GERALD J. MAST, Ph.D.
(aka Gerald Biesecker-Mast)
EDUCATION
TEACHING APPOINTMENTS
Defenseless
Christianity: Anabaptism for a Nonviolent Church (co-authored with J. Denny Weaver). Cascadia Publishing House, 2009.
The
Work of Jesus Christ in Anabaptist Perspective (co-edited with
Separation
and the Sword in Anabaptist Persuasion: Radical Confessional Rhetoric from
Schleitheim to
Teaching
Peace: Nonviolence and the Liberal Arts (co-edited with J. Denny Weaver). Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.
Anabaptists
and Postmodernity (co-edited with Susan Biesecker-Mast). Pandora Press
PUBLICATIONS:
ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS
“Jesus’ Flesh and the
“Epistolary Rhetoric and Marital Love in the Martyrs Mirror.” Mennonite Quarterly Review, January 2008, 174-185.
“For a Sexual Discernment to Come.” In Michael King, ed., Stumbling Toward a Genuine Conversation on Homosexuality. Cascadia Publishing House, 2007, 86-95.
“The Persistence of Anabaptism as Vision.” Mennonite Quarterly Review, January 2007, 21-42.
“Critique and Subjection in Anabaptist Witness.” in Nate Yoder, ed., Exiles in the Empire. Pandora Press, 2006, 43-57.
“Deconstruction, Messianic Hope, and Just Action.” in
“In the World But Not of It: Mennonite Traditions as Resources for Rhetorical Invention.” (co-authored with Susan Schultz Huxman) Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Winter 2004, 539-554.
“Ministry After Modernity.” Brethren in Christ History and Life, December 2004, 254-281.
“The Word Made Flesh: The Skin of History in Yoderian Historiography.” Fides Et Historia, Winter/Spring 2004, 53-66.
“The Radical Christological Rhetoric of John Howard Yoder.” in Ben Ollenburger and Gayle Gerber Koontz, eds., A Mind Patient and Untamed: Assessing John Howard Yoder’s Contributions to Theology, Ethics, and Peacemaking. Cascadia Publishing House, 2004, 39-55.
“Communicating Identity.” in First Year Seminar textbook.
“Christian Nonviolence and the Enlightenment Crisis.” in J. Denny Weaver and Gerald Biesecker-Mast, eds., Teaching Peace: Nonviolence and the Liberal Arts. Rowman and Littlefield, 2003, 3-14.
“Slavoj Žižek, The Fragile Absolute, and the Anabaptist Subject.” Brethren Life and Thought, Summer/Fall 2003, 176-191.
“‘Bloody Theater’ and Christian Discipleship.” Mennonite Historical Bulletin, October 2001, 1-6.
“Anabaptist Separation and Arguments Against the
Sword in the Schleitheim Brotherly
“Recovering the Anabaptist Body (To Separate it For the World).” In Susan Biesecker-Mast and Gerald Biesecker-Mast, eds., Anabaptists and Postmodernity, Pandora Press, U.S., 2000, 193-213.
“The Rhetorical Integration of Salvation and Ethics in the Early Twentieth Century by Two American Amish Writers: Daniel E. Mast and David J. Stutzman.” Mennonite Quarterly Review, July 1999, 525-538.
“Mennonite Public Discourse and the Conflicts Over Homosexuality.” Mennonite Quarterly Review, April 1998, 275-300.
“Jihad, McWorld, and Anabaptist Discipleship.” Mennonite Life, September 1997, 4-15.
“Spiritual Knowledge, Carnal Obedience, and Anabaptist Discipleship.” Mennonite Quarterly Review, April 1997, 201-226.
“How to Read Social Movement Rhetorics
as Discursive Events.”
“Toward a Radical Postmodern Anabaptist Vision.” Conrad Grebel Review, Winter 1995, 55-68.
“Forensic Rhetoric and the Constitution of the Subject: Innocence, Truth, and Wisdom in Gorgias' Palamedes and Plato's Apology.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Summer/Fall 1994, 148-166.
