In this first-of-its-kind study of the Wenger Mennonites,
Kraybill and Hurd—a sociologist and an anthropologist—use
cultural analysis to interpret the Wengers in both
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. They systematically compare the
Wengers with other Mennonite groups as well as with the
Amish, showing how relationships with these other groups
have had a powerful impact on shaping the identity of the
Wenger Mennonites in the Anabaptist world. As Kraybill and
Hurd show, the Wengers have learned that it is impossible to
maintain a truly static culture, and so examining the ways
in which the Wengers cautiously and incrementally adapt to
the ever-changing world around them is an invaluable case
study of the gradual evolution of religious ritual in the
face of modernity.