Church Library – February 2010

When a gunman killed five Amish children and injured five others in a Penn-sylvania schoolhouse in 2006, attention rapidly turned from the tragic events to the extraordinary forgiveness demonstrated by the Amish community. In    

 

Amish Grace; How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy (364 K) Donald Kray-bill and his colleagues present a compelling study of Amish grace. After de-scribing the heartbreaking attack and its aftermath, they establish that forgive-ness is embedded in Amish society through five centuries of tradition, and grounded in the firm belief that forgiveness is required by the New Testament. They also analyze mainstream America’s response and the extent to which the Amish example might be applied elsewhere. As Bill Moyers writes, it‘s ―a story our polarized country needs to hear: it is still grace that saves.‖