The Drama of a Rural Community’s Life Cycle
Its Prehistory, Birth, Growth, Maturity, Decline, and Rebirth
- History & Biography
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Published: 2020
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Publisher's Description
Rural communities depend on the health of the agrarian cultures that compose them. These cultures grow out of the symbiotic relationship between a particular landscape and the human community that lives on and uses the land. Agrarian cultures had their origin in the development of agriculture and gave birth to the civilizations and empires of history. Based on the exercise of hierarchical power characteristic of their nature, empires and civilizations are always a threat to the welfare of their agrarian cultures, that by nature tend to be local, relational, reciprocal, and ecological. This is the story of the three Anabaptist agrarian cultures--Swiss German, Low German, and Hutterian--of the Freeman, South Dakota, rural community, and their sojourn within the empires of civilization through the centuries. More specifically, this is the story of their birth, growth, maturation, and death (or rebirth?) in the particular landscape of the Great Plains to which they came from Russia in the 1870s. Here we see the agrarian cultures' struggle to adapt to the new environment of the Great Plains and to maintain their unique identity while living within American society. This is the drama of a rural community's life cycle!
Endorsements (3)
“With pastoral learnings and prophetic vision, Kaufman crafts an excellent case for restoration in rural communities. Through careful examination of a place he knows well, he unveils intertwining insights from land history, Indigenous people, immigrant/settler challenges, agricultural systems, cultural dynamics, ecological issues, theological underpinnings, and concepts of renewal. Kaufman’s approach, analysis, and hope-filled vision create an integrative model that will benefit people who take seriously the regeneration of communities in many settings.”
“Roy Kaufman’s vision for the renewal of agrarian communities is grounded in a close study of his Anabaptist ancestors on the American Great Plains. Rejecting populist nostalgia, Kaufman calls for a reckoning with the imperial dynamics that have both enabled and degraded rural Anabaptist life. This insightful work of contextual theology raises issues for congregational mission that should be given serious attention by church leaders and theologians.”
“Pastor Kaufman maps his place and people compassionately and critically, exploring what in our work we call ‘landlines, bloodlines, and songlines.’ Kaufman’s fulsome portrait of a particular historic legacy of ‘Anabaptist agrarianism’ offers lessons for contemporary resistance to ‘imperial monoculture.’”
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