Amish

Lore & Background

Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. The early division between Swiss Brethren involved disagreements over the treatment of 'fallen' believers, with the Amish arguing that those banned should be avoided even in common meals. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites emigrated to Pennsylvania. A second wave of around 1,500 arrived around the mid-19th century, settling mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, and southern Ontario. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites. The more traditionally minded groups became known as the Old Order Amish, while the more progressive members became Amish Mennonites and eventually united with the Mennonite Church. The Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture, including the use of buggies and prohibitions on power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles.

Reader's Guide

The Amish are significant as a living example of a traditionalist Anabaptist community that has maintained its distinct identity for over three centuries. Their commitment to separation from the non-Amish world, plain dress, and limited use of modern technology offers a counterpoint to mainstream society. Their church structure, based on adult baptism and the Ordnung (a set of rules reviewed twice yearly), governs all aspects of daily life, including clothing, technology use, and education. The Amish practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service. Their legacy includes the preservation of Pennsylvania Dutch language and rural, self-sufficient lifestyles, as well as ongoing internal diversity among subgroups such as the Old Order, New Order, and Beachy Amish, each with different approaches to technology and worship.

Did You Know?

• The Amish practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service.

Roots in the Radical Reformation and the Ammann Schism

The Amish trace their spiritual lineage to the Radical Reformation that took shape in early sixteenth-century Switzerland. Over the following century, internal tensions grew. By the seventeenth century, Swiss Anabaptists had already split into two broad streams: the Oberländers of the Bernese Oberland, who pushed into ever more remote territory, and the Emmentalers, sometimes called Reistians after their leader Hans Reist. His opponents, the Reistians, held that a fallen believer should merely be barred from communion while still being welcomed at ordinary meals. The Reistian stream eventually became the Swiss Mennonite Conference, a lineage that explains why Amish and Conservative Mennonites remain theologically close to this day.

Two Waves Across the Atlantic

The first significant movement of Amish families to North America began in the early 1700s, when Pennsylvania's reputation for religious tolerance and generous land grants drew settlers from the Palatinate and neighboring regions. Land disputes and the security threats of the French and Indian War soon pushed many of these early arrivals eastward into Lancaster County, where the Amish presence would take deep root. A second, larger wave of approximately fifteen hundred immigrants arrived around the middle of the nineteenth century, spreading into Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, and southern Ontario. A notable distinction separates the two migrations: most of the later arrivals ultimately affiliated with more liberal Anabaptist groups rather than the Old Order Amish. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Amish themselves fractured into the Old Order Amish, who preserved their traditional customs, and the Amish Mennonites, who relaxed restrictions on motor vehicles. Today, when people speak of "the Amish," they are almost always referring to the Old Order branch, though the broader family of Amish subgroups continues to grow.

The Ordnung, Worship, and Everyday Discipline

Amish community life is governed by the Ordnung, a set of church rules that varies somewhat from one district to another and is reviewed by every member twice each year. The Ordnung regulates a wide range of daily choices, including limits on power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as detailed standards for plain clothing. Worship for Old Order and New Order congregations takes place every other Sunday in a member's home or barn, conducted in German, while Beachy Amish gather weekly in dedicated church buildings and worship in the local language. Church districts typically comprise twenty to forty families, and membership is sealed through adult baptism, usually between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three. Education is brief: the Old Order Amish generally run their own one-room schools and end formal schooling after the eighth grade. Most members forgo commercial insurance and Social Security, practice absolute nonresistance, and will not perform military service. The community places heavy weight on family bonds, manual labor, rural self-sufficiency, and Gelassenheit, a quiet submission to God's will. Non-Amish neighbors are commonly called "English," and outside cultural influences are dismissed as "worldly."

Three Branches and a Growing Population

Although the term "Amish" most often evokes the Old Order, the broader family actually spans three principal subgroups: the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Beachy Amish. All three wear plain dress and organize their lives around a biblical code as codified in their respective church Ordnungs. The Old Order and New Order share several hallmarks: they conduct worship in German, speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and rely on horse-drawn buggies for transportation. The Beachy Amish, by contrast, embrace modern technology including motor cars and worship in whatever language is dominant in their local area. Both the New Order and the Beachy branches place strong emphasis on the New Birth, actively evangelize to seek converts, and maintain Sunday schools. The Amish are closely related to Old Order Mennonites and Conservative Mennonites, fellow Anabaptist denominations, and scholars often describe them as an ethnoreligious group that blends ethnic identity with Christian fellowship. As of 2024, the Amish population has surpassed four hundred thousand, with roughly four hundred and five thousand Old Order Amish in the United States and more than six thousand in Canada, a community that continues to grow rapidly.