Part 1

EBERHARD ARNOLD

Writings Selected

with an Introduction

by Johann Christoph Arnold

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Note to the Reader

Apart from the essay "Why We Live in Community", all of the selections in

this book were excerpted from much longer pieces, and may represent only a

small part of the original.

This e-book is a publication of Plough Publishing House, Farmington, PA

15437 USA (www.plough.com) and Robertsbridge, East Sussex,

TN32 5DR, UK (www.ploughbooks.co.uk) by arrangement with

Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0308, USA

Farmington, PA 15437 USA

Contents

Introduction 7

1 GOD'S REVOLUTION 32

A Call to the Inner Life 32

God's Revolution 38

Against Bloodshed and Violence 44

2 THE NEW JUSTICE 53

Not a New Law 53

Away from Compromise and Shadow 63

God's Kingdom - Future and Present 70

3 BECOMING HUMAN 80

The Better Righteousness 81

The Conscience 84

4 UNLESS YOU BECOME A CHILD 93

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

5 LOVE DIVINE AND LOVE HUMAN 98

Responsibility, Desire, and Love 108

The New Morality 111

6 LOVE IS WORK 115

Community as Work 117

Jesus and the Future State 122

7 FROM ISOLATION TO COMMUNITY 128

Consciousness and Community 129

From Private Property to community 145

Why We Live in Community 153

8 THE FIGHT AGAINST MAMMON 172

God or Mammon 172

The Fight Against Mammon 175

9 GOD WITH US 182

The Experience of God 183

The Spirit of the Risen One 190

The Living Word 194

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

10 THE CHURCH COMES DOWN TO US 200

Unity 206

11 CHURCH AND STATE 212

The New Incarnation 212

Church and State 217

12 EXPECTATION 226

Now Is the Time 229

FOR FURTHER READING 236

Arnold's significance is not limited to his

relatively small community. Some day the

whole family of humankind will recognize

what Eberhard Arnold means for the

spiritual renewal of man in these dark and

troubled times. God sent him as a light into

the darkness, to show erring man the right

way and the true goal.

Pitter Premysl, General Secretary

Christian Communists, Prague, 1935.

Introduction

"Blessed are they who die in the Lord;

their works follow after them."

Widely sought after as a writer and lecturer in his day,

Eberhard Arnold remains largely unknown to modern

readers. Small but growing numbers of readers,

however, are discovering the relevance of his work,

which Thomas Merton said "stirs to repentance and

renewal."

Though he was my grandfather, I never met him. He

died at fifty-two, five years before I was born, but I feel

as though I have always known him - both through my

grandmother's radiant memories of their life together,

and through his heavily-underlined books, which my

father inherited.

Much more than a writer, philosopher, and theologian,

he was loved most of all for his humility, his fatherly

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

friendship, and his deep faith. Born in 1883 into a long

line of academics, his life was hardly conventional. In a

time and place where church and state were anything

but separate, he threw away what might have been a

brilliant career when he left the state church at age

twenty-five. By thirty-seven, he had abandoned middle-

class life altogether. He spent his last fifteen years at the

Bruderhof - the religious community he founded in

1920 - but remained active in traveling, lecturing and

writing until his death in 1935.

Little of what he wrote is available to readers today:

only a small number of the thousands of talks, essays,

and letters he left behind have ever been published in

English. In a certain way, however, this would cause him

no dismay: especially toward the end of his life, he spoke

often of his own inadequacies, pointing instead to the

working of the Holy Spirit. And yet his witness, how

ever small, cannot be left unrecognized. His insights

into the human condition are as relevant today as they

were in the early twenties, and his call to discipleship

rings as true now as it did then.

What was his message, and how did he arrive at his

radical faith? His own words, spoken in 1933, say it

best:

In my youth, I tried to lead people to Jesus through study ing the Bible, and through lectures, talks and discussions.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

But there came a time when I recognized that this was no longer enough. I began to see the tremendous power of

mammon, of discord, of hate, and of the sword: the hard boot of the oppressor upon the neck of the oppressed. I

saw that dedication to the soul alone did not fulfill all of Jesus' commandments; he wanted us to care for men's

bodies as well.

