Walking in the Resurrection

This chapter explores the ways in which resurrection was transformed in the songs and martyr stories of Dutch Anabaptism, with a particular focus on the trial of a clandestine community in which songs circulated in Amsterdam. Drawing on the theology of Menno Simons, Dirk Philips, and David Joris, Anabaptists sang not of the raising of the body but of a spiritual resurrection that took place with the acceptance of baptism. In turn, they redefined the Christian life as a “walk in resurrection.” A shared walk through the world, comprised of ordinary actions such as breaking bread and singing together, also defined the Christian community. Anabaptists’ songs, this chapter thus suggests, reveal the complexity of the relationship between belief and its enactment, and they reshape our understanding of the community of faith, casting it as the product of shared experience.