“Mennonite History in
“Two Visions:
“The
“Epideictic Oratory as Identity Production: The Problem of Domination and
Submission in Isocrates' Helen.” Realms of Rhetoric: Phonic, Graphic, Electronic. Eds. Victor J. Vitanza and Michelle Ballif.
RSA 1990 National Conference Proceedings.
PUBLICATIONS: ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES
“The Myth of Redemptive Violence.” Evangelicals and Popular Culture. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, forthcoming.
“Anabaptists: II. Modern Europe and America.” Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Volume 1. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009, 1071-1075.
“Amish: Cultural Separation versus Civil Subordination.” Battleground Religion. Greenwood Press, 2009, 30-37.
“Hutterites: Communal Living versus Individual Freedom.” Battleground Religion. Greenwood Press, 2009, 274-281.
“A Genealogy of Oratory.” (coauthored
with Sue Biesecker-Mast, Barbara Biesecker, and James McDaniel) Encyclopedia
of Rhetoric and Composition: Communication from Ancient Times to the Modern Age.
Ed. Teresa Enos.
PUBLICATIONS: RESPONSES
“What if Homosexuality is a Gift?” in Michael King, ed., Stumbling Toward a Genuine Conversation on Homosexuality. Cascadia Publishing House, 2007, 290-291.
“How the Martyrs Mirror Helped Save Me: A Response to Krehbiel and Goering.” Mennonite Life, Spring 2007, online journal, http://www.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/2007spring/mast.php
“Further Footnotes on Rhetoric, Yoder, and Boyarin.” Crosscurrents, Winter 2007, 52-59.
“Response to Snyder” [C. Arnold Snyder, “The Birth and Evolution of Swiss Anabaptism (1520-1530)], Mennonite Quarterly Review, October 2006, 651-657.
“Creedal Orthodoxy is Not Enough: A Response to Ollenburger.” Mennonite Life, September 2005, online journal, http://www.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/2005Sept/Biesecker%20Mast%20response.php
“Psyched Over Žižek, Disturbed By Derrida, and Running from Rorty.” Brethren Life and Thought, Summer/Fall 2003, 204-211.
“Response to Harry Huebner.” Mennonite Life, March 2003, online journal, http://www.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/2003Mar/biesecker-mast.php
“'Narrative Theology in an Anabaptist-Mennonite Context.' J. Denny Weaver. A Response By Gerald Biesecker-Mast.” Conrad Grebel Review, Fall 1994, 330-334.
PUBLICATIONS: BOOK REVIEWS
Diane Zimmerman Umble and David L. Weaver-Zercher, eds., The Amish and the Media. Reviewed in Journal of Mennonite Studies, 2009, 287-288.
Neal Blough, Christ in Our Midst: Incarnation, Church and Discipleship in the Theology of Pilgram Marpeck. Reviewed in Mennonite Quarterly Review, April 2009, 351-353.
“Catechism in the Worshipping Community.” Review
of: Simon Chan, Liturgical Theology;
Debra Murphy, Teaching That Transforms;
Sara Wenger Shenk,
Sara Wenger Shenk, Anabaptist Ways of Knowing. Reviewed in Mennonite Quarterly Review, April 2006, 274-276.
Robert A. Riall, trans. and Galen A. Peters, ed., The Earliest Hymns of the Ausbund. Reviewed in Mennonite Quarterly Review, April 2005, 280-282.
John D. Roth, Choosing Against War. Reviewed in Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage, October 2003, 32-33.
Christopher Seitz, ed., Nicene Christianity. Reviewed in Religious Studies Review, April 2003, 180.
Peter Matheson, The Rhetoric of the Reformation. Reviewed in Mennonite Quarterly Review, April 2002, 246-258.
James W. Lowry, The Martyr's Mirror Made Plain. Reviewed in Mennonite Quarterly Review, January 2000, 197-200.
Stephen Scott, An Introduction to Old Order and Conservative Mennonite Groups. Reviewed in Journal of Mennonite Studies, 1997, 236-238.