From 1913 to 1917 my wife, Emmy, and I sought pain

fully for an understanding of the truth. Shortly before the outbreak of the war, I had written to a friend saying that I

could not go on. I had preached the gospel, but felt that I needed to do more. The cause of Jesus was more than just

a meeting of individual souls; it had to become a tangible, real-life experience! So we searched everywhere: not only

in old writings - in the Sermon on the Mount and in other scriptures - but also in books about the working class and

their oppression by the economic and social order. We wanted to find the way of Jesus, of Francis of Assisi; the

way of the prophets.

The war years brought unforgettable horrors. One

young officer came back with both of his legs shot off. He came home to his fiancée, hoping to receive the loving

care he needed so badly from her, and she informed him that she had become engaged to a man with a healthy

body.

Then the time of hunger came to Berlin. People ate

turnips morning, noon and night. And when they turned to the officials for money or food, they were told to eat

more turnips. At the same time, well-to-do "Christian" families in the middle of the city were able to keep cows

and had milk! In 1917 I saw a horse fall in the street. The

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

driver was knocked aside by a mob of men who rushed in to cut pieces of meat from its warm body - they had to

bring something home to their children and wives! Dead children were carted through the streets wrapped in

newspapers; there was neither time nor money for coffins.

It was during this time that I visited a woman in a

basement dwelling. Water ran down the walls of her cellar, and the only window in the room was closed

because it opened to the street above. She had tuberculosis but could not afford isolation; her relatives lived in the

same room with her. I offered to find another dwelling for her, but she refused - she wanted to die where she had

always lived. And she was already a corpse!

Gradually it became clear to us that the way of Jesus

was practical and tangible. It was more than concern for the soul. It said, very simply: "If you have two coats, give

to him who has none. Give food to the hungry, and do not turn away from your neighbor when he needs you. When

asked for an hour's work, give two. Strive for justice. If you want to marry and start a family, then see that those

around you can do the same. If you seek education and work, make these available to others also. And if it is your

duty to care for your own health, then fulfill this duty to others. Treat them as you would treat yourself. Enter

through the narrow gate, for it is the only way to the Kingdom of God."

We knew that we had to become as poor as beggars that we, like Jesus, had to take upon ourselves the whole

need of men. We had to hunger for justice more than for water and bread. We knew we would be persecuted for the

sake of this justice, but our righteousness would be greater

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

than that of the moralists and theologians. And we would be filled with fire from above: we would receive the Holy

Spirit.

But we could not endure the life that we were living any

longer.

My grandfather practiced what he preached, and by

1920 he and my grandmother, with five young children,

had left their comfortable suburb of Berlin-Steglitz for

a dilapidated villa in the Rhön mountains. This move

was more than just a geographic relocation; it was a

radical change of life. Though the years ahead would be

ones of grinding poverty, the Arnolds would never

again be held back by financial worry. The Sermon on

the Mount was not merely an ideal, but a way to live.

From now on their house would be open to the destitute;

their lives would be consumed in caring not only for

souls but bodies as well.

To their friends, this was madness; to them, it was an

"opportunity for love and joy." But rash as it seemed,

their move from Berlin - as their earlier move away

from the state church - was a step taken in faith; or

rather, as my grandmother often said, a leap:

We had no financial basis of any kind for realizing our

dreams of starting a new life. But that made no difference. It was time to turn our backs on the past, and start afresh...

to burn all our bridges, and put our trust entirely in God

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

like the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. This trust was to be our foundation - the surest foundation, we

felt, on which to build.

Eberhard's spiritual quest had already begun years

earlier when, as a teenager on summer vacation at the

home of his mother's cousin, he had begun to read the

New Testament. This relative, a Lutheran pastor who

had once sided with local weavers during a labor

dispute, impressed him considerably. By the time he

returned home he had become aware that his clothes

were better than those of many other classmates, and

that when his parents held a party, they invited only

their coterie of well-to-do academics - and not the poor

of the street. His questions about these matters

infuriated his father, but he remained undeterred. Were

Jesus' words metaphor only? Sooner or later, he must

find out.

