As the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism draws near in 2025, two Canadian scholars are writing books that ask questions about the role ­martyrology plays in that story.

One is Jeremy Bergen, an associate professor of religious studies and theological studies at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont.

Raised on stories of Anabaptist ­martyrs, he grew up seeing them as heroes of the faith. But as he studied church history and theology, Bergen ­began to wonder what impact those stories had on him when it came to relations to Christians from other denominations.

“I realized those stories had instilled in me a suspicion of Catholics, the church that had killed some of my Anabaptist ancestors,” he said. “It ­produced a sectarian perspective in me.”

Through his new book, which has a working title of Christian Martyrdom and the Unity of the Church (Baylor University Press), Bergen is exploring whether telling stories of Christian martyrs — Anabaptists and others — impedes church unity by promoting a belief that one group is right while others are wrong.

“My goal is to show the legacy of Christian martyrs ought to foster Christian unity, but this legacy can also undermine unity and cause harm,” he said, adding that he wants to reframe martyrdom to promote good relations between Christian denominations.

One thing Bergen will do is explore what martyrdom looked like from the other side.

“In the past, many Christians were killed by other Christians,” said Bergen, who is part of ­Stirling Mennonite Church in Kitchener.

“These were people who also believed they were following God and being true to the Bible. For the early Anabaptists, martyrdom was the path of discipleship. But for those who killed them, that looked like discipleship to them, too. How can we start to think about how both saw it?”

Along with that, Bergen wonders if stories of Anabaptist martyrs can be shared with other denominations to inspire Christians of all kinds.

“Can Dirk Willems be a hero for Catholics today, too?” he asked.

Also writing a book on ­martyrs is Jennifer Otto, a historian who teaches in the department of religious studies at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. The working title of her book is Martyr Church: Re-Inventing Martyrdom in the Anabaptist Tradition (Fortress Press).

Otto, who is part of Lethbridge Mennonite Church, wants to “situate Anabaptist martyrology in the broader church story and look at how that story was understood in the 20th century,” she said.

She noted that although the early Anabaptists rejected the idea of saints, they meticulously preserved the memory of their martyrs by composing martyr hymns, preserving trial records and compiling collections of martyr acts like Martyrs Mirror.

Otto wants to explore how 16th-century Anabaptists made use of existing ideas about martyrs from the early Christian church and how the retellings of martyr stories impacted their relationships with the wider Christian church.

She intends to show that Anabaptists weren’t the only ones who rooted their faith in a martyr tradition. So did Catholics, Lutherans, Reformed Christian and English Protestants.

Sometimes it can sound like the Anabaptists “are the true sole inheritors of the martyr history, the only true church,” she said, noting that they also ­conflated being a pacifist and martyrdom.

Otto will also examine how the martyr stories have been used in more recent times, and how Anabaptists today need to come to terms with how they have been complicit in colonialism, racism and sexual violence — being among the persecutors, in a sense, and not the persecuted.

As with Bergen, Otto will also show how those who executed the early ­Anabaptists “were also acting out of their deeply held beliefs, what they believed God and the Bible wanted them to do.”

They saw Anabaptists as threatening not just theologically but socially, undermining societal norms in such a “dangerous way they needed to be stopped,” she said.

Both scholars realize their work might be a bit controversial. “But we are now prepared to look at the origin story more critically,” said Otto. “Not just celebrate the martyrs.”

The authors expect the books to be released in late 2025 or 2026.