Review by Choice Review
Eberhard Arnold (1883-1935) was an influential German theologian and Christian leader in the first half of the 20th century. From an academic and churchly family, Arnold rejected the established German church of his era and began to search for a more authentic form of Christian life. During the troubled times of WW I and the 1920s, Arnold worked with a number of smaller Christian movements in Germany, seeking a form of Christian socialism. Eventually Arnold, his family, and some friends founded a community at Sannerz which rejected class distinctions and advocated communal living and pacifism. While the community struggled for existence, Arnold sought a model for community life, finding it in the Hutterites, a group of 16th-century Anabaptist communities that had emigrated to North America. Connecting with the Hutterites, Arnold called his community by their name, "Bruderhof" (Community of Brothers). Though Arnold died in 1935, during the time his community was struggling with the Nazi threat, the Bruderhof movement survived and currently numbers seven communities in Germany. This is a fascinating biography of a very unusual man and captures the essence of his movement and his thought. Recommended for all levels. M. A. Granquist; St. Olaf College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
As a boy, Eberhard Arnold (1883^-1935) had the profound experience, out of which he forged his understanding of Jesus and Christianity, of feeling infused with God's spirit. Thereafter, he chided his father, a professor of theology and church history, for not following Jesus' teachings (e.g., for feeding his well-off friends instead of the poor). He had strong missionary zeal and, as the son of a scholar, the opportunity to meet other kinds of Christians. Such encounters expanded to encompass non-Christian points of view when he attended seminary (he made fascinating replies to Nietzche's criticisms of Christianity). Eventually, influenced by the pacifist Anabaptists, the Salvation Army, and student Christian movements, he began the Christian communal Bruderhof movement in the 1920s. The Nazis expelled the Bruderhof (which moved to Britain and the Americas), but not before persecuting it, forcing Arnold to draw upon every inner resource as the movement, with its dedication to primitive Christianity, peace, and service, simultaneously grew. Arnold's is truly an amazing and enlightening spiritual journey. --Jeff Ahrens
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Baum, a youth conference speaker and host of a young adults' radio program, provides an engaging biography of a revolutionary Christian in early 20th-century Germany. Inspired by religious vision and forced by his father to study theology, Arnold moved increasingly away from the state church, inspired an antibourgeois youth movement, and founded a community based on "common table, community of goods, communal work" but dedicated to marriage and to children. Arnold also influenced Barth, Tillich, and Buber and opposed Hitler. He is hence an important figure for both historians and scholars of contemporary religious thought, but this first biography on him is accessible and enjoyable reading for general audiences as well. Recommended for public, seminary, and academic libraries.ÄCarolyn M. Craft, Longwood Coll., Farmville, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