In the years to follow he estranged himself from his

schoolmates as well: he took his new-found faith so

seriously that he sought out former teachers and begged

their forgiveness for his previous unruly and dishonest

behavior. By the time he was a university student,

however, his fervor no longer caused embarrassment:

Dwight L. Moody's religious revival was now sweeping

Germany, and his enthusiasm for its cause soon gained

him popularity as both a writer and speaker.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

It was around this time that he first met my

grandmother, Emmy von Hollander -known to us

children as "Oma." The daughter of a law professor, she

shared Eberhard's social and intellectual background,

and like him was active in the revival movement. Within

a month, the two were engaged. They would remain

together until his death, twenty-eight years later.

It was during this same time in 1907 that the

question of baptism emerged as a central theme. Many

young adults felt that their christening had made them

heirs to a culture but not a faith, and so began to have

themselves re-baptized. Characteristically, Eberhard

cautioned Emmy to test everything in prayer. The issues

were complex and required careful consideration:

To me it seems almost certain that baptism of believers is biblical. But the question is complicated, and we must test

it slowly and objectively. Let us say nothing until we have reached incontestable clarity. Let us search honestly and

thoroughly for the will of God, and then act accordingly. Either way, however, we shall not be moved one millimeter

from the center. What we need is Jesus - nothing else!

In the end, thorough study convinced the young couple

that the baptism intended by Jesus meant baptism of

believing adults - not infants - and both were baptized

in 1908.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

The consequences were swift: Eberhard was denied

the opportunity to sit for his exams in theology, and he

was forbidden to meet Emmy for one year. This

punishment was painful, but he and Emmy had expected

nothing less. Their baptism was a declaration of war

against the state church, and as such was no small

matter - least of all for a young man whose father was

professor of church history, and whose name was

synonymous with good society. As always, however, he

exhorted Emmy to persevere in faith:

This momentous decision will give our life a sharply-

defined direction, laden with suffering... What will happen only the Lord knows, but that is sufficient. I know with

certainty that Jesus will lead us excellently!

The years that followed were tumultuous. Eberhard was

forced to change his course of study to philosophy; he

wrote his thesis on Nietzsche and earned his doctoral

degree in 1909. He and Emmy were married the same

year, and their house soon became a gathering place for

all kinds of writers, students, and radicals.

War came in 1914, and although Eberhard was called

to the front, he was discharged within weeks on account

of his tuberculosis. He supported the war effort with

nationalistic fervor all the same, publishing propaganda

as the newly-hired editor of a magazine run by one of

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

his boyhood friends. As the war dragged on, however,

he became increasingly disillusioned, and by 1917 he

was a convinced pacifist.

Even earlier, his chief concern had been the care of the

soul, as this statement on the ultimate goals of his literary

work shows:

The name of our publishing house, Die Furche ("furrow") should be a powerful admonition to inner deepening. A

furrow is something that has been plowed up and opened; such an opening must precede every sowing. Only where

the plow of God has exposed the inner life can such a sowing bear fruit. A deepening of the inner life can be

brought about only by the plowing of repentance - that inner revolution and re-evaluation which leads to

metanoia - a fundamental transformation of mind and heart.

His views were not shared by all, however, and over the

next two years it became clear to him that his calling

was no longer one with that of the publishing house. By

1919, his insistence that Christ's teachings were meant

to be practiced in daily life was causing increasing

controversy with the directors of Die Furche. Emmy

writes:

There were always tensions at work. Everyone could

appreciate the confusion of the youth, a result of the suffering of the war and then the turmoil of revolution.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

But while some wanted to lead them back onto the beaten track of pietism, others - Eberhard among them - saw

public events with an entirely new eye. They had learned a lesson from the blatant inequalities between rich and poor,

from the war psychosis they had so painfully observed. They believed they had to go an entirely different way: the

way of Jesus, the way of the Sermon on the Mount.

The years that followed brought widespread social

change. In much the same way as American hippies

rebelled against the complacent affluence of their

parents during the Vietnam War, young people in the

Weimar Republic turned their backs on the social

conservatism and aristocratic pretensions of the failed

Prussian empire.

Thousands of them left the cities for the country,

roaming farms and mountains in their search for truth

and meaning in life. They lacked no diversity in back

ground and opinion, but held in common the belief that

old structures and conventions must die and finally give

way to something new. And although many of them

soon drifted into the hedonism and moral decay that

characterized the post-war period, others, like my

grandparents, saw in the Youth Movement an affirmation

of their spiritual quest for wholeness.

