ANABAPTİST DİNİ HAREKETİ HUTTERİTLERİN ORTAK YAŞAM İNANCI VE KOLONİ YAPISI

Abstract

Anabaptists were influenced by the 16th century reform movement, occurring in some parts of the Western Europe from 1520 to 1530. Anabaptism was constituted as a group that opposed Catholics and Protestants in their authority in the Christian world, and argued that it is needed to return to the Bible. Most Anabaptists have reduced the number of sacraments from seven to two based on the Bible, claiming that the ritual of baptism and the eucharist are of the only sacraments. The main view of Anabaptists is that pedobaptism is not the true baptism, and therefore the baptisms that had been made until then were not valid. According to them, true baptism is the baptism for adult-believers, since the one who will be baptized must know what baptism means, and must have in mind that he can profess faith. For this reason, a child must grow old enough to decide whether or not to attend the church. Therefore, they argue that it is not possible for an infant to profess faith, and that the pedobaptism is not of valid baptism. They also reject the authority of the Protestants, as they did not accept the Pope being the authority in the Christian world. Hutterites, whose roots are based on the Protestant Reform, also emerged in 1528 in Moravia, the current Czechia, as a group of Anabaptist Christians. Hutterites formed their basic principles of belief such as baptism for adult-believers, communal lifestyle based on the common use of goods, pacifism systemized standing off from the state and the other churches. Hutterites were declared heretic by the state, the Catholics, the Lutheran churches, and the reform churches of John Kalvin and Ulrich Zwingli because of these beliefs. Those who were caught, and did not renounce their faith returning to the state church were executed by hanging, beheading, drowning, and burning. Following the Hutterites, they migrated from Moravia to Hungary, Romania, Russia, the United States and Canada to maintain their beliefs. Hutterites shaped their beliefs during the Protestant Reform. Unlike other Christians, they lived together by sharing all their assets. They called it “community of goods”. When asked why they live sharing all their assets, Peter Reidemann, one of the first Hut- terite leaders and seniors, answered, “In the beginning, God decided that humans should not have anything individually, but they should have everything in common with each other.” The Hutterites believed that, based on the History of the Apostles and the New Covenant passages, all Christians should maintain their lives in accordance with a shared lifestyle, economically and spiritually. The Hutterites believed that, based on the History of the Apostles and the New Covenant passages, all Christians should continue their lives with a common lifestyle, economically and spiritually. On the other hand, they believed that God wants all Christians to live far from earthly life that’s under the influence of the devil. The fact that they prefer to wear plain dresses is proof that they live acting indifferent to earthly life. Another important belief is that they are peace-lovers. Their pacifist beliefs indicate complete prohibition of participation in all kinds of civilian institutions count in and promote violence such as military service, judgeship and judicature. Therefore, Hutterites do not pursue any political purpose. Hutterites preferred to migrate when their beliefs were convicted, and requests were made against their beliefs. While the last place they migrated to is America, they have had a rich life in the North America, they have never lived such a prosperous life anywhere they migrated to before, and this prosperous life has enabled them to increase their population without any restriction. Thus, Hutterites colonies expanded, and the administrations of the colonies checked to see every fifteen or twenty years if the colonies were expanding in order to manage the colony administrations properly. If the colony has epanded, it is time to establish a new colony. The colony, which will be divided into two, must pay half the costs of the newly established colony. Hutterites do not lead a lifestyle in which the nuclear family structure is at the forefront, as in the Mennonites or the Swiss Brothers. It is a system in which the leadership hierarchy exists, advocating collectivism and inter-member egalitarianism, where the concept of colony is replaced, and men live with a shared lifestyle together for three or four generations. As a result of the communal lifestyle, written and verbal rules were established in the colony, and the work of the colony was shared by all members of the colony. Since Hutterites are a community that adopts a shared lifestyle, this lifestyle has brought along many social or economical problems in the colony. The biggest problem for them, however, is that members began to have personal assets, thereby endangering the colonial lifestyle.