community. In recent years many Brethren have switched from dairy farming to craft work, carpentry, and cabinetry. These new developments and techniques, which are partly subsidized by the government and thus offer additional incentives, stand in opposition to traditional Brethren farming as an anchor of the community. Thompson calls this development "agriculture without a community base" (p. xxxiv). These changes also make an impact on the Brethren's family coherence, as men leave the home for increasing periods of time.

The book portrays the Old German Baptist Brethren particularly in terms of economic and cultural issues. The author confronts the reader with Brethren economy and farming and all its difficulties in the modern world, contrasting Brethren beliefs with the modern "Wal-Martization" (p. 201) of the food industry. The clear strength of this survey of Brethren life lies in the immediacy of observation achieved by the interviews. The reader is provided with a broad survey of the history and the contemporary situation of the Old German Baptist Brethren through the eyes of the Brethren and their immediate neighbors and friends. Thus, the book opens up a wide field of perception, of remembrance and recollection, and a personal sense of the contemporary discrepancy between tradition and modernity. But this strength constitutes on the other hand the principal weakness of the book, because the author only slightly expounds on the problems of his approach, method, and theory. His reliance on oral history is not questioned despite the difficulties particular to these types of sources. From the standpoint of a historian, this approach becomes particularly problematic when Brethren recount the movement's beginnings in the eighteenth-century Reich and this account is integrated into the general narrative of Brethren history without further comment. Authorial consultation of the literature on critical analysis of sources regarding collective and personal memory would have added to the scholarly profundity of the book. Furthermore, the footnotes reveal that the very brief historical overview provided by the author relies only on a small corpus of secondary literature. Evidence from more recent studies on themes such as radical pietism, confessionalization, or the context of politics and law in the early eighteenth century, is missing. This deficit might be explained by the general approach of the author who, as director of education at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, aims to document changes in environment and society by means of interviews and life stories. This scholarly orientation and the personal background of the author as a descendant of a Brethren family might also explain the sometimes romantic descriptions and conclusions found in the volume. The author points out the connection of his own story with that of the Brethren several times: "This book is one such telling, theirs and mine together" (p. xii).

Despite these criticisms, the book is extremely enjoyable, written at times in a journalistic tone, and very readable. The volume provides a colorful description of the lives and thinking of its subjects. Photos and maps add to and make visible the picture the reader gets of the Brethren life. The book confronts modern people with values emanating from Brethren tradition, while at the same time confronting these values with modern ideas of individualism and arbitrariness.

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Citation: Astrid von Schlachta. Review of Thompson, Charles D., Jr., The Old German Baptist Brethren: Faith, Farming, and Change in the Virginia Blue Ridge. H-German, H-Net Reviews. May, 2007.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=13139

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