* The Free German Youth Movement of the early 1920s, not the Hitler

Youth of the mid1930s.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

The Youth Movement sought answers to life's questions

in the simplicity of rural life, in the trees and mountains and

meadows, and in the poetry and literature of the romantics.

They rejected the crass materialism of the cities in favor of

the rural life, with its simple pleasures of folk-dancing and

hiking, and turned their backs on the sterility of factory life

to embrace the hard work - and the stench - of the farm.

For them, the collapse of civilization as they knew it was

proof of man's need for nature, and for God.

But it was the question of separating the spiritual from

the material that brought about the birth of Sannerz, the

religious community my grandparents founded in 1920. To

them, life could not be lived in fragments. Everything was

connected: work and leisure, family and friends, religion

and politics - all these had to become one. Repentance

could not effect change in one area while leaving another

untouched. And if one sphere of life was to be influenced

and molded by God, then all other spheres must be influ

enced by him as well.

It was this recognition that led them to leave Berlin

for a new life in the impoverished farming district of

Fulda, opening their doors to wandering musicians,

artists, anarchists, and tramps. If the words of Jesus

could be lived out in the first century, they could be

lived out again now; if Christ could pour out his spirit

on earth two thousand years ago, it could happen again

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

today. Such was their faith as they ventured to create a

community of work and of goods: a life in which every

thing belonged to all and yet to none.

This determination to apply the Gospel in practical ways

led to my grandfather's final resignation from Die Furche

during the spring of 1920. By June of the same year, he and

Oma had moved into the storage rooms of Gasthaus

Lotzenius, an inn in the small village of Sannerz.

Within weeks, however, my grandfather was publishing

again. He had no money and only a tiny staff, but he felt

compelled to publicize as widely as possible the truths

that he and my grandmother, with the small circle that

gathered around them at Sannerz, had begun to recognize.

Formulating his thoughts that August, he wrote:

The task and mission of our publishing work is to proclaim living renewal, to summon people to the actions

of Christ; to disseminate the thinking of Jesus in the midst of national and social distress; to apply Christianity

publicly; to testify to God's action in present history. It is not a church question - it is a religious question. We must

face the deepest forces of Christianity and recognize them as indispensable in the solution of the crucial problems in

contemporary culture. With breadth of vision and with energetic daring, our publishing house will steer its course

into the torrent of present-day thought. Its work in fields that are apparently religiously neutral will gain for us

relationships leading to our greatest tasks in life.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

Already at this stage, my grandfather was an established

writer. He had numerous books and articles to his name,

and definite ideas for even more ambitious projects. Aside

from continued lecturing and writing, he planned to pub

lish a series of books devoted to the great Christian think

ers Zinzendorf, Kierkegaard, Augustine, andDostoyevsky,

as well as books on German woman mystics, Tertullian,

and the Christians of the first and second centuries.

By September, however, his co-editor Otto Herpel

had resigned, unable to agree to a document stating that

the new publishing venture would call only on those

writers whose articles were written "in Christ, of

Christ, and toward Christ." Eberhard had become "too

pietistic," even for his best friends.

He was hardly deterred by these disappointments,

however, and plunged even more feverishly into the

work of building up Sannerz and the publishing house.

As he put it, any apparent defeat in the face of partisan

socialism and religious politics was "in actual fact a

victory for the decisive spirit of the Sermon on the

Mount."

Sannerz grew rapidly over the next two years.

Business was relatively good, and dozens of articles,

pamphlets, and books were written, edited, and produced.

Yet the publishing work was only part of the community's

mission. The founders of Sannerz believed strongly that

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

community was the solution to all of life's questions: eco

nomic, social, educational, political, and sexual issues were

all addressed and fully answered by the common life. Even

more, then, the literary achievements of the first years at

Sannerz are staggering, considering the interruptions by

the two thousand visitors who came in 1921, as well as the

farm work and household chores that had to be done.

But the summer of 1922 brought trouble: while

travelling in Holland, Eberhard was notified by telephone

that the shareholders of his fledgling publishing house

had met to liquidate the firm. They accused him of

financial irresponsibility, idealism, and even fraud.

