Early Anabaptism in Global Perspective

A conference commemorating the 500th anniversary of the first “re-baptisms” in Zurich and the development and spread of Anabaptism will be held July 22-24, 2025 at Elizabethtown College (Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, USA). The conference will focus on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Anabaptism and will give special attention to the global context in which Anabaptism emerged and spread. In recent years, scholars such as Nicholas Terpstra and Merry Wiesner-Hanks have highlighted early modern Europe’s entanglement in global relations and processes of religious transformation. In that vein, Anabaptist Studies scholars have examined early Anabaptism in relation to Judaism and Islam (Gary Waite) and early modern diasporic Mennonites’ “global conceptions of space” (Kat Hill). The conference also aims to consider the global reception of early Anabaptist history today, particularly in light of the diffusion of Anabaptist traditions around the world. Early Anabaptist history has figured prominently as a resource for global ecclesial identity through scholarship, teaching, and preaching. The conference seeks to advance research on all these topics through keynote presentations, paper sessions, seminars, and workshops.

Although paper submissions on the themes above are especially encouraged, conference planners welcome for consideration paper proposals related to any aspect of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Anabaptism. Submissions may come from any relevant discipline, including history, art history, sociology, theology, philosophy, etc.

Submit proposals (including an abstract of 350 words or less) for individual papers, paper sessions, workshops, or seminars at the following site: https://forms.office.com/r/EEBw3bG1Eu or email a proposal (include name, affiliation, and abstract) to anabaptism2025@etown.edu by June 1, 2024. Proposals will be reviewed by the planning committee, which will communicate decisions to applicants by June 15, 2024. Paper presentations at the conference will be a maximum of 20 minutes in length.