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Reimer, who was diagnosed with cancer while working on the book, called Doerksen in 2010 and asked if Doerksen would finish the book and find a publisher for it if he were to die before completing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agreed in a heartbeat out of respect for him and his work,\u201d says Doerksen, who developed a deep friendship with Reimer after Reimer served as the advisor for his Master\u2019s thesis. \u201cI recall hoping that I wouldn\u2019t have to keep good on the promise \u2013 that he would survive long enough to finish it himself. That would have been great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six weeks after that phone call, Reimer died.<\/p>\n
Doerksen and Reimer had collaborated in the past, and Doerksen approached his work preparing Reimer\u2019s essays for publication with sadness, respect, and a sense of privilege.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis voice comes through so clearly in his writing that it just felt like the work was continuing, only more slowly than if he had been there,\u201d Doerksen says.<\/p>\n More slowly, and not as fun. Reimer was a humorous, engaging man who enjoyed cooking for friends and family.<\/p>\n \u201cI missed all those things,\u201d Doerksen says. \u201cNonetheless, the voice and the development of an argument \u2013 and the passion for what he was trying to do \u2013 was sort of a constant companion when I was working with his material.\u201d<\/p>\n Political theology is a burgeoning field. In the book, Reimer argues for a more positive embrace of law, order, and civil society than Anabaptists have historically offered.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was trying to do Anabaptist work in the field, but in a way that was far more open to classical Christianity, especially the kind that was developed in the first four centuries,\u201d says Doerksen, adding that he appreciates the comprehensiveness of Reimer\u2019s project. \u201cI think it\u2019s a fresh voice.\u201d<\/p>\n Reimer was Professor of Religious Studies and Christian Theology at Conrad Grebel University College and at the Toronto School of Theology, and was named Distinguished Professor Emeritus upon his retirement in 2008.<\/p>\n He was an alumnus of Canadian Mennonite Bible College, one of CMU\u2019s predecessor colleges. In 2010, CMU presented him with a Blazer Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of his contribution of service, leadership, and reconciliation in church and society.<\/p>\n Toward an Anabaptist Political Theology<\/em> is the third book by Reimer published posthumously.<\/p>\n Christians and War: A Brief History of the Church\u2019s Teachings and Practices<\/em> was published the month after his death, and La dynamique de la foi chr\u00e9tienne: Quand les dogmes lib\u00e9rent l\u2019imagination <\/em>\u2013 a French translation of his 2003 book, The Dogmatic Imagination<\/em> \u2013 was published last year.<\/p>\n Reimer\u2019s wife, Margaret Loewen Reimer, says she is happy Toward an Anabaptist Political Theology<\/em> is available.<\/p>\n \u201cPaul did a really good job of presenting the essays,\u201d Loewen Reimer says. \u201cJim would have been delighted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paul Doerksen\u2019s latest book\u00a0is one\u00a0he hoped he would never have to work on. Doerksen, Associate Professor of Theology and Anabaptist Studies at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), is the editor of Toward an Anabaptist Political Theology: Law, Order, and Civil Society. Published this past October by Wipf and Stock, the book is a collection of essays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[171,156,522],"tags":[652,152,653,449,406,173,651,654],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5092"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5101,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5092\/revisions\/5101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"2015-03-12](\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/2015-03-12-Doerksen-Book-TaAPT-02-203x300.jpeg\")
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