The crisis erupted over the management of the

community's publishing house. My grandparents had

left Sannerz several weeks earlier to visit a sister

community in Holland, but while they were gone

inflation had suddenly soared, and loans that had not

been due for months were suddenly recalled. The

community back home at Sannerz panicked, but my

grandparents advised inner calm. To them, the words of

Jesus about the lilies and the birds were not mere

poetry; they were a mandate for the disciple's life.

In the end, a friend surprised them with a large envelope

of guilders which, when converted to marks, came to

the exact amount due at the bank the next day. Inflation

had been on their side, and more importantly, their faith

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

had been rewarded. Too late, however, they returned

home to find the publishing venture liquidated - by the

very friends they had left in charge.

More than forty people left Sannerz in the following

weeks, all firmly convinced that spiritual and temporal

matters could not and should not be mixed. The

"experiment" was over: people were too weak, too

human, too selfish to live by faith. Yet for my

grandparents, Sannerz had been no experiment: it was a

calling, and they would hold fast to it.

Within weeks, there was a complete split between

those to whom faith was merely a ideal, and those to

whom it was a living reality that had to determine every

decision and every action.

In addition to splitting the circle at Sannerz, those

who left also divided the publishing house. They took

with them both office equipment and several best-selling

titles, including the periodical, which they began to put

out under a new name only months later.

The crisis was especially painful because of the bitter

and slanderous accusations with which so many people

left Sannerz. But as a shareholder admitted during the

liquidation proceedings in August, Eberhard had done

nothing dishonest. It was simply a matter of faith versus

economic considerations: "What separates Eberhard

Arnold from the rest of us is his conviction that faith

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

must determine all relationships, including financial

ones."

Years later, a Vienna newspaper would agree, stating

that Eberhard Arnold was one of the very few publishers

who not only published religious works, but dared to

apply their message in his own life. This was the heart

of his vision. The spiritual had to penetrate and transform

the material, for Christ intended not only words but

deeds: "Be doers of the word, and not hearers only."

Thus my grandparents rejected the notion that their

community was an escape - that they had isolated

themselves from the problems of society. True, the

people who joined Sannerz had removed themselves

from the mainstream of modern life, but only to the

extent that they could live unfettered by it. Their

ultimate goal was to remain a corrective in a world that

had gone badly awry: to be, in the words of Jesus, salt

and light.

Yet my grandfather never saw himself as unique or

capable. His discipleship was uncompromising, but

never self-satisfied; he saw himself as nothing other

than the servant of a higher cause. He always sought out

the truth in others. And he saw the community he

guided not as a lifestyle or institution, but as a

free-flowing movement that was driven by - and that

would die without - the wind of the Holy Spirit.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

Looking back on the first years at Sannerz, he later said:

At that time none of us was so narrow-minded as to fail to

appreciate the work of God in other people and in other spiritual movements. Perhaps our danger was rather in the

opposite direction - that for some time we held back from expressing certain insights into God's ultimate truth, in

order to avoid putting pressure on people who had not yet been awakened or called.

We were certain that these people had been struck by God - that they were in the midst of a mighty movement

of heart. But they had not yet fully grasped what God wanted in the shaking of their souls, and so we spoke with

them only about those things which moved them at that moment. We did not force on them things to which their

hearts had not yet opened.

So it was that many spiritual movements came to us.

And we were not such foolish missionaries as to say that Buddhism was of the devil or Lao-tse the Antichrist. We

recognized God's spirit at work in Buddha and Lao-tse. And because we recognized this, we ourselves were ani

mated by what they brought to us from God - even if they spoke in strange tongues.

Thus we did not speak of mission in the sense of going out to people. There was so much life in the house - so

much coming and going - that we were a mission station already, in the midst of heathen Germany. But it was never

that we were the converters and the others the ones to be converted. Rather, we recognized the Holy Spirit at work.

The rooms at Sannerz were filled with a power that did not come from us, nor from those who visited us. It was a

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

power that came from God. People brought it with them, and they in turn felt it in us. But neither they nor we

possessed this power; rather, it surrounded us like an invisible fluid, like the wind of the spirit that visited the

waiting apostles at Pentecost.

