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Christian Today
Great theologians and serious sin: Does John Howard Yoder’s history of sexual abuse discredit his work?
Lucinda Borkett-Jones CHRISTIAN TODAY FEATURES EDITOR 14 April 2015
Mennonite leader and thinker John Howard Yoder abused numerous women in the 70s and 80s.
How far can a theologian go wrong before we dismiss his whole body of work? It’s a question that has been raised by a recent investigation into Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder’s sexual abuse of women during the 1970s and 80s.
Yoder isn’t just respected in the Mennonite tradition, he’s regarded as a major figure in theological and philosophical ethics. The abuse was not a secret – it’s been widely documented – but has nonetheless been overlooked for many years.
His most well known book, The Politics of Jesus, published in 1972, is considered a classic on Christian pacifism. But while he is remembered for his contribution to theology, he also hurt a large number of women through an ‘experiment’ in sexuality, which he based on a theological theory.
For the first time since Yoder’s abuse came to light in the 1990s, the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana held a special service of ‘lament, confession and commitment’ on March 22 this year.
Yoder, who died in 1997, was a theology professor at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary from 1960 until his resignation in 1984. He was also president of Goshen Biblical Seminary for a three-year period during the 1970s and taught at the University of Notre Dame for 30 years. In 1994 the two Mennonite seminaries joined and were later named the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS).
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