From Communalism to Capitalism

The behavior of 17th-century Mennonites in Amsterdam shows that a tight-knit social network formed by participation in a distinct worshipping community, coupled with Anabaptist theology that taught a unity of faith and practice, contributed to financial success given a fertile social, economic and political milieu. This case-study-based article explores how radical economic communalism prominent in early Dutch Anabaptism gave way under toleration to early merchant capitalism, evidenced not only in the wealth of individual members but in the financial structure of the church itself. The Dutch Golden Age urban Mennonites evolved to function in a profit-driven society, despite early teachings of Menno Simons

Anabaptists · Capitalism · Communalism · Economic history · Economics · Faith · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · Toleration · Cultural History and Identity Formation · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity