Posted on 11/11/2008 8:13:37 AM PST by Gamecock
Abecedarians
A 16th century German sect of Anabaptists led by Nicholas Storch who believed that all knowledge, even knowledge of the alphabet, prevents people from a true knowledge of God. Abecedarians believed that God would provide all necessary understanding through divine means such as visions and ecstatic experiences. According to them, all theology and “academic” learning amounted to an idolatrous abandonment of the Christian faith. Their name, Abecedarians, comes from their denial of the ABCs.
Perhaps this was not too well thought out, not enough data? Couldn't resist.
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sounds like the obamamanians to me....any knowledge ouside their “cone of silence” is bad
They were outdone by the Anaanaanaludarians who believed that KNOWING THAT KNOWING that knowledge, even knowledge of the alphabet, prevents people from a true knowledge of God.
Of course, the Anaanaanaludarians were outdone by the Anaanabananaludarians who believed that knowing that knowing that knowing that knowledge . . . .
Now, the know-nothings just tune into MSNBC for ecstatic visions, sports scores and erectile disfunction ads.
A B C D E rians?
So wouldn’t knowing their theology be knowledge preventing God from intervention? Wouldn’t knowing one’s name? How to hunt, fish, gather, eat, cook?
It’s always nice to have easily identified, certified nutcases in your sights. It makes it so much easier to pull the trigger.
Craziness abounds in religion, it seems.
The Methodists, who boasted of some margin of learning over the Baptists (though hardly enough, it would seem, to boast about) took digs at their ignorance. They gave one definition of a Methodist as "a Baptist who has learned to read and write."
- Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand: The Story of Frontier Religion
by Ross Phares, Bison Books, page 122.
Isn’t the knowledge of no-knowledge also knowledge? Wouldn’t this be self-defeating? Because it seems that I would be better off not knowing that not knowing is good. But once I know that not knowing is good, I am bad, because I know it. Ergo, the Abecedarians would go to hell by their own logic!
-Theo
BOMB #20: In the beginning there was darkness, and the darkness was without form and void.
And in addition to the darkness there was also me.
And I moved upon the face of the darkness.
And I saw that I was alone.
Let there be light.
Sounds fishy to me. Would 16th century Germans use the actual words A B C as we pronounce them in English? And, in the 16th century was learning your ABC’s such a priority? I don’t think so and somehow I doubt that anyone in the 16th century would name a group after the English alphabet in order to call attention to their lack of education.
I could be wrong, but the whole thing seems suspect to me. Are there any sources for this? It doesn’t seem to jive with what I know about the 16th century.
Damn, all those taught in St. Louis public schools must be Abecedarians. And I always thought they were simply uneducated!
Google: Abecedarian German
11,000+ results. One may satisfy your curiosity.
Now this one I had not heard!
Thanks.
I don’t know if I’m a bad person for this... but I laughed ou loud when I read the TWOTD today.
Abecedarians believed that God would provide all necessary understanding through divine means such as visions and ecstatic experiences.
Ah, those wacky enthusiasts!
Nicholas Storch
Ancestral to:?
Protestant groups that appeared at Zwickau in Switzerland as early as 1521. Their principal tenets were that: 1. the baptism of infants unbiblical, 2. only adults should be baptized as a sign of Christian belief, 3. primitive Christianity should be restored, notable through the abolition of oaths, capital punishment, and the magistracy, 4. a new kingdom of God on communitarian grounds should be founded. The Anabaptists principles were later adopted by the Baptists, their lineal descendants.
No “Abecedarians” in the Catholic Dictionary.
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