Steve Nolt, co-author of "The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World" (Part 3)

Program: WVPE Features

Reporter: Tony Krabill

Airdate: 10/08/2010

October 2 marked the fourth anniversary of the shooting that killed several Amish girls taken hostage in a one-room schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, ending with the suicide of the gunman.

The spirit of forgiveness the Amish families showed the shooter's widow perplexed the surrounding community, media and the world. Historians Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver-Zuercher, who have collectively spent at least half-a-century studying Amish culture and pratices, sought to better understand and explain this phenomenon themselves. The result was a national bestseller, Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy (Jossey Bass, 2007).

Now Kraybill, Nolt, and Weaver-Zuercher have collaborated on a new book that digs deeper into the foundations of this faith with The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World (Jossey-Bass, 2010)

WVPE's Tony Krabill recently spoke with co-author Steve Nolt, who is also a professor of history at Goshen College. The conservation begins with Nolt describing how the authors realized education about the Amish needed to include more than recognition of their cultural distinctives.

Listen to Part 1

In Part 2, a look at specific Amish practices of scriptural interpretation, meditation, and worship:

Listen to Part 2

In Part 3, distinguishing accountability from legalism, as well as lessons learned from examining the Amish way in the contemporary world.

Listen to Part 3

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