Not many would guess that Elizabethtown College holds the only research institute in the world for Anabaptist and Pietist studies. Even fewer would be able to tell the story of how our very own Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies came to be. One of the few is Dr. Donald Kraybill, distinguished college professor in sociology and religious studies departments as well as senior fellow of the Young Center.
In the 2015 Durnbaugh Lecture held in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center, Kraybill came to present the history of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies and how it helped fuel Kraybill’s passion in Anabaptist studies. After some opening remarks from family members and former students of Kraybill, he began his presentation with the background of his career and how it tied in to the creation of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.
In 1970, Kraybill heard from a friend that an opening for a sociology teacher was available at the College. And by 1971, Kraybill was a professor at Etown while continuing his own graduate courses at Temple University. For the next few years of teaching, Kraybill was busy raising a family with his wife and finalizing his work with Temple University. In 1984, when former President Mark Ebersole announced his retirement, Kraybill became even busier when he was placed on the search committee for a new president. This is where Gerhard Spiegler steps in. Taking office as new president in July of 1985, Spiegler would be the first non-Brethren president for the College. The news of a new president that didn’t share Brethren ties to the College caused some concern around campus. “[Faculty members] expected that he would liberate the College from the church’s restrictive policies,” explained Kraybill. But after a private meeting with Spiegler over coffee, Kraybill saw that Spiegler wanted to do just the opposite.
After seeing the dusty and unkept showcase of the College’s Brethren history (in the basement of Zug Hall), Spiegler asked Kraybill to write a proposal for a research center. “I prepared a 14 page proposal for a center of Anabaptist studies. The name for the center changed from time to time, but eventually Kraybill, Spiegler and Donald Durnbaugh, historian and scholar of Brethern studies, decided on “The Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.” With a name and proposal completed, the next step was to find a donor that would be interested in giving toward an Anabaptist research center. Spiegler found one in physician Galen Young, alumni and trustee of the College for many years. Young’s gift pushed the project rapidly ahead and so “Young” became part of the center’s name. Many other donors contributed toward the center, and by the spring of 1986 the College announced that a new research center would be built.
The announcement that the College planned to “build a new center focusing on Brethren heritage raised some faculty eyebrows, to put it mildly,” said Kraybill. Many faculty members did not expect Spiegler to preserve the College’s Brethren heritage as he was doing with the research center, and then use it to create value to the College and extend its reputation far beyond the town.
By August 1989, the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies was a completed, built on solid footing in a swampy area by Lake Placida. The building construction began by Church of the Brethren contractor, Ed Nace, who specialized in constructing new buildings that looked like the older ones surrounding it. When it opened in 1989, Kraybill was appointed director. “That was also the year that ‘The Riddle of Amish Culture,’ my first book on Amish life, was published,” added Kraybill. For seven years, Kraybill worked as director at the Young Center until he left to be the first provost at Messiah College. But he did return, and continued to be a senior fellow and provost director for his time at the Center.
By 1996, the 10 year anniversary of the research center, the Young Center for Anabaprist and Pietist Studies had hosted 90 lectures, organized 11 conferences with more than 300 presentations with around 10,000 people visiting during those events. Over time the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies continued to thrive. In 2007, the Johns Hopkins University Press published the first book in the Young Center Book series. And since then 19 more books have been published, with two in production and 10 more in various stages.
“Our vision was to create a crossroads, a safe meeting place that welcomed all people from Anabaptist and Pietist communities,” Kraybill said. And now the Center has proposed an expansion to create a site for teaching visitors and tourists about the heritage of Anabaptist and Pietist groups. “Now, nearly 30 years since the idea of a Center was first conceived in 1985,” Kraybill said, “The Young Center continues to flourish.”
