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  I am not a theologian trained in the Bible schools or religious universities. Not to disparage such an education, but I simply had no access to them in my formative years. If there had been an earthly home for my heart, this would have been in the Amish faith where I was raised. In those communities, humble beginnings and the lack of formal education were not considered barriers to whatever heights a man wished to climb. You read books, studied, and applied yourself, and no one whispered over your shoulder, “the mountain can’t be climbed.”

I was surrounded by the literary culture associated with the Amish publishing house Pathway, based in Aylmer, Ontario, Canada. My uncle, Joe Stoll, along with the Amish theologian David Wagler, founded the non-profit in the 1960s. Pathway was not accepted by all the Amish communities, but Pathway nonetheless flooded the culture with its writings.

David Luthy, a young man and equally young convert to the Amish faith, was brought on board with his Notre Dame education and headed up the historical division. He would eventually assemble the most extensive Amish library ever collected. On my tour of the place, David showed me the humble desk where the professors from Ohio State sat when they arrived on research projects. Single-handedly, the trio, with Elmo Stoll at the editorial helm of their signature publication, Family Life, took the Amish communities by storm.

Ira Wagler, the New York Times bestselling author of Growing Up Amish, wrote, “that golden age saw probably the greatest collaboration of visionary Amish intellectuals ever assembled. They sailed boldly through uncharted waters. What they were doing had never been done before.”1

Notes

1. “The Shepherd at Dawn: The Early Years,” published blog June 6, 2008, http://www.irawagler.com/?p=511