Machines for Making Gods: Mormonism, Transhumanism, and Worlds without End

Abstract

poses difficulty with what ‘Mennonite’ means in such contexts. The most obvious statements made by Loewen that he may agree are in Chapter 4, “Making Peace on Earth”, where he concludes that “Perhaps these texts refrain from making a case for a specifically ‘Mennonite’ approach to the land” (118) and that “the link between nonviolence and environmental care is a more recent concern” (123). In his conclusion, he writes: “The stories in this book speak to a common challenge faced by Mennonite farmers around the world, but they also relate to all farmers compelled by the question of sustainable agriculture” (269). I agree with this conclusion, but it undercuts his other assertion that the “lived religion” of “the seven Mennonite communities” play a “crucial role” in their “everyday environmental relations” (265, emphasis in original), at least in terms of any specific ‘Mennonite’ approach. This tension is an interesting conclusion that deserved more attention. Nevertheless, the ethnographic work Loewen and his team have done has produced an impressive collection of reflections on these seven communities that deserve attention by those interested in Mennonite studies and the relationship between religion and agriculture. His description provides an excellent starting point for normative questions—such as: what is a Mennonite understanding of sustainability and how should that understanding guide agricultural practices in diverse Mennonite communities?—but that is not necessarily the work of an historian.