A Meditation on Going Home

Delbert Wiens was born during the depression to an ethnic German-speaking Mennonite family. As an adult he became the righteous older sibling who wanted oddly to identify with his elders. Returning home to Corn Oklahoma with a severe case of culture shock after living in Vietnam he wrote New Wineskins for Old Wine to tell Mennonites they were succumbing to evangelical forms of modernism. Unfortunately the relentlessness of his analysis convinced many that he had a dangerous mind. This book tells the story of his recovery of the wisdom of his elders.In response Wiens develops metaphors like concrete and abstract to clarify how civilizations evolve. He centers his attempt to tell stories that like biblical narratives and parables evoke traditional attitudes and lifestyles. Phrases like mutual aid and ethnic cliches like Gottesfurcht (honoring God) and Gelassenheit (letting go and letting God) are used to describe their qualities and virtues. The final chapters use a more abstract style to trace some of the positive and negative consequences of progress. This book circles around its center (chapters 4-9) that describes the faithfulness and character of his elders. May these meditations better evoke the desire to imitate them.