Sometimes English i. On the pavement a few feet from the front door sits a stack of neatly taped boxes apparently delivered that morning. At the time of my visit, Thomas Nelson is one of the largest Christian publishers in the world. Most of these books, I discovered, were in fact written not by Amish authors but by evangelical Christians.
On the Venn diagram of American religion, evangelical and Amish circles share some space. But while they have some aspects in common — a commitment to traditional Christian theology, a high view of Scripture, the conviction that faith should matter in daily life — evangelicals and the Amish are largely separate tribes, speaking distinct cultural dialects that are at times mutually unintelligible.
Evangelical Christians themselves come in at least fifty shades, from politically and socially conservative fundamentalists to theologically progressive environmental activists, but most emphasize a personal experience of conversion, relevant witness to the surrounding culture, and the critical nature of evangelism.
Evangelical writers of Amish romance novels channel these convictions in their books, with a typical Amish heroine traveling two vectors as her story unfolds: one from the works-based religion of her people to a more warm-hearted and evangelical spirituality, and another from loneliness to love.
The Amish, too, represent a rainbow of religious practices and theologies; there are 40 distinct Amish affiliations, each with its own flavor. Unlike many Mennonites and Brethren, however, the Amish have retained certain religious and cultural customs, including horse-drawn transportation, distinctive dress, and use of Pennsylvania German as their first language. A deep communal memory of martyrdom informs Amish assumptions regarding how the larger culture will react to them.
While 21st-century preoccupation with the Amish — which ping-pongs between fawning admiration and salacious schadenfreude — is a far cry from the beheadings and drownings the religion experienced in its early years, maintaining low expectations for being understood by outsiders still serves the Amish well.
The Amish proprietor of the Gordonville store is not eager to speak with me about the novels, who is buying them, or how well they are selling. Perhaps he worries that the plain women who buy the novels will get fancy notions in their heads about how their men should be, or that they will read for hours while dirty clothes molder in the hamper. Many of these novels are set in Lancaster County, some within miles of the Pequea. In , a new Amish romance novel appeared on the market about every four days.
Sixty more were published in than in , and 83 more than in The top three Amish-fiction authors — Beverly Lewis, Wanda Brunstetter, and Cindy Woodsmall — have sold a combined total of more than 24 million books. A marketer for one of the Christian publishing houses characterized the readers of their Amish-fiction author as evangelical women in their 50s and 60s. There is lots of church talk in line [at book signings].
They want chaste heroines, tender heroes, devotional content, and maybe the suspense of a family secret or a forbidden Amish-English love. Amish romance novels offer readers three dimensions of chastity: chaste narratives about chaste protagonists living within a subculture that is itself impeccably chaste, refusing seduction by the car, public-grid electricity, phones in the house, higher education, and modern fashion. Learn more. Site Search. Connect With Us. Promote Your Business.
Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. There's a reason Amish romance is getting big. In a way, it makes total sense. What makes, say, Regencies so appealing? The transport to a different world - and a world that, unlike our own, is rife with rules and strictures and instant plot tensions.
Often - including the few I've read - they involve an Amish girl falling for an outsider like a Mennonite , a classic Witness -esque plot device. And because there's no sex a tender kiss or a crooked bonnet is as hot as it gets the books can cross into the lucrative Christian and youth markets, too. Although the "Sisters of the Quilt" series is always prominently displayed in my local urban bookstore, according to the WSJ , some of the plain people like them, too - which is surely a testament to their authenticity or at least how few mass-market books Amish women are allowed to read.
Of course, it's not all rosy. When Micah takes a selfie at a barn-raising with his smartphone and it winds up on the cover of the local paper, his daddi grandpa responds by angrily crushing the phone with his boot. Humour is one. Some have lived around the Amish, such as Emma Miller, who also taught in an Amish one-room schoolhouse. Expand your mind and build your reading list with the Books newsletter.
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