Saturday, March 31, 2012, 6:00 PM
Weaver Markets Banquet Hall, Denver, Pa.

Seminal theologian and Christian activist Dr. Ronald J. Sider speaks on the topic of his new book, The Early Church on Killing: A Comprehensive Sourcebook on War, Abortion, and Capital Punishment.

Sider is Professor of Theology, Holistic Ministry & Public Policy at Palmer Theological Seminary in in Wynnewood, Pa., and Director of the seminary’s Sider Center on Ministry & Public Policy. He is the founder of Evangelicals for Social Action and the author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, hailed by Christianity Today as one of the one hundred most influential books in religion in the twentieth century.

Sider grew up in rural southern Ontario, the child of a Canadian Brethren in Christ pastor. He received a BA in European history from the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ontario, and an MDiv and Ph.D. in history from Yale. In 1968, he accepted an invitation from Messiah College to teach at its newly opened Philadelphia Campus. Sider's encounter with racism, poverty, and Evangelical indifference started him on a career devoted to developing a biblical response to social injustice.

The Early Church on Killing: A Comprehensive Sourcebook on War, Abortion, and Capital Punishment, to be published in 2012, provides an English translation of all extant data on killing that is directly relevant to the witness of the early church until Constantine. It can be ordered from the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society bookstore.

The banquet will also include an auction of an orginal watercolor by Lynn Sommer, painted wood carving by Benjamin and Nora Hoover and Golden Apples in Silver Bowls, the out-of-print English translation of a classic Anabaptist devotional. Marcy Hostetler, choral director at Lancaster Mennonite School, will lead singing.

Tickets

Advance tickets are required: $25. To reserve, call (717) 393-9745 or e-mail .