Abstract | Keywords | Export | Availability | Bookmark

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

"Books geographically focused on the midwestern and eastern states dominate the study of Mennonites in America. The intriguing history of Mennonites in the American West remains untold. In From Digging Gold to Saving Souls, Brian Froese introduces readers for the first time to the California Mennonite experience. Although a few Mennonites did dig for gold in the 1850s, the real story of Mennonites in California begins in the 1890s with westward migrations for fertile soil and healthy sunshine. By the mid-twentieth century, the Mennonite story in California had developed into an interesting tale of religious conservatives--traditional agrarians--finding their way in an increasingly urban and religiously pluralistic California. Some California Mennonites negotiated new identities by endorsing conservative evangelicalism; some found them in reclamations of sixteenth-century Anabaptists. Still other Mennonites found meaningful religious experience by engaging in social action and justice even when these actions appeared in "secular" forms. These emerging identities--Evangelical, Anabaptist, and secular--covered a broad spectrum, yet represented a selective retaining and discarding of Mennonite religious practices and expressions. From Digging Gold to Saving Souls touches on such topics as migration, pluralism, race, gender, pacifism, institutional construction, education, and labor conflict, all of which defined the experience of Mennonites of California. Brian Froese shows how this experience was a rich, complex, and deliberate move into modern society. In From Digging Gold to Saving Souls, he introduces readers to a dynamic people who did not simply become modern, but who chose to modernize on their own terms"--

Mennonites --- History. --- California --- Church history. --- Provincia de Californias --- Ḳalifornyah --- Alta California (Province) --- Upper California --- Chia-chou --- Departamento de Californias --- Калифорнии --- Kalifornii --- State of California --- كاليفورنيا --- Kālīfūrniyā --- Штат Каліфорнія --- Shtat Kalifornii︠a︡ --- Каліфорнія --- Kalifornii︠a︡ --- Калифорния --- Καλιφόρνια --- Kaliphornia --- Πολιτεία της Καλιφόρνιας --- Politeia tēs Kaliphornias --- 캘리포니아 주 --- 캘리포니아주 --- Kʻaellipʻonia-ju --- Kʻaellipʻoniaju --- 캘리포니아 --- Kʻaellipʻonia --- קליפורניה --- מדינת קליפורניה --- Medinat Ḳalifornyah --- Калифорнија --- Kalifornija --- Karapōnia --- カリフォルニア州 --- Kariforunia-shū --- カリフォルニア --- Kariforunia --- קאליפארניע --- Ḳalifornye --- CA --- Calif. --- Cal. --- Cali. --- CF --- Anabaptists --- Baptists --- Christian sects --- HISTORY / Social History. --- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General. --- RELIGION / Christianity / Mennonite. --- Californias (Province) --- the Mennonite migration --- urban dystopia and divine nature --- the early Mennonite colonies --- California Mennonite identity --- racial and religious pluralism --- sewing circles --- missionary societies --- public roles of women in the Church --- California Mennonites during World War II --- socially active Mennonitism and mental health --- Kings View Homes --- feeding the hungry --- piety and professionalization --- Evangelical education in California --- Mennonite growers --- the United Farm Workers --- the farm labor problem --- the transformation of California Mennonite identity