“Not a word too much, not a word too little. Thomas Kaufmann presents a terse but rich introduction to the history of Anabaptism, along with all of its ramifications in religion and society. This book is a gift to all of us who are looking for solid information about the Anabaptists and want to get it quickly.” — Volker Leppin, Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor, Yale Divinity School “Worth reading.” — Michael Strauss, Evangelische Perspektive “An excellent overview of the history of Anabaptism.” —Glauben und Denken “Thomas Kaufmann has been remarkably successful in summarizing a wealth of sound scholarship and new perspectives in this little book.” — Peter Matheson, University of Otago, writing in the Mennonite Quarterly Review and the Theologische Literaturzeitung Christians have baptized children since antiquity in order to preserve them from eternal damnation. In the course of the Reformation, however, some radical theologians broke with this tradition in order to restrict baptism to mature Christians who chose it for themselves. In his book The Anabaptists: From the Radical Reformers to the Baptists , Thomas Kaufmann concisely describes the history of the Anabaptists from their beginnings, to the Anabaptist Kingdom of Münster and pacifist groups such as the Hutterites and the Mennonites, and finally to the Baptists, who soon spread quickly – particularly in North America – and are one of the largest Christian denominations today. His evocative overview makes it clear that their radical protest against ecclesiastical traditions remains relevant to this day. Thomas Kaufmann is Professor of Church History at the University of Göttingen, Chair of the Verein f ü r Reformationsgeschichte (Society for Reformation History), Director of the State and University Library in Göttingen, and a fellow of Göttingen’s Academy of Sciences. He is the author of more than twenty books including The Saved and the Damned: A History of the Reformation (Oxford University Press, 2023) and Das Bauernkrieg: Ein Medienereignis (Herder, 2024, forthcoming in English translation by Ellen Yutzy Glebe).