This power did not adhere to particular people. It could

not be possessed or held fast, or used for gain or profit. It was an event, a happening, an occurrence; it was history.

It was a manifestation of the eternal and everlasting in time and space. It was a communication with a primal

force, which we could never have explained in a human or logical way. That was the secret of those times. There was

something at work that was more than psychic; something that could not be explained in terms of emotions. It was

something spiritual - something of the Holy Spirit.

But we never thought then - it would have seemed a

kind of craziness to us! - that only people like us, or even just the handful of people at Sannerz, were visited by

God's Spirit, or were illuminated by the Spirit of Christ. To the contrary, we felt the blowing of the Spirit in all

people and all places. The important thing for us was to feel this breath of God and to recognize it.

We ourselves had to live according to the calling that had come to us from the words and life of Jesus, from the

prophetic image of God's future kingdom. We had to be true to this calling to the end. We believed we could best

serve all those who were touched by the breath of God by living out the reality of our ultimate cause: the objectivity

of God's will, and the content and character of his kingdom.

We were called nature lovers - people said that we

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

wanted to go "back to nature" - but that is not at all what we wanted. To the contrary, we looked beyond nature

itself and to the divine at work within it. The greatest thing in our movement was that the Creator was honored in his

creation. We were not sun-worshippers, but we had an inner feeling for the symbolism of the sun and for the kind

of Creator who must have created it...

It may seem strange that such an insignificant group

could experience such lofty feelings of peace and community, but it was so. It was a gift from God. And only

one antipathy was bound up in our love - a rejection of the systems of civilization; a hatred of the falsities of social

stratification; an antagonism to the spirit of impurity; an opposition to the moral coercion of the clergy. The fight

that we took up was a fight against these alien spirits. It was a fight for the Spirit of God and Jesus Christ.

By 1931, however, the movement of heart that had

swept Germany only a decade earlier had all but dried

up. So my grandfather looked farther afield, visiting the

Hutterites of Canada and the mid-western United

States. Rooted in 16th -Century Moravia, this group

still lived in small communities, sharing all things in

common. They were perhaps too narrow-minded and

dogmatic for his liking, but they nevertheless represented

the purest form of communal Christianity he had ever

met. And so he joined hands with their four-hundred

year-old movement after a year of careful consideration.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

He had immediately recognized the danger of their

conservative pietism, but emphasized that he was

attracted not to the 20th century Hutterianism but to

the Hutterianism of the 16th century - that movement

of faith that had left behind thousands of martyrs. Also,

he had never wanted to found his own sect, but again

and again sought to join with like-minded groups. And

by 1931 he somehow sensed that he would not live much

longer. He had seen numerous community attempts

collapse and had been amazed to find that the

Hutterites were still living in community after 400

years. Joining them, he felt, was a safeguard for the

Bruderhof.

Of his experiences in North America, he wrote:

In spite of their weaknesses, which I have openly brought to light, these American communities have kept from their

16th-century origins a spiritual vitality - a creativity in working and organizing along communal lines - that

comes from the Holy Spirit...

My overall impression is that the community life of

these 3500 souls is something overpoweringly great. Their spirit of community is genuine, pure, clear, and deep.

There is nothing in the whole world, neither in books and writings, nor in any other present-day groups, that can be

compared to the essence, character, and spirit of their brotherhood...

Though in full recognition of our own origins,

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

inspired by the Youth Movement, and by the Sermon on the Mount, I have decided to join forces with them. The

question of financial support is of a secondary nature...

Despite my grandfather's enthusiastic adoption of early

Anabaptist spirituality, however, his hopes for a close

economic relationship with the North American

Hutterites never materialized, both because of the great

distance between Germany and Canada, and his

untimely death.

The first of two Gestapo raids occured 1933. Eberhard

was not intimidated, however, and sent off reams of

documents to the local Nazi officials, explaining his

vision of a Germany under God. Before his death in

1935 he would write even to Hitler, urging him to

renounce the ideals of National Socialism and to work

instead for God's kingdom - and sending him a copy of

his book Innerland. Not surprisingly, this letter was

never answered. Later, the entire community was exiled

to England and Liechtenstein; remarkably, not a single

member was deported to a concentration camp.

