Brief Bio

The signs of decline are everywhere in the American church. Instead of finding blame in other places, the author asks “What if God is dismantling the church?” For Kanagy, the decline of the church is ironically the work of God, taking apart the institutionalized church as we know it. Why so? In order to once again reveal the core of Christian faith: Jesus.

About four years ago Kanagy learned that he had Parkinson’s disease. This difficult but liberating experience brought a personal dismantling that transformed his life. The Parkinson’s dismantling gave Kanagy the courage, the guts, and the grit to strip off his masks and speak the truth. It empowered him to say and write things that most of us might think but would never say. Setting aside his inhibitions, freed him to reveal his innermost thoughts and struggles.

These essays mingle the voice of a prophet, the eye of a sociologist, the heart of a pastor, the wisdom of an educator, and above all the candid confessions of a child of God. Whatever your identities—religious, skeptic, political, racial, gender, class—you will find his essays provocative. His unvarnished honesty and his picturesque language are refreshing. Kanagy invites us to see things in new ways that jolt our spiritual complacency.

You may not agree with him on every point, but you will admire his courage to say it as he sees it. He may stir your ire or light your fire, annoy you or compel you to compassion. Prophetic voices do that. But you will keep on reading. His poignant stories, evocative phrases, and frank confessions will entice you to read on and on to the very last line. 

--Dr. Donald B. Kraybill

• “Roadsigns Revisited: A Comparison of Anabaptists in the Global South and the United States.” Mennonite Quarterly Review.86:205-228, 2012.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. “How Can We Sing Those Songs? Testimony in Light of Findings from the 2006 Mennonite Church USA Member Profile.” Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology. 10:64-67, 2009. 
• Kanagy, Conrad L. “Mutual Aid and the ‘New Voluntarism’” in Building Communities of Compassion eds., Donald B. Kraybill and Willard Swartley, Scottsdale,  PA: Herald Press, 1998.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. and Leo Driedger. “Changing Mennonite Values: Attitudes on Women, Politics, and Peace, 1972-1989.” Review of Religious Research 37: 342-54, 1996.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. and Donald B. Kraybill. “From Milk to Manufacturing: The Rise of Entrepreneurship in Two Old Order Amish Communities.” Mennonite Quarterly Review 70:263-79, 1996.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. “The Formation and Development of a Protestant Conversion Movement among the Highland Quichua of Ecuador” reprinted in Religion and Democracy in Latin America, ed., William H. Swatos, Jr., Transaction Publishers, 1995.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. and Hart M. Nelson. “Religion and Environmental Concern: Challenging the Dominant Assumptions.” Review of Religious Research 37:33-45, 1995.
• Kanagy, Conrad L., Craig R. Humphrey and Glenn Firebaugh. “Surging Environmentalism: Changing Public Opinion or Changing Publics?” Social Science Quarterly 75: 804-19, 1994.
• Kanagy, Conrad L., Glenn Firebaugh and Hart M. Nelson. “The Narrowing Regional Gap in Church Attendance in the United States.” Rural Sociology 59: 515-24, 1994.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. and Fern K Willits. “A Greening of Religion? Some Evidence from a Pennsylvania Sample.” Social Science Quarterly 74: 674-83, 1993.
• Nelson, Hart M. and Conrad L. Kanagy. “Churched and Unchurched Black Americans” in Church and Denominational Growth eds., David Roozen and Kirk Hadaway, Abingdon Press, 1993.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. “Social Action, Evangelism, and Ecumenism: The Impact of Community, Theological, and Church Structural Variables.” Review of Religious Research 34: 34-50, 1992.
• Crider, Donald L., Fern K. Willits and Conrad L. Kanagy. “Rurality and Well-Being During the Middle Years of Life.” Social Indicators Research 24: 253-268, 1991.
• Kanagy, Conrad L., Fern K. Willits and Donald M. Crider. “Anomia and Religiosity: Data from a Panel Study of Middle-Aged Subjects.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 29: 226-235, 1990.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. “The Formation and Development of a Protestant Conversion Movement among the Highland Quichua of Ecuador.” Sociological Analysis 50: 205-217, 1990.