The Amish PDF
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title: The Amish author: Hostetler, John Andrew. publisher: Herald Press isbn10 | asin: 0836136926 print isbn13: 9780836136920 ebook isbn13: 9780585262840 language: English Amish--United States--Social life and subject customs, Amish--Canada--Social life and customs. publication date: 1995 lcc: E184.M45H6 1995eb ddc: 305.6/87/073 Amish--United States--Social life and subject: customs, Amish--Canada--Social life and customs. Page 1 The Amish Revised Edition John A. Hostetler Page 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hostetler, John Andrew, 1918 The Amish / John A. Hostetler. Rev. ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8361-3692-6 1. AmishUnited StatesSocial life and customs. 2. Amish- CanadaSocial life and customs. I. Title. E184.M45H6 1994 305.6'87'073dc20 94-20202 CIP THE AMISH (Revised Edition) Copyright © 1982, 1995 by Herald Press, Scottdale, Pa. 15683 Published simultaneously in Canada by Herald Press, Waterloo, Ont. N2L 6H7 Library of Congress Catalog Number: 94-20202 International Standard Book Number: 0-8361-3692-6 (Previously published under the title, Amish Life, copyright 1952 and 1959 by Herald Press.) Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved Book and cover design by Gwen M. Stamm. Drawings by Beulah s. Hostetler. Cover photo by Jane Latta. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 04 03 02 01 00 99 762,000 copies in print in all editions Page 3 Page 4 A visit to the Pennsylvania State Museum. Page 5 Who Are the Amish? Many people regard the Amish as relics of the past who live an austere, inflexible life dedicated to ancient customs. In planting and harvesttime we can see their men working in the fields with horses and their women dressed in bonnets and long dresses going about their business in small towns or shopping centers. A half century ago the Amish were viewed as a backward sect who resisted progress and education and exploited the labor of their children. But that attitude has changed. Today they are no longer regarded as backward. They are often viewed as hardworking, thrifty people who have preserved some of the virtues of early American rural life. Their simple way of living has attracted millions of tourists who want to see their farm communities. The Amish movement has grown from a small group of Anabaptist believers in Switzerland in 1693. For many years the world paid little attention to them or regarded the group as an obscure dying sect. The Amish believe they must live in a redemptive community. They view themselves as Christians who adhere to the teachings of Jesus, especially as presented in the Sermon on the Mount in chapters five, six, and seven of the Gospel of Matthew. Because they see themselves as the recipients of an undeserved gift (eternal life), they must live in a voluntary community of committed believers who practice the attributes of Jesussuch as submission, humility, forgiveness, suffering, non-resistance, and "walking in righteousness." The Amish people try to avoid worldliness because the Bible teaches "Be not conformed to the world." Worldliness consists of the love of money, seeking personal comforts, and self-enhancing activity like fashionable dress, education beyond what is needed, and pleasure seeking. Interest in Pennsylvania Dutch art, lore, and cookery has never been greater than in our time. Stylized designs of the tu- Page 6 lip, fish, and distelfink bird decorate linens, textiles, and pottery. Shoofly pie, seven sweets, and seven sours appear on uncounted restaurant menus. The Amish, who want no publicity, have become the focal point of this interest, but they turn their backs to snapshot- taking tourists and ignore it all in their quiet way. To a surprising degree the Amish are like their fellow Americans, but in many ways they are also unlike them. Their barns and houses, their lullabies and proverbs are similar to other Pennsylvania-Dutch- speaking Americans. Those groups which have captured the public attention by their otherworldly dress are called "plain people." Pennsylvania Dutch people who do not dress "plain" are the ''fancy" Dutch. The Amish are the plainest at the plain people, but they are not the only plain-garbed people. The Amish are gentle and industrious farmers. As a late seventeenth- century offshoot of the Mennonites, they took their name from Jakob Ammann of Switzerland (and later, Alsace), who stood for the epitome of conservatism. The highest value and ultimate goal for the Amish is eternal life. Like evangelical Protestants, the Amish believe in the supremacy of the Bible. But unlike most Protestants, the Amish believe they must be separate from the world to attain eternal life. Like Luther and other Reformers, their founders believed that religion was an individual matter and that no church could dispense divine grace through its organization or hierarchy. However, the Amish founders felt that the great Reformers did not go far enough in reforming the medieval church. Based on renewed study of the Bible, they said that infant baptism was not valid. Instead, persons should be baptized after confessing their faith. Church and state should be separate, the Amish said, and they wanted absolute freedom in religious affairs. The believer must not bear arms, nor
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