Daniel Liechty, Early Anabaptist Spirituality;
Cornelius Dyck, Spiritual Life in Anabaptism;
and Marlene Kropf & Eddy Hall, Praying With
the Anabaptists. Reviewed in Mennonite Life,
December 1997, 44-46.
PUBLICATIONS: NONACADEMIC ESSAYS
“A Plain Resurrection Story: Mennonite Themes in the film Silent Light.” The Mennonite, October 20, 2009.
“Faith and Apocalypse,” The Mennonite, October 16, 2007, 32.
“The Da
Vinci Code, Martyrs Mirror, and
the
“Making Jesus Central in Mennonite Education: A Proposal for Church-based Schooling.” The Mennonite, January 24, 2006, 14-15.
“For a Sexual Discernment to Come.” Dreamseeker Magazine, Winter 2006, 51-58.
“On Mennonite Scholars, Organic Intellectuals, and Public Media.” Anabaptist-Mennonite Scholars Network Newsletter, Spring 2005, 2-6.
“Seeking a Better Country and the Peace of the City.”
The Mennonite,
“The Sword of Governance and the Perfection of Christ.” Christian Living, September 2002, 16-18.
“God’s People and a Different Way.” in Donald B. Kraybill and Linda Gehman Peachey, eds., Where Was God on September 11?
(
“Nonviolent World View Shapes the Curriculum.” (co-authored with J. Denny Weaver) Mennonite Weekly Review, March 29, 2001, 10.
“Living as Though We Were Not Married.” Christian Living, September 2000, 21-24.
“The Radical
“The Church Needs to Present an Alternative to Military Solutions.” (coauthored with J. Denny Weaver) The Mennonite,
“Living A Radical Alternative: We Who Have Been Embraced By Jesus' Love Must Extend It To Others.” Gospel Herald, January 25, 1994, 1-3.
“Patient Separation in Marpeck’s Theological Rhetoric.” Anabaptist Convictions After Marpeck conference, Bluffton University, Bluffton, Ohio, June 2009.
“The Christological Rhetoric of Menno Simons Introduced with a Brief Meditation on the Emerging Paradigmatic ‘Void’ in Anabaptist Studies.” Anabaptist Colloquium. Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana, June 2008.
“Further Footnotes on Rhetoric. (A
response to “Judaism as a Free Church: Footnotes to John Howard Yoder’s The Jewish Christian Schism Revisited”
by Daniel Boyarin) Mennonite Scholars Forum,
“Adieu my beloved, and always persevere steadfastly,”: Mennonite Love Letters in the Martyrs Mirror.” Mennonite/s
Writing Beyond Borders conference,
“Maintaining ‘More or Less With Regard to This or That
Point’: Confessions of Faith in the Martyrs
Mirror.” Holding Fast to the Confession of Our Hope: The Confession
of Faith Ten Years Later conference, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary,
“Nonviolent Ecclesial Anabaptism as Mennonite Theology: An Emerging
Framework for the 21st Century Church.” Anabaptist Seminar, Eastern
“Nonviolent Ecclesial Anabaptism as Historiographical
Paradigm: An Emerging Approach to the Radical Reformation.” Anabaptist
Colloquium, Eastern
“Rendering Service…As to the Lord: Body Politics, Vocational Choice, and Professional Performance.” Cultivating a Culture of Calling: Mennonite Perspectives on Vocation conference, Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana, October 2005.
“Subjection and Critique in Anabaptist Witness.” God, Democracy, and U.S. Power conference (believers church conference), Eastern Mennonite University and Bridgewater College, Harrisonburg, Virginia, September 2004.
“Revolutionary Subordination as Nonviolent Performance: Notes Toward an Exhilic Rhetoric.” Teaching Peace conference, Bluffton College, Bluffton, Ohio, May 2004.
“Nonviolence, Liberal Arts, and the Postmodern Context.” The Schooled Heart: Moral Formation in American Higher Education conference, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, October 2003.
