Mary Sprunger

Professor of History

School of Theology, Humanities and Performing Arts
History & Political Science

LocationRoselawn Academic 314

Phone4408

E-Mailmary.sprunger@emu.edu

Education

BA, Bethel College (History & German)
PHD, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (History Renassance Reformation with a Minor in Medieval Europe & Medievel Art History)
MA, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (History)

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Biography

Mary Susan Sprunger has taught at EMU since 1992. She earned a B.A. in History and German at Bethel College (Kansas) and an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Her teaching interests include European, world, women’s and Mennonite history. Her newest course topics include food history and comparative colonialisms. She is writing a book on the economic and cultural dimensions of a wealthy, urban Mennonite church during the Dutch Golden Age (the seventeenth century). She is married and is the mother of two adult children.

Mission Statement

Publications

	Citation	Pub. Date
1330	Co-editor with Mark Jantzen and John D. Thiesen. European Mennonites and the Challenge of Modernity over Five Centuries: Contributors, Detractors, and Adapters. North Newton, KS: Bethel College, 2016.	2016
1331	“A Mennonite Capitalist Ethic in the Dutch Golden Age; Weber Revisited.” In European Mennonites and the Challenge of Modernity over Five Centuries: Contributors, Detractors, and Adapters, edited by Mark Jantzen, Mary S. Sprunger and John D. Thiesen, 51-70 (see above).	2016
1332	“Being Mennonite: Neighborhood, Family, and Confessional Choice in Golden Age Amsterdam.” In Religious Minorities and Cultural Diversity in the Dutch Republic: Studies Presented to Piet Visser on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, edited by August den Hollander, Alex Noord, Mirjam van Veen and Anna Voolstra, 150-70. Brill’s Series in Church History 67. Leiden: Brill, 2014.	2014
1333	“Deaconesses, Fishwives, Crooks and Prophetesses: Mennonite Image and Reality in Golden Age Amsterdam.” In Sisters: Myth and Reality of Anabaptist, Mennonite, and Doopsgezind Women, ca 1525-1900, edited by Mirjam van Veen, Piet Visser and Gary K. Waite, 169-85. Brill’s Series in Church History 65. Leiden: Brill, 2014.	2014
1334	“ Apologia for an Informed Mennonite Citizenry: A Personal Journey.” Conrad Grebel Review 30 (2012): 286-98.	2012
1335	“Limits of Faith in a Maritime Empire: Mennonites, Trade and Politics in the Dutch Golden Age” in The Limits of Empire: European Imperial Formations in Early Modern World History, edited by Antonio Andrade and William Reger, pp. 59-77. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2012. (festschrift for Geoffrey Parker).	2012
1336	Book Review of Huebert Hecht, Linda A. Women in Early Austrian Anabaptism: Their Days, Their Stories in Mennonite Quarterly Review 85 (2011): 325-27.
1337	“Keeney, William E.” Article for new German Mennonite Encyclopedia (_Mennonitische Lexikon), vol. 5: Part I: People (in press). See online at: http://www.mennlex.de/doku.php?id=art:keeney_william_e
1338	Co-author with Keith L. Sprunger. “The Church in the Bakehouse: John Smyth’s English Anabaptist Congregation at Amsterdam, 1609-1660.” Mennonite Quarterly Review 85 (2011): 219-258.
1339	“Limits of Faith in a Maritime Empire: Mennonites, Trade and Politics in the Dutch Golden Age.” Will appear as chapter in Geoffrey Parker festschrift.
1340	“Why the Rich Got Mennonite: Church Membership, Status and Wealth in Golden Age Amsterdam.” Journal of Mennonite Studies 27 (2009): 41-59.
1341	“Iemand burgemeester maken. Doopsgezinden en regenten geslachten in de Gouden Eeuw te Amsterdam.” Doopsgezind Bijdragen 32 (2006): 75-121. (“In Bed With the Burgomaster: Mennonites and Regent Family Ties in Golden Age Amsterdam”).
1342	“Mennonites and Sectarian Poor Relief in Golden-Age Amsterdam.” In The Reformation of Charity: The Secular and the Religious in Early Modern Poor Relief, pp. 137-53. Edited by Thomas Max Safley. Boston and Leiden: Brill, 2003.
1343	“Mutual Aid Among Dutch Waterlander Mennonites, 1605-1668.” In _Building Communities of
1344	Compassion_, 144-67. Edited by Willard Swartley and Donald B. Graybill. Scottdale. PA: Herald Press, 1998.
1345	Co-author with Piet Visser. Menno Simons: Places, Portraits and Progeny. Masthof Press, 1996.
1346	“Entrepreneurs and Ethics: Mennonite Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam.” In Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship in Early Modern Times: Merchants and Industrialists within the Orbit of the Dutch Staple Market, 213-21. Edited by C. Lesger and L. Noordegraaf. Hollandse Historische Reeks 24, 1996.
1688	"From Turmoil to Peace: How Menno Simons and Pilgram Marpeck Guided Anabaptists Through Troubled Times," Christian History Issue 120 (2016).	2016
1689	Co-author with Keith L. Sprunger, “Big Brother is Watching: FBI Surveillance of Antiwar Activities at Mennonite Colleges in the 1960s,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 92 (2018), 5-31.	2018
1898	"From Communalism to Capitalism: Mennonites and Money in the Early Dutch Republic," Revue de l'historie des religions (2020): 675-703.	2020
1899	"In der Stadt und von der Stadt: Die Täufer in der Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Goldenen Zeitalters der Niederlande. Ein Gegenentwurf zum agrarisch geprägten Mennonitentum" [In the City and of the City: Doopsgezinden and the Dutch Golden Age Economy as Antithesis to the Mennonite Agrarian Ideal], trans. Ulrike Arnold, Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter 79 (2022): 43-68.	2022
1962	Introduction to Hans de Ries: A Study in Second Generation Dutch Anabaptism by Cornelius J. Dyck, i-xiv. Edited by Maxwell Kennel. N.p.: Pandora Press, 2023.	2023

