But for Wiebe “there’s no great mystery about it.” He recently got a letter from an old friend who said “he can’t figure out how I stuck with church,” Wiebe said. “I have received many other awards, but to get an award like this from my own community is really important to me,” he said.ĭespite how some Mennonites responded to Peace Shall Destroy Many, Wiebe never became angry with the church or lost his faith. The award, created to honor people “who lead exemplary lives of service, leadership and reconciliation in church and society,” was given to Wiebe for how “his works have been critical in exposing societal concerns” and for “the patience and empathy his works awaken,” according to CMU President Cheryl Pauls.įor Wiebe, the CMU award was particularly welcome since it comes from his own faith tradition. On April 4, Wiebe received another honor when he was given the PAX award from Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Man. In 2000 he was named an officer in the Order of Canada. That decision led to a distinguished 25-year career as a professor of English at the University of Alberta and as an award-winning author of 33 books, anthologies and collections of essays about faith, life on the Canadian prairies and western Canada’s indigenous peoples.Īlong the way, Wiebe was a two-time recipient of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Writer’s Trust Non-Fiction Prize and the Charles Taylor Prize for his memoir of growing up in Saskatchewan. “I wasn’t fired, but I resigned before they would have fired me,” he said. As the criticism mounted, he knew he couldn’t stay as editor. At the time he was the new editor of Mennonite Brethren Herald, the denomination’s official English-language publication. “They didn’t speak English, they weren’t accustomed to reading fiction, and they didn’t share insider problems with the outside world,” he said. “It was difficult for the older generation to handle,” he said of the book, which he once described as a “bombshell” for many Canadian Mennonites. In the book, Wiebe explored how Mennonites in the fictitious community of Wapiti, Sask., opposed the war while, at the same time, their church was divided by conflict and broken relationships. “It was hard on them,” said Wiebe, 84, of how it impacted some members of his denomination.
The book, which offered an honest and pointed portrait of Mennonite life on the prairies during World War II, provoked a great deal of anger and pain. At center is associate professor of English Sue Sorensen, who interviewed Wiebe at the event. Rudy Wiebe receives the PAX Award from Canadian Mennonite University President Cheryl Pauls.
That author was Rudy Wiebe, and the book was Peace Shall Destroy Many - the first novel about Mennonites in Canada in English.
Fifty-seven years ago, a young Mennonite author published a book that turned the Canadian Mennonite world upside down.
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