When Dennis Byler released Hablar Sobre Dios desde la Biblia (Talking about God using the Bible) in March, it was the culmination of an unexpected labor of love that lasted more than 20 years and resulted in a trilogy totaling more than 1,000 pages.
Connie and Dennis Byler (Fellowship of Hope, Elkhart, Ind.) are Mennonite Mission Network workers serving in their 31st year as part of the Burgos (Spain) Mennonite Church. In addition to teaching at a Protestant seminary near Madrid, Dennis Byler edits the monthly Anabaptist periodical, El Mensajero (The Messenger).
He said that finishing the final installment—a 626-page tome—is a relief, but when he released his first book in 2002, he never expected to write two more.
“My sense at the end of this is one of awe and wonder,” he said by e-mail. “I probably would never have dared to set out to do something so vast and complete.”
The first two books in the trilogy were La Autoridad de la Palabra en la Iglesia (The Authority of the Word in the Church) released in 2002, and Todo lo que te Preguntabas sobre la Biblia (Y algunas cosas que Preferirías no Saber) (Everything You were Wondering about the Bible [And a Few Things You Would Rather Not Know]) released in 2010.
Byler said that while he’s been asked if he plans to translate the works into English, his primary responsibility is expanding biblical resources for a Spanish-speaking audience.
“My calling and commitment with Mennonite Mission Network is to write in Spanish for Spanish readers,” he said. “English readers already have an embarrassment of riches to read.”
Byler, known as Dionisio in Spanish, writes in the newest book’s prologue that when he was initially asked to write a theological guide to the Bible for a workshop at the seminary, which resulted in his initial book, he reacted with excuses.
“I have always considered myself to be more of a preacher than a theologian,” he writes. “But I believe it is evident that in almost everything I have published, I write to edify Christ’s church, not as a purely academic exercise.”
Authors rarely know how their work will affect readers, and Byler is no exception. Though he quickly credits God, he has had unlikely encounters with people who have found meaning in his books.
Last summer, while hiking with a fellow pastor, he was sitting in the shade when a hiker approached him, having recognized his face from the photo in the back cover of his books. The hiker said he’d bought and read every one.
And, in perhaps the most bizarre instance, a man with the title of Most Reverend Metropolitan Bishop of the Liberal Western Catholic Church approached Byler and said he’d bought one of his books in a New Age and Occultism bookstore. Upon reading the book, he decided that he had been an Anabaptist his entire life … he just didn’t know it.
“I am aware that most of my readers are not at all Anabaptist, but they are not put off by the Anabaptist values because, in the end, Anabaptist values are really only just Christian values anyway,” Byler said.
The newest book, and Byler’s other works, are available for download at http://www.menonitas.org/biblioteca_menno.htm.
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.