Scholarly Presentations and Abstracts

“Merchant, Tailor, Fishwife, Sailor: Mennonite Identity and Community in Golden Age Amsterdam.” University Colloquium, Eastern Mennonite University, September 2011.
Invited Participant: *“The Allochthonous and Autochtonous Mennonite Community of Golden Age Amsterdam: Internal and Translocal Networks as a Factor in Prosperity,” Diasporas as Translocal Societies Workshop/Conference, University of Oldenburg, Germany, 1 September 2011.
“Mennonites, Capitalism and Modernity: Weber Revisited,” Marginal or Mainstream? Anabaptists, Mennonites and Modernity in European Society, Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas, 25 June 2010.
“The Limits of Faith in a Maritime Empire: Mennonites, Trade and Politics in the Dutch Golden Age,” The Limits of Empire in the Early Modern World: A Conference in Honor of Professor Geoffrey Parker, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 28 February 2009.
“Why the Rich Got Mennonite: Church Membership, Status and Wealth in Golden Age Amsterdam,” Mennonites and Money: Wealth and Poverty in the Past and Present, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 10 Oct. 2008.
Invited Participant in Liberty Fund Conference “Religious Dissent and Liberty,” Charleston, SC, 11-14 October 2007.
“Deaconesses, Fishwives, Crooks and Prophetesses: Women and the Burden of Mennonite Respectability in a Seventeenth-Century Congregation,” International Conference: Myth and Reality of Anabaptist/Mennonite Women, ca 1525-1900, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, 31 August 2008.
“Why the Rich Got Mennonite: New Findings on Membership, Status and Wealth among Early Dutch Mennonites,” Anabaptist Colloquium, Harrisonburg, VA, 8 April 2006.
“In Bed With the Burgomaster: Mennonites and Political Influence in Golden-Age Amsterdam,” Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference, Atlanta, GA, 21 October 2005.

Church, Community and Professional Service

"My Cookbook Shelf as a Mirror of Mennonite History." Anabaptist World. 2 Oct. 2024. https://anabaptistworld.org/my-cookbook-shelf-as-a-mirror-of-mennonite-history/
Logistics Coordinator and Program Committee of the conference "Crossing the Line: Women of Anabaptist Traditions Encounter Borders and Boundaries" (EMU, 22-25 June 2017).
Consultant on new Mennonite History textbook (ongoing: attended meeting at Conrad Grebel College, Waterloo, Ont., Nov. 2015).
Film Interview, This Changed Everything: 500 years of the Reformation, produced by Christian History Institute (2016).
Sermon, Peace Mennonite Church, Dallas, TX (7 June 2015).
“Can Good Christians Be Good Capitalists? Early Mennonites and the Spirit of Capitalism.” EMU Flash Seminar (4 Feb. 2015).
“Anabaptist History and Beliefs,” presentation at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Center, 12 Aug. 2014.
Taught English and gave lectures on American history and culture at China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan Province, Spring 2011.
Co-Organizer of Conference, Marginal or Mainstream? Anabaptists, Mennonites and Modernity in European Society, Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas, 25-26 June 2010 (www.bethelks.edu/MennosandModernity).
“The German Church and the Nazi State,” A Voice in the Whirlwind: A Centennial Celebration of the Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Massanutten Presbyterian Church, Penn Laird, VA, 25 March 2006.

Honors, Awards and Grants

Selected as one of 30 scholars nationally to attend the seminar “Homer Across the Curriculum: The Iliad” at the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington D.C. (July 10-14, 2006).

Professional Memberships

American Historical Association
Mennonite Historical Society
Doopsgezinde Historische Kring

EMU Service

Faculty Scholarship Committee
Committee on Teacher Education