Gerald J. Mast is Professor of Communication at Bluffton University. He is the author of Separation and the Sword in Anabaptist Persuasion (2006) and co-editor of numerous books, including Teaching Peace: Nonviolence and the Liberal Arts (2003) and The Work of Jesus Christ in Anabaptist Perspective (2008). A graduate of Malone College, he received a PhD in rhetoric and communication from the University of Pittsburgh.

Mast was born and raised in Holmes County, Ohio, with deep family roots in the Amish and conservative Mennonite communities. Throughout his life, he has remained affiliated with the Mennonite church and is presently a member of First Mennonite Church, Bluffton, Ohio. He currently serves as the vice-chair of The Mennonite magazine board and as editor of Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History.

Mast is married to Carrie (Roth) Mast and is the father of two young children: Anna and Jacob.

J. Denny Weaver is Professor Emeritus of Religion and the Harry and Jean Yoder Scholar in Bible and Religion of Bluffton University where he taught for thirty-one years. He also taught one year at Goshen College (1974-75) and was Visiting Professor of Theology at Canadian Mennonite Bible College (1990-91). He is editor of The C. Henry Smith Series, which contains 9 volumes to date, with several others in process. His first book was the first edition of Becoming Anabaptist (1987). Since then he has written Keeping Salvation Ethical (1997), Anabaptist Theology in Face of Postmodernity (2000), The Nonviolent Atonement (2001), co-edited Teaching Peace: Nonviolence and the Liberal Arts (2003), and produced a revised. second edition of Becoming Anabaptist (2005). He has also written numerous articles and book chapters on issues of peace theology, Anabaptist theology, Christology, and atonement.

Although retired from teaching, Weaver remains active in speaking and writing. A primary focus of his work is to show how a beginning assumption of nonviolence rooted in the story of Jesus has the potential to shape the formation of any theological issue and to impact the way history is written. This work has stirred significant interest in academic and church settings both in and beyond the historic peace churches. He is a frequent speaker in a variety of church and academic settings, for both popular and academic audiences. He has lectured in the United Kingdom, and taught during short terms in Kenya and the Congo.

Weaver was born and raised on the edge of Kansas City, Kansas. The family attended the Argentine Mennonite church, which he joined at a young age. He has had a lifelong involvement with the Mennonite church, and now belongs to Madison Mennonite Church in Madison, Wisconsin where he moved after retiring from teaching. He attended Hesston College, and graduated from Goshen College with a major in mathematics. Following two years at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, he volunteered with Mennonite Central Committee for conscientious objector service during the Vietnam war.

He and his wife had a year of French language instruction in Belgium and France, and then Weaver taught English as a second language for two years in a public Lycée in Algeria under MCC’s Teachers Abroad Program. He then spent a year in Germany learning German and studying at a German seminary. Following these four years abroad, Weaver finished seminary at AMBS, and earned a Ph.D. in church history from Duke University. In the 1990s he served with three different Christian Peacemaker Teams delegations in Haiti.

Weaver is married to Mary Lois (Wenger) Weaver. They have three adult daughters, four grandsons and two granddaughters.