“The Witnessing Body in Anabaptist
Ritual.” Ritual in Anabaptist Communities Conference of the
Anabaptist-Mennonite Scholars Network and the Anabaptist Sociology and
Anthropology Association,
“The Word Made Flesh and the Skin of History in Yoderian Historiography.” Conference on Faith and History
Fall Meeting,
“The Politics of Separation and Unity in
the Schleitheim Brotherly Union.” From Schleitheim to NYC:
Anabaptist-Mennonite Reflections on 9-11 a Year Later: A Colloquium on
Congregational Peacemaking,
“Messianic Hope and Radical Action in the Works of Jacques Derrida and Slavoj Žižek.” (Re)Connecting Spirituality and Social Justice: Christian Visions, Christian Realities; An International Conference for Scholars, Pastors, and Laypeople, Messiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania, June 2002
“The Radical Christological Rhetoric of John Howard
Yoder.” Assessing the Theological Legacy of John Howard Yoder, A
“The Anabaptist Subject: or how to change the world without the sword of governance.” Anabaptist Sociology and Anthropology Association Meeting, Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, June 2001.
“Orthodoxy and Separation in Peter Riedemann’s
Confessional Rhetoric.” Anabaptist Colloquium,
“Peace Pedagogy and the Practice of Persuasion.” Teaching Peace and Justice
Conference, Young Center for the Study of Anabaptist and Pietist
Groups,
“Separation and Defenselessness in Anabaptist Persuasion.”
Exploring Truth in a Pluralistic Society Conference, Southern
“Recovering the Anabaptist Body (to Separate it for
the World).” Anabaptists and Postmodernity Conference,
“The Rhetorical Integration of Salvation and Ethics in the Early Twentieth
Century by Two American Amish Writers: Daniel E. Mast and David J. Stutzman.”
One People, Many Voices Conference,
“Reading Walter Wink's and Rene Girard's Religious
Critiques of Violence as Communication Ethics.” National Communication
Association Annual Meeting,
“Liberal Rhetoric, Constructive Theology, and Social
Antagonisms.” Gordon Kaufman Symposium,
“Reading Social Movement Rhetorics
as Discursive Events: A Situational Approach.” Speech Communication Association
Annual Meeting,
“A Radical Public Theology for Reformation
“Apocalyptic Communities in Transhistorical
Perspective: A Comparison of the
“Luther, Müntzer, and the
Religious Origins of German Nationalism.” Speech Communication
Association Annual Meeting,
“Legitimating Revolution in 1525: The Radical Christian
Identities of Thomas Müntzer and the German
Peasants.” Speech Communication Association Annual Meeting,
“Constructing the Transcendent Community in Early Mennonite Rhetoric: Dirk
Philips' 'The Congregation of God'.” Speech Communication Association Annual
Meeting,
“The Radical Reformation Interpreted as a Rhetorical Event.” Anabaptist
Colloquium,
“Nonresistance in the
“Anabaptist Communism in Münster
and Its Function as an Effaced Origin in Mennonite Separatist Rhetoric.”
Speech Communication Association Annual Meeting,
“Heroism and Victimage in Bush's War Messages:
Epideictic Oratory as Cultural Production.” Rhetoric Society of
“Articulating American Identities in a New World Order:
Bush's War Messages Interpreted as Epideictic Addresses.” Central States
Communication Association Annual Conference,
“Public Guilt or Private Innocence: The Practice of Self-Defense in Gorgias's Palamedes and Plato's
Apology.” Speech Communication Association Annual Meeting,
“The Rhetorical Construction of Mennonite Public Identities: 'The Anabaptist
Vision' of Harold Bender.”
“Panhellenism and Patriarchy in
Isocrates' Helen.” Speech Communication Association Annual Meeting,
“Epideictic Oratory as Identity Production: The Problem of Domination and
Submission in Isocrates' Helen.” Rhetoric Society of
“Reinscriptions of Patriarchy in
Classical Oratory: Gorgias' and Isocrates' Versions
of the Helen Legend.” Eastern Communication Association Convention,
“The Renaming of Helen by Gorgias
and Isocrates.” Speech Communication Association of
INVITED PRESENTATIONS
Plenary addresses
“Making the Case for Mennonite Higher Education.” Mennonite Education: Why and How? conference, Lancaster Mennonite High School, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, May 8, 2009.
