toleration

David Joris and Dutch Anabaptism, 1524-1543. 2nd Edition.  

Pandora Press, 2026

Paperback – published March 30 2026 

by Gary K. Waite 

Volume 14 of the Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies Series

Order here: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1778730485

“With this re-release of his pioneering study of David Joris and Dutch Anabaptism, Gary Waite shows that the Devil is quite literally in the details – and much more besides. Waite appends a sweeping and authoritative survey to the original text in order to demonstrate how the field has grown radically since the book’s appearance in 1990. He shows how works on demonology, on the history of emotions and of the senses, on the Jews and mysticism, on language, humanists, rhetoricians, and witches have all shifted the historiographical landscape. Joris’s own radicalism gains even greater fluidity, with Waite following the currents – perhaps waves — that move it towards anabaptism, spiritualism, and libertinism. By pairing the original text with an extended review of the research which he and others have carried out over the past forty years, Waite paints a far richer portrait of this complex character who was much loved and greatly reviled, and whose visionary view of a religion free of compulsion is more compelling now than ever.” 
—Nicholas Terpstra, University of Toronto

Originally published in 1990 by Wilfrid Laurier University Press, and reprinted in 2025 by Pandora Press with a new preface and supplementary chapter by the author, Gary Waite’s biography of David Joris is still the most comprehensive scholarly treatment of Joris’ life and thought.

Gary K. Waite (PhD, Waterloo, 1987) is Professor Emeritus at the University of New Brunswick and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His research has focused on the religion and culture of the early-modern Netherlands, beginning with the Dutch Anabaptist and Spiritualist David Joris (c.1501-1556). Waite has also published extensively in the fields of demonology and the witch-hunts (see his Eradicating the Devil’s Minions: Anabaptists and Witches in Reformation Europe, 1535-1600 of 2007) and the religious “other” (Jews and Muslims in Seventeenth-Century Discourse: From Religious Enemies to Allies and Friends of 2019). His most recent publications arise from the Amsterdamnified! research programme on the radical religious roots of the early Enlightenment: Anti-Anabaptist Polemics: Dutch Anabaptism and the Devil in England, 1531-1660 (2023), and the co-edited Spiritualism in Early Modern Europe, in Church History and Religious Culture (101, 2021). With Lisa M. Todd, he is also co-editor of European Racism: A History in Documents (2024).

Praise for David Joris

…impressive.”

—Douglas H. Shantz, in Renaissance and Reformation

“…refreshing.”

—Paul H. Friesen, in Method & Theory in the Study of Religion

“…a major contribution.”
—Lee Daniel Snyder, in Church History

“With this re-release of his pioneering study of David Joris and Dutch Anabaptism, Gary Waite shows that the Devil is quite literally in the details – and much more besides. Waite appends a sweeping and authoritative survey to the original text in order to demonstrate how the field has grown radically since the book’s appearance in 1990. He shows how works on demonology, on the history of emotions and of the senses, on the Jews and mysticism, on language, humanists, rhetoricians, and witches have all shifted the historiographical landscape. Joris’s own radicalism gains even greater fluidity, with Waite following the currents – perhaps waves — that move it towards anabaptism, spiritualism, and libertinism. By pairing the original text with an extended review of the research which he and others have carried out over the past forty years, Waite paints a far richer portrait of this complex character who was much loved and greatly reviled, and whose visionary view of a religion free of compulsion is more compelling now than ever.” —Nicholas Terpstra, University of Toronto

“Waite’s biography of Joris concentrates on his career as a Dutch Anabaptist instead of his later, better-known activity as a Spiritualist in Basel. Waite argues convincingly that, from 1536 to 1539, Joris was the most influential Anabaptist leader in the Netherlands. Adopting a middle path between the revolutionary chiliasm of the Munster Anabaptist kingdom and the radical separatism of Menno Simons and his flock, Joris sought to unite the splintered Melchiorite movement under his leadership… This book has important implications for our understanding not only of Joris but also of northern German and Dutch Anabaptism.” —Geoffrey Dipple

“This new edition of Gary Waite’s important 1990 study on David Joris enriches what was already a ground-breaking publication with the latest research updates on Joris, many of which are from Waite’s own impressive body of publications over the last 35 years. This edition also provides a historiographical update to findings within the broader field of early modern Anabaptist studies and related early modern European religious history in the past several decades. Waite uses the new 100+ page preface to emphasize some concepts that were already present in the original version but that he has come to see as even more significant than he had initially indicated back in 1990; he also adds in new insights on Joris and his context, and takes the opportunity to make some corrections and adjustments to past assessments. The preface alone serves as an excellent introduction not only to the book, and to Joris, but it also provides an accessible start into the conversation for a new generation of readers, and offers the latest academic perspectives (including both methodological and factual updates) on Joris, his networks, and their early modern religious contexts.

Joris was deemed a heretic by the orthodox establishment and even pejoratively called the Devil of Delft by some – which is ironic, since Joris’s spiritualist beliefs led him to dismiss the concept of a physical devil and instead understand evil as something internalized within the individual. In this volume’s new chapter on Joris’s distinct demonology, Waite explores all of this in detail. 

Though it was controversial, Joris’s theological work had an extremely long reach, influencing writers and thinkers among some circles of Mennonites and also many free thinkers of other creeds for centuries after his lifetime. His spiritualist approach to Christianity, which places minimal emphasis on the material trappings of religious practice, is a significant lasting legacy of his reforming work, and one well worth understanding for both historians and theologians today.”

—Nina Schroeder van ‘t Schip, author of Mennonites and Art in the Dutch Republic: Church Home and Art Marketplace (Pandora Press, forthcoming)