“It’s not all pretty, but it is all the work of the Spirit.”
Layton Friesen has grown to “love Anabaptism” because of what he describes as its “dogged determination” to present “the figure of Christ in a world that resists His arrival.” Conference Pastor of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference, Dr. Friesen (pictured) will be teaching one of two Anabaptist Studies modules this spring at Providence Theological Seminary.
Radical Reformation: History, Thought and Practice will be offered May 14-18, and Dr. Friesen is excited to present this survey of Anabaptist tradition. “This is an all-you-can-eat buffet to taste the Anabaptist way of being Christian,” he explains. “It includes big servings of history, theology, spirituality, pastoral life and relations with the Roman Catholic church.”
Mennonite pastor Zac Klassen (Ph.D., cand.) will teach the second module May 21-25. Entitled A Complicated Faithfulness: Issues in Contemporary Anabaptist Theology, the course will explore the depths of Anabaptist theology as presented in the last century. Themes will include believers’ baptism, ecumenical theology, pacifism and a church free of the need for worldly power.
“As secularity speaks louder and grows more persuasive, we need to listen to a tradition that never assumed the world would listen to it, but rather kept on worshipping and loving courageously, anyway,” says Dr. Friesen. “In these two Anabaptist modules students will see both the breadth and depth of what this tradition has learned about the perils of costly discipleship over five centuries. It’s not all pretty, but it is all the work of the Spirit.”
The modules can be taken independently or as part of Providence Theological Seminary’s Master of Divinity, Anabaptist Studies track.
Prospective students are invited to APPLY online. Providence Enrollment Officers can also answer questions over the phone at 1-800-668-7768 or via email at info@prov.ca.
Providence is offering a full range of summer courses in study areas including Counselling, Biblical and Theological Studies and TESOL.