My grandfather's death came suddenly in 1935, the

result of complications following the amputation of a

gangrenous leg. But as his friend, the scholar Hermann

Buddensieg wrote years later, he is still very much alive

today:

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

Do not be surprised that I talk with you as if you were still right with me. For what does the present know of what is

yonder? You are not dead; no, you are alive in the Spirit...

And now we are together again, my friend, at Sannerz,

in the Rhön, and in my study on the banks of the Neckar:

The people come and go, young and old, looking for

refuge in their need. They are wrapped up in themselves, unnatural, cramped and stiffened, exaggerated, without a

goal beyond themselves. And yet your house has an open door; no one is first asked who he is...

We work in the fields and in the house. Together we toil for an understanding of the people and events around us. I

see the roguish glint in your eyes, your mischievous smile and waggish beard, your cheerful laugh when the

peculiarities of human life force themselves upon us. We are often wearied with dull, commonplace talk, but we

also laugh freely and heartily, in gales of truly Homeric laughter...

That was your gift. Your wit was pithy, but free of poisonous hypocrisy. You had no love for stuffiness or

sweetness. About you there was no penetrating smell of "Christianity," no cliquishness, no sentimentality. To seek

out heretics was just as foreign to you as was the addiction to straighten out everyone according to your own way.

You valued other people as long as they were earnest, and you came to terms with the insincere. You found a way

with the most pigheaded peasant and with the most stubborn "man of God." You were a brother to them when

they needed you, and your manner was at all times cheerful, genuinely animated by trust.

You lived life from the center and from the depths. You

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

did not inherit Christ from others, but from out of your own inner experience and encounter. You were one who

was truly freed by Christ, who was changed by him. You were free of anxiety. Your faith was no mere acceptance

of truths, no flight of fear, but certainty. And therefore there was nothing of conventional Christianity in you, for

you knew precisely that Christ was no "Christian."

You opposed all appearance, all posturing and all self-

righteousness. You were not concerned with dogma, but rather with the life of Christ, with the community of

brothers and sisters in the sense of the primitive church.

You took humanity for what it is. You were as distant

from illusion as from misunderstanding. You knew demonic powers and the weight of the age, but these things came to

you not in isolated recognition, but as a binding call to help your brothers.

You knew the power of the church community within the great current of a completely different world. But you

never recruited. Whoever was called, heard, and thus came to you; some to live with you and your friends in

community; others, touched by your insight, to remain as good friends...

Let me embrace you, my friend! You are present - a witness of the new life in Christ; a man of kindness, a friend

of freedom, a brother of knowing love - but yet one of such decisiveness that you discern and separate spirits.

There is no doubt that Eberhard would have disapproved

of this eloquent eulogy, and thus it is fitting that this

introduction end with words he spoke on his fiftieth

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

birthday, in July 1933. Here he is no longer just my

grandfather, but a man of God - a prophetic voice in a

world that needs him now more than then:

On this day I have been especially conscious of my lack of ability, of how unsuited my own nature is to the work I

have been given. I have remembered how God called me when I was only sixteen, and how I have stood in his way

- with the result that so much of what he wanted to do has been left unfinished. It remains a miracle nevertheless that

his work has been revealed and testified to in us feeble human beings - not through our merits, but because we

have been accepted again and again through the grace of Jesus and his forgiveness of sins.

I have had to think of Hermas, that early Christian writer who describes the building of the great temple

how he refers to the many stones that must be thrown away. The masons try to use them, but if they do not fit,

even after their corners have been chiseled down, then they must be thrown away - as far away as possible. And

even the stones that are used must first be chiseled very sharply before they can be set into the wall...

What concerns me most of all is the powerlessness of man, even of the man who has been entrusted with some

task. Only God is mighty; we are completely powerless. Even for the work that has been given us, we are wholly

without power. We cannot fit a single stone into the cxhurch community. We can provide no protection what

soever for the community when it has been built up. We cannot even devote anything to the cause by our own

power. We are completely without power. But just this is

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why God has called us: because we know we are power less.

It is hard to describe how our own power must be stripped off us, how our own power must be dropped, dis

mantled, torn down, and put away. But it must happen, and it will not happen easily - nor through any single he

roic decision. Rather, it must be done in us by God.

