Donald B. Kraybill Knihy

Nonresistance: No Pushback22. Death: A Good Farewell

Recounts the Amish witness and connects it to the heart of their spirituality. This title combines history, evaluation of American society, and an examination of what builds community into a story that details the shootings, and probes the religious beliefs that led to forgiving.

Revised edition! A sociologist provides a way to understand the Amish people's intentional way of living in a world far different from their own. Fun to read. How do the Amish thrive in the midst of modern life? Why do the Amish separate themselves from the modern world? Why do a religious people spurn religious symbols and church buildings? Why is humility a cherished value? Why do a gentle people shun disobedient members? How do the Amish regulate social change? Why is ownership of cars objectionable, but not their use? Why are some modes of transportation acceptable and other forbidden? Why are tractors permitted around barns but not in fields? Why are horses used to pull modern farm machinery? Why are telephones banned from Amish homes? Why are some forms of electricity acceptable while others are rejected? How is modern machinery operated without electricity? Why are some occupations acceptable and others taboo? Why do the Amish use the services of professionals -- lawyers, doctors, and dentists -- but oppose higher education? Why do Amish youth rebel in their teenage years? Are the Amish freeloading on American life? Are the Amish behind or ahead of the modern world?

Here at last is an authentic portrait of the Amish, in striking photographs and honest accounts of their daily concerns and enduring traditions. Photographer Lucian Niemeyer earned the trust and friendship of Amish families by helping to harvest crops on their farms in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, site of one of the oldest Amish settlements in North America. After "many backbreaking days" in the fields, he gained acceptance in a community that draws sharp lines of separation from the outside world--and has, by tradition, shunned photography. With the encouragement of his Amish friends who welcomed the chance to correct inaccurate accounts of Amish ways, Niemeyer began to assemble this honest and sensitive photographic record. He worked without filters or darkroom manipulations, using only natural light. The results are unprecedented--photographs of families, community gatherings, even the seldom seen interiors of Amish homes and schools. These unique images capture the deliberate simplicity and the natural beauty that characterize Amish life in Lancaster County. In the accompanying text, Donald Kraybill--author of the highly acclaimed Riddle of Amish Culture--tells the often surprising story of today's Old Order Amish. His introduction provides a sweeping overview of Amish life in North America and explains how a traditional people have managed not merely to survive but to flourish in the midst of modern life. In thirty-five "vignettes" throughout the book, Kraybill explains Amish views on issues ranging from "Childbirth" and "Women Entrepreneurs" to "The Riddles of Farm Machinery," "Sowing Wild Oats," and "The Politics of Separation." His concluding essay examines why modernobservers are so drawn to the Amish and their traditional values.

Examines the Amish community's intention to forgive the man who killed five Amish children at the West Nickel Mines School in Pennsylvania in 2006, discussing how the Amish concept of forgiveness has a long tradition in their religion and is part of a deeply embedded belief in pardon and reconciliation

In "The Riddle of Amish Culture" Kraybill finds the Amish eager to answer our questions. (Some even tell what they thought of the film "Witness." ) But they also have questions for us. Why, they ask, do we shut our aging parents out of our houses - and put them in institutions we call "home?" Why do we move away from the towns and families we love in pursuit of jobs we hate. And why do we need weapons so powerful they could one day destroy us all - Amish and "English" alike?" "The Riddle of Amish Culture" draws us into conversations across a cultural fence with a people as remote as the seventeenth century and as close to home as that blacktop road off the next Interstate exit.