“Radical Reformation in Europe.” Mennonite
Historical Library Centennial Conference: Future Directions in
Anabaptist-Mennonite Scholarship,
“Ministry After Modernity.” Brethren in Christ
Study Conference, Grantham Brethren in
Public presentations
“Mennonites and War,” St. John Lutheran Church, Findlay, Ohio, January 6, 2010.
“Defenseless Christianity as Church History and Theology,” Madison Mennonite Fellowship, Madison, Wisconsin, September 6, 2009.
“The Amish and America,” St. John Lutheran Church, Findlay, Ohio, January 22, 2009.
“Performing Faith: A Radical Christian Perspective on Vocation,” Presidential Scholarship Competition Lecture, Bluffton University, January 27, 2007.
“The Way of the Cross, the Grain of the Universe, and Pacifist
Epistemology,” Theologia Pacis
Colloquium,
“The Priestly Vocation of the Christian,” Faculty Colloquium,
“The Amish in America.”
“Following Christ in Worship and Work,” Pathways Faculty Scholar lunchtime presentations (Discovering Truth, February 3; Respecting Life, February 23; Living in Community, March 23; Serving Others, April 20), Bluffton University, Bluffton, Ohio, 2006.
“Performing Faith in Worship and Work: An Anabaptist
Perspective on Vocational Ethics.” Faculty Colloquium,
“The Amish and America.” Zonta
International
“Anabaptist Separation and Mennonite Political Witness.” Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana, January 20, 2005.
“Nonviolence Across the Curriculum” workshop (with
J. Denny Weaver). Choosing Peace: Practicing Faith in Public
conference.
“The Amish and
America.”
“Faith and Academics in a Mennonite Perspective.”
“The Dordrecht Confession of Faith and Mennonite
Harmlessness.” Faculty Colloquium,
“Speaking Gracefully in the Midst of Conflict.”
First Presbyterian Church,
“Bloody Theater and Christian Discipleship.” The
Mirror of the Martyrs Exhibit Reflections,
“Separation and the Sword in Anabaptist Persuasion: The Case of Peter
Riedemann.” Faculty Colloquium,
“Communication Studies.” Alumni Chapel,
“Anabaptist Arguments Against Violence.” Faculty
Colloquium,
“The Faculty Hiring Process from the Standpoint of the
Applicant.” Conference on Preparation for the Professoriate, The
“Communication Ethics and Radical Welcome.” Faculty
Colloquium,
“A Community of Respect.” Forum Lecture,
“Public Discourse and Sexual Conflict Among
American Mennonites: A Study of Popular Arguments on Homosexuality.” Conference
on Mennonites and Conflict,
“The Anabaptist Vision and the Postmodern Condition: A Rhetorical
Challenge.” Upper Level Undergraduate Course -- Postmodernism and its
Construction(s),
“Toward a Radical Postmodern Anabaptist Vision.”
Whither the Anabaptist Vision conference, Young Center for the Study of
Anabaptist and Pietist Groups,
“New World Order, American Hegemony, and the New Social
Movements.” World Federalist Association Meeting,
Guest Lectures
“What Mennonites Believe.” Institute for Learning
in Retirement,
“Why I am an Anabaptist.” Graduate Seminar in Protestant Christianity,
“Zwingli, the Radical Reformation, and the Schleitheim
Brotherly Union.” Graduate seminar in Protestant Christianity,
“Amish, Old Order, and Conservative Mennonites: An Introduction.” Institute
for Learning in Retirement,
Sermons
“Enduring the Cross, for Joy.” Wooster Mennonite Church, Wooster, Ohio, October 18, 2009.
“Hogwarts and Holiness.” First Mennonite Church, Bluffton, Ohio, August 30, 2009.
