Anabaptist

Anabaptism began in 1525 when Conrad Grebel and companions in Zurich, disciples of reformer Huldrych Zwingli grown impatient with the pace of reform, baptized each other as adults, rejecting infant baptism as unbiblical. Their opponents called them Anabaptists, meaning re-baptizers, a label meant as an insult since it implied a crime punishable by death under both Catholic and Protestant authorities of the time. Severe persecution followed from all sides. Menno Simons, a former Catholic priest, later organized survivors into stable communities that became the Mennonites, while other branches produced the Amish and Brethren.

Key figures: Conrad Grebel, Menno Simons, Jakob Ammann, Michael Sattler.

Anabaptists insist that baptism and church membership must follow a voluntary, adult confession of faith, since a true church, in their view, consists only of committed believers rather than an entire baptized population. This conviction is tied to a broader belief in separation of church and state: Anabaptists historically reject any fusion of civil government with church authority, and many refuse to swear oaths or hold political office. The 1527 Schleitheim Confession articulated early core Anabaptist commitments, including nonresistance.

Nonresistance and pacifism are central: Anabaptists have historically refused military service and violence of any kind, believing Jesus's teaching to love enemies applies literally, even at great personal cost. Discipleship is understood as costly and communal; following Christ means visibly transformed daily living, mutual accountability, and often a degree of separation from surrounding culture to preserve communal integrity, ranging from the Amish's rejection of many modern technologies to Mennonite communities that otherwise integrate broadly into modern society.

• Believer's (adult) baptism
• Historic pacifism and nonresistance to violence
• Separation of church and state
• Refusal of oaths in many groups
• Strong emphasis on communal discipleship and mutual aid
• Amish and some Old Order groups limit modern technology

Worship style varies by branch: Old Order Amish hold services in homes in the local dialect with a cappella singing from centuries-old hymnals, while many contemporary Mennonite and Brethren congregations worship in regular church buildings with music and preaching resembling other Protestant churches. Across branches, worship emphasizes Scripture, simplicity, and communal accountability over elaborate ceremony, and the Lord's Supper is observed as a symbolic memorial, often alongside footwashing.

Governance is strongly congregational and communal. Amish and Old Order groups organize into local church districts led by bishops, ministers, and deacons chosen from within the community, with few or no ties to a wider denominational bureaucracy. Mennonite and Brethren bodies range from similarly congregational to loosely organized regional and national conferences, but always preserve significant local church autonomy.

Anabaptists share believer's baptism with Baptists but historically go further in refusing military service, oath-taking, and often political office, positions few Baptist churches require. Unlike most Protestant and Catholic history, which saw church and state as properly allied, Anabaptists insisted from the start on total separation between the two, a view now widespread but once uniquely radical. Amish and some Old Order Mennonite communities additionally maintain visible cultural and technological separation from the surrounding world, a distinctive not shared by most other Christian traditions, including other Anabaptist branches.

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Anabaptist-tradition Christians number roughly 2 to 2.5 million worldwide across Mennonite, Amish, Hutterite, and Brethren bodies, a relatively small global population, though North American Amish and Mennonite communities have grown substantially through large families and, for the Amish, near-total retention of youth into adulthood.