In reading history I've come to appreciate certain thoughts and ideals of the oldest of Anabaptist. Brodbent's Pilgrim Church or Verduin's The Reformers and their Stepchildren for instance capture the nub of it: existing independent but coexistive with the state.
Many of the moderns have lost that detail, but the originals lived and existed in the notion of not belonging to the society around them, but living along society as a contrast to it.
Many of the moderns have lost that detail, but the originals lived and existed in the notion of not belonging to the society around them, but living along society as a contrast to it.