Knowra Alexander Mack Alexander Mack Alexander Mack (1679–1735) was a German religious leader who founded the Schwarzenau Brethren, a radical Pietist movement that later became the Church of the Brethren.
Schwarzenau Brethren : A radical Pietist Christian movement founded by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708. Mack organized this community around believer’s baptism, mutual aid, and a plain style of life.
Believer's baptism : Christian baptism administered to people who personally profess faith, rather than to infants. Mack’s community restricted baptism to people able to make a conscious profession of faith.
Anna Mack : Alexander Mack’s wife, who shared the hardships of the early Schwarzenau Brethren and their migration to America. Her life illuminates the family costs of the movement’s early migration.
Germantown, Pennsylvania : A historic Pennsylvania settlement where Brethren established an early congregation after migrating from Europe. Mack and other Brethren settled here, establishing a lasting American center for the movement.
Schwarzenau : A town in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, known as the birthplace of the Schwarzenau Brethren. Mack’s first Brethren community formed in this town.
Baptism by trine immersion : A baptismal practice in which a person is immersed three times, traditionally with the body inclined forward. Mack adopted threefold immersion as the community’s distinctive baptismal form.
Johann Heinrich Trub : A Swiss Pietist associated with the early Schwarzenau Brethren and their migration to Pennsylvania. Trub connected Mack’s German fellowship with the wider Pietist network.
Ephrata Cloister : A historic religious community in Pennsylvania founded by Conrad Beissel, with celibate and communal branches. Its formation followed a division within the Brethren world Mack had helped create.
Radical Pietism : A movement within German Pietism that rejected established churches and emphasized personal conversion and practical religious devotion. Its dissenting religious culture informed Mack’s break with established churches.
Anabaptism : A Christian tradition that rejects infant baptism and generally practices baptism upon a personal confession of faith. The Brethren shared Anabaptist convictions about baptism without simply reproducing one existing church.
Show all 22