General & Miscellaneous Biography, Protestantism, Christian Biography, Religious Biography, History of Christianity

Scattering Point: The World in a Mennonite Eye

Name: Scattering Point: The World in a Mennonite Eye
Author: Jeff Gundy
ISBN: 9780791487174

by Jeff Gundy

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Overview

"Part Memoir, part family history, part meditation on history and the present, this work of creative nonfiction allows Jeff Gundy to ask what it should mean to "live in the world but not of it," as the traditional Mennonite saying recommends. As Scattering Point moves through time and space, it repeatedly questions how a modern, assimilated Mennonite poet and professor might live with some kind of fidelity to his tradition and to the promises and griefs of contemporary life." "Scattering Point takes its title from Scattering Point Creek, which has its source on the author's family farm in Illinois. This book explores that place while also ranging widely from it and the Amish and Mennonites who have been associated with the area for nearly the last century. It traverses the Illinois prairie to churches and caves in Europe and incorporates family stories, soil geology, the architecture of cathedrals and churches, reflections on depression, and Mennonite martyrdoms and schisms. Scattering Point speaks of the great questions of history and religion, the quiet lives of Amish and Mennonite men and women whose histories are almost forgotten, and of our lives today." Readers of all backgrounds will see something of themselves in Jeff Gundy who writes, "I must admit it: I do love this world, and, many, though not all, of the things in it," and whose quest is always for understanding that will allow us to "go back into the world more able to undertake the difficult work of loving it as we should."

Synopsis

Creative non-fiction by a Mennonite poet that blends the history of the Amish and Mennonites, family history, and his own life story to look at how he might live in harmony with the Mennonite ideal to 'live in the world but not of it.' Part memoir, part family history, part meditation on history and the present, this work of creative nonfiction allows Jeff Gundy to ask what it should mean to "live in the world but not of it," as the traditional Mennonite saying recommends. As Scattering Point moves through time and space, it repeatedly questions how a modern, assimilated Mennonite poet and professor might live with some kind of fidelity to his tradition and to the promises and griefs of contemporary life. Scattering Point takes its title from Scattering Point Creek, which has its source on the author's family farm in Illinois. This book explores that place while also ranging widely from it and the Amish and Mennonites who have been associated with the area for nearly the last century. It traverses the Illinois prairie to churches and caves in Europe and incorporates family stories, soil geology, the architecture of cathedrals and churches, reflections on depression, and Mennonite martyrdoms and schisms. Scattering Point speaks of the great questions of history and religion, the quiet lives of Amish and Mennonite men and women whose histories are almost forgotten, and of our lives today. Readers of all backgrounds will see something of themselves in Jeff Gundy who writes, "I must admit it: I do love this world and, many, though not all, of the things in it," and whose quest is always for understanding that will allow us to "go back into the world more able to undertake the difficult work of loving it as we should."

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Editorials

Library Journal

Poet and professor Gundy (Rhapsody with Dark Matter) has gathered here several idiosyncratic and highly personal essays, many of which revolve around his background in the Mennonite faith or reflect on Mennonite history and traditions. His genre is creative nonfiction, which covers a range from memoir to travelog to historical narrative to belletristic essay. Always engaging and interesting, Gundy's pieces, whatever their approach or subject, deal sensitively with the challenges of making sense of a tradition-bound religion within the complexities of the modern world. Many readers, including literary audiences with limited exposure to religious writing, will find this book to be of great appeal. For most collections. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.