Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy

by Donald B Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, David L Weaver-Zercher

Overview

“This intelligent, compassionate and hopeful book” examines an Amish community’s extraordinary response to a horrifying act of violence (Publisher’s Weekly, starred review).
 
On October 2, 2006, a gunman named Charles Roberts entered a one-room Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. He took ten schoolgirls hostage, killing five and critically wounding the others before taking his own life. To explain his motivation, he told the children, “I’m angry at God for taking my little daughter.”
 
By the following morning, as television crews swarmed the village, the Amish parents were already prepared to offer forgiveness. Soon, this extraordinary act of grace became a bigger story than the terrible crime that preceded it. Amish Grace explores the religious beliefs and habits that led the Amish to forgive so quickly.

The authors examines the importance of forgiveness among cloistered communal societies and ask why this act of forgiveness became news among secular society. With insight and compassion, the authors contemplate how the Amish community’s witness could prove useful to the rest of us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470873816
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	08/31/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	274,308
File size:	405 KB

About the Author

Donald B. Kraybill, Ph.D., is senior fellow at the Young Center of Elizabethtown College. Among his many publications, he has authored or coauthored numerous books on Amish society. The Young Center fielded hundreds of media calls in the week following the shooting. Steven M. Nolt, Ph.D., is professor of history at Goshen College. He has written extensively on Amish history and culture. David L. Weaver-Zercher, Ph.D., is associate professor of American religious history at Messiah College. His books on Amish life explore outsiders' fascination with and perceptions of the Amish.

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Table of Contents

Preface xi

Part One 1

1 The Nickel Mines Amish 3

2 The Shooting 17

3 The Aftermath 29

4 The Surprise 43

5 The Reactions 53

Part Two 65

6 The Habit of Forgiveness 67

7 The Roots of Forgiveness 85

8 The Spirituality of Forgiveness 99

9 The Practice of Forgiveness 113

Part Three 123

10 Forgiveness at Nickel Mines 125

11 What About Shunning? 141

12 Grief, Providence, and Justice 155

13 Amish Grace and the Rest of Us 173

Afterword (2010) 185

Interview with Terri Roberts 191

Appendix: The Amish of North America 201

Endnotes 215

Resources for Further Reading 229

Acknowledgments 233

The Authors 235

Index 237

Discussion and Reflection Guide 249

The Fetzer Institute 267

Editorial Reviews

When a gunman killed five Amish children and injured five others last fall in a Nickel Mines, Pa., schoolhouse, media attention rapidly turned from the tragic events to the extraordinary forgiveness demonstrated by the Amish community. The authors, who teach at small colleges with Anabaptist roots and have published books on the Amish, were contacted repeatedly by the media after the shootings to interpret this subculture. In response to the questions "why-and how-did they forgive?" Kraybill and his colleagues present a compelling study of "Amish grace." After describing the heartbreaking attack and its aftermath, the authors establish that forgiveness is embedded in Amish society through five centuries of Anabaptist tradition, and grounded in the firm belief that forgiveness is required by the New Testament. The community's acts of forgiveness were not isolated decisions by saintly individuals but hard-won "countercultural" practices supported by all aspects of Amish life. Common objections to Amish forgiveness are addressed in a chapter entitled, "What About Shunning?" The authors carefully distinguish between forgiveness, pardon and reconciliation, as well as analyzethe complexities of mainstream America's response and the extent to which the Amish example can be applied elsewhere. This intelligent, compassionate and hopeful book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on forgiveness. (Sept. 21)

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Publishers Weekly

Kraybill (senior fellow, Young Ctr. of Elizabethtown Coll.), Steven M. Nolt (history, Goshen Coll.), and David L. Weaver-Zercher (American religious history, Messiah Coll.) have each authored or edited numerous works on the Amish. Here, they explain the Amish community's reaction to the Nickel Mines, PA, murder of five of its schoolchildren, especially its forgiveness of the killer and expressions of grace toward his family. While the reader will gain important glimpses into the grit and grime of daily Amish life, broader understanding of Amish practices of forgiveness will enable reflection on the meaning and value of it. Those familiar with Joe Mackall's Plain Secrets: An Outsider Among the Amish, the 2005 documentary The Amish: How They Survive, or John L. Ruth's Forgiveness: A Legacy of the West Nickel Mines Amish Schoolwill appreciate this balanced presentation, which blends history, current evaluation of American society, and an examination of what builds community into a seamless story that details the shootings while it probes the religious beliefs that led to such quick forgiving. Recommended as an essential title for current affairs and religion collections; also recommended for public libraries wanting to offer general readers with an interest in history and crime a work that nourishes both mind and soul.
—Leroy Hommerding

Library Journal