“The Gifts of the Martyrs.” Cornerstone Mennonite
Fellowship,
“The Call of Christ to Come and Die.”
“Teaching Peace as Christian Witness.”
“The Anabaptist View of the Church.”
“Citizens with the Saints.” Pleasant
“Shaped by that Peace Church Tradition.”
“The Spectacle of Faithfulness.”
“God’s Foolishness and Human Wisdom.” (with Sue Biesecker-Mast)
“Communication and Nonviolence.”
“People of God, People of Mercy.” Pleasant
“Faith Journey: Entering the Covenant.”
PROFESSIONAL and CHURCH-RELATED SERVICE
Series Editor, Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History, 2008-present.
Vice-Chair, The Mennonite Magazine Board, 2007-present.
Member, planning committee for Anabaptist Conviction After
Marpeck conference,
Member, planning committee for Mennonite University Faculty Conference, Bluffton University, August 2006; Eastern Mennonite University, August 2008.
Member, steering committee, Anabaptist Sociology and Anthropology Association, 2006-present
Member, Mennonite Historical Society executive committee, 2005-present.
Member, Advisory Committee, Classics of the Radical Reformation series, 2004-present.
Member, The Mennonite Magazine Board, 2003-present.
Chair, Program Committee, Central District Conference of Mennonite Church USA, 2003-04.
Invited participant, Mennonite Consultation on Economic Globalization,
Member, Board of Editors, Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History, 2000-present.
Member, Program Committee, Central District Conference of Mennonite Church USA, 1999-2005.
Member, planning committee for Mennonites and the Family conference, Goshen College, October 14-16, 1999.
Member, planning committee for the 13th
Consultant (with Sue Biesecker-Mast) to Mennonite Central Committee project on personnel trends, Spring 1999.
Member, Board of Trustees,
Member, planning committee for Anabaptists and Postmodernity conference, Bluffton College, August 6-8, 1998.
Member, Advisory Group, The Mennonite, 1997-2000.
Journal Referee (occasional), Conrad Grebel Review.
Journal Referee (occasional), Mennonite Quarterly Review.
Judge, C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest,
Judge, Annual Interclass Contest,
Consultant to the Language and Literature Department,
Reader, Critical Discourse Theory and Praxis Division of the National Communication Association, Spring 1997.
Judge, Annual Interclass Contest,
Judge, Annual Oral Interpretation Contest,
Member, Board of Directors,
Member, Board of Directors, World Federalist Association of
Member, Steering Committee, American Society for the History of Rhetoric, 1991-1992.
AFFILIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS
National Communication Association
Religious Communication Association
Mennonite Historical Society
Anabaptist-Mennonite Scholars Network
AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
Bluffton University Research Center Grant ($3000), Bluffton University, Summer 2008.
Award of Merit (Theological or Scholarly Article), “The Da Vinci Code, Martyrs Mirror, and the Faithful Church.” Associated Church Press, 2007
Pathways Faculty Scholar,
Faculty Sabbatical Leave, Fall 2005
Anathan Fellowship ($2000), WQED
Bloch Scholarship ($1000), World Federalist Association of
Second Prize ($50), “The Renaming of Helen by Gorgias and Isocrates.” Speech Communication Association of Pennsylvania Graduate Writing Contest, 1989.
COURSES TAUGHT
MEDIA EXPERIENCE
Public Relations Writer, WQED
News and Features Editor, Graphic Publications,
News Writer, East Canton Press-News,
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Examining the production of social identity in rhetorical discourse
Explaining the role of human communication in the formation of social, political, and religious movements
Studying public controversies through the analysis of popular arguments in their historical and mediated contexts
Rethinking traditional categories of rhetorical and communication theory in light of new developments in cultural and critical theory
Investigating problems and issues in the field of Anabaptist-Mennonite studies from the standpoint of the discipline of communication
Examining disciplinary and popular assumptions from the standpoint of nonviolent epistemology—shaped by the politics and ethics of Jesus