Jason, Landsel, with Sankha Banerjee (Art), Richard Mommsen (Script), By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story (Plough Publishing, 2025).
By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story is a graphic novel, Book 2 in Plough Publishing’s “Heroes of the Radical Reformation” series.
Like Book 1, By Water: the Felix Manz Story, we are introduced to key figures of the Anabaptist movement of the 1520s-30s. It is a gripping recollection of the lives and martyrdom of Jakob and Katherina Hutter, founders of the Hutterian Brethren (Hutterites).
Aside from Plough’s powerful truth-telling stories, beautiful art, and high-quality publications—this work is certainly all of that—as a reviewer, I’d like to share why this book is important to me and why I believe readers should consider obtaining a copy for themselves. I’ll begin with a personal note and then address a broader, more pressing need.
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I grew up in Killarney, Manitoba (Canada) a half-hour drive from the Mayfair Hutterite colony. My first impressions as a child were that Hutterites were communities from another culture, another era—utterly foreign and insular. They looked and sounded strange to my eyes and ears, though similar to the Amish in Harrison Ford’s movie, The Witness, and to Old Order Mennonites I knew from Ontario. (I had not yet met the Bruderfhof, who I now love so dearly). On one hand, they appeared to live austere lives, yet as a highly efficient collective, also had cutting-edge farm machinery and large sections of fertile farmland. We weren’t afraid of them, but neither did we trust them. Strange rumours find purchase in the shadows of our ignorance.
But my dad, Lloyd Jersak, couldn’t leave it at that. One day, he drove the gravel road to where their men were taking a coffee break out in the fields. Dad toted his baritone along and offered to play them a few hymns. The brothers were intrigued and amuses, and they beckoned my dad to bring a little concert to the women preparing lunch back at the colony.
This was a surprise to the old Prediger (the colony pastor) and at first, he didn’t know what to make of this stranger playing a musical instrument to his flock. For my father’s part, he was a stereotypical Baptist who wasn’t quite sure if these folks knew the gospel. But as repeated visits turned to friendship and trust, my dad received a surprise invitation to attend the Hutterites’ Christmas banquet, and eventually asked to offer a prayer, and later to be their banquet guest speaker!
Eventually, Dad introduced me to these friends… just a tiny taste of the rich fellowship he had been enjoying for years. In fact, on my last full day with my father before he died of cancer, I asked him if there was anything we could do together for a final outing. He requested a surprise trip to the colony. They welcomed him as an honoured guest—almost a hero’s welcome—knowing it would be his last visit. They asked him to share some stories (which they found funnier than I did), fed us some soup, and sent us home with fresh bread and wine from their kitchen.
When I returned to Killarney just weeks later for my father’s memorial service, the Hutterites were there in force and Dad was buried in a gorgeous wooden coffin, hand-crafted and delivered by the Hutterites. I’ll forever be grateful and one way to offer thanks is to say, “I know these people. You should meet them. Or at least hear their powerful backstory of faithfulness to Christ.”
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But if you never meet a Hutterite or have the opportunity to visit a colony, now is the time to be inspired to faithfulness by the story of Jakob Hutter and his wife, Katherina. By Fire tells their story accurately, beautifully, and with stirring pathos. There’s a gravitas to reading about discipleship in an alternative society that had turned from state-church corruption and what we might recognize today as the cruelest forms of Christian nationalism.
Readers who have grown weary of politicized faith but long to follow the Jesus Way of the Sermon on the Mount will find the Hutter family’s testimony infused with courage, resolve, and confidence in Christ. Their resolve to demonstrate a nonviolent ‘third way’ was indeed tested by fire. And while none of us may literally have our faith tested by the water or fire of persecution, the Hutters fortify our commitment to resist the seduction of empire, the culture, and the false gospel of Christian nationalism—but to do so humbly and nonviolently.
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In addition to the excellent storytelling and artwork, I’ll mention that the Appendices of By Fire includes valuable historical archives including primary sources:
- The 1528 and 1529 Imperial Mandates against the Anabaptists
- A map of historical events
- Brief biographies of the key figures
- A timeline of events
- Jakob Hutter’s letter to the Governor of Moravia
- Jakob Hutter’s letter to his congregation in Moravia
- A description of the “Anabaptist Hunters”
- An account of Jakob Hutter’s capture, torture, and execution (1581)
- A bibliography of major sources
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