This is the root of grace: the dismantling of our own

power. Only to the degree that our own power is dismantled will God give us his Spirit. If a little power of

our own rises up amongst us, the Spirit and authority of God retreats in the same moment and to the correspond

ing degree. This is the single most important insight re garding the kingdom of God...

The Holy Spirit produces effects that are deadly for the old life and that at the same time have a wakening and

rousing power for the new. So let us use this day to give glory to God. Let us pledge to him the dismantling of our

own power. Let us declare our dependence upon grace.

Johann Christoph Arnold

God's Revolution

A Call to the Inner Life

Despite the negative connotations the word may imply,

"revolution" comes closest to describing the spiritual upheaval to which Arnold calls us. The following address

was delivered in November 1917, but its message is not dated: the need for inner renewal in the face of

overwhelming social and political change is as vital today as it was then. And Arnold's assertion that Bolshevism

would fail to bring about peace and justice is prophetic. Certainly, the outer life has to change. But the inner life

has to change first, and this change can come about only through repentance.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

There is much talk today about upheaval, and in fact,

we all feel that we are in the midst of the greatest

upheaval humankind can experience. As a result of the

war, our European civilization is undergoing a tremendous

change. It is a change that brings judgement and chas

tisement from God over all that we thought we had

sofirmly under our control, and it has cast us down from

the heights of presumption and pride.

The greatest changes are taking place in the economic

sphere. A powerful wave of social upheaval has swept

across Russia, a wave which has not yet run its course.

We have no idea what kinds of change will still take

place there in the distribution of wealth between rich

and poor, in industry and commerce, in buying and selling.

We cannot yet foresee how far the revolution in

outward things will affect everything else. But one

thing is certain: we need an upheaval.

Certainly most people will get no further than

applying it to outward matters. They are like the Social

Democrat who stated, "We have no time to spend on

inner matters, for the outer ones keep us busy enough."

And that is the danger for most people: because of their

many cares they forget the innermost things and neglect

them, and attend only to outward matters. This is

perhaps the worst thing about the pressing circumstances

of the present moment: those who long for change

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

completely overlook the inner side of life. Yet we must

understand that any lasting change will have to start in

the inner life.

What is great in our eyes is an abomination to God.

We have preferred human honor to God's honor, and

since we have raised ourselves up instead of bowing

down before God, we have sunk deeply into sin and

death. That is why we need an upheaval: a complete

reversal, a re-valuation of all things and all values.

We proclaim Christ as divine power. Jesus is the

Spirit, and where the Spirit is, there is freedom. Whoever

comes under the influence of this Spirit experiences an

upheaval from within, and this upheaval of the soul

brings the renewal that we thirst for and need. Power

from above transforms us from within and makes us

capable of what we would otherwise be quite incapable

of. We no longer live according to the flesh but according

to the Spirit. Paul speaks of this when he says: "If

anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has

passed away. Everything has become new."

Laying aside the old nature and putting on the new is

the only thing that can help us in these times. It is a

matter of the Spirit - a matter of the rule of spirits.

Outward things do not matter. It is the inner things that

have power, because behind all outward powers stand

spiritual forces. So if we ask ourselves in what direction

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our lives should proceed, then there is only one question

that matters. Which spirit will rule over us - the spirit

of the world or the spirit of God? We face the great

either/or, God or the devil, Christ or Satan.

Jesus is the only one who can effect a change in us

Jesus, who lived amongst us and who uncovered and

unmasked our hypocrisy. Only he can change and

transform all things. But we can come under his

rulership, under the authority of his Spirit, only through

the great upheaval of repentance.

The new birth of which he spoke to Nicodemus, the

old man who came to him in the night, is repentance.

And repentance is a complete revolution of life. It is

conversion from the spirit of darkness to the spirit of

light, redemption from all constraints and servitude,

from all error and delusion. But we should not worry

about how this revolution will penetrate the cultural

and political life before we ourselves arrive at it quite

personally.

Either we live in sin and remain in sin or we are saved

from sin and, through the spirit of Jesus, die to sin and

declare war on sin. For whoever is born of God does not

live continually in a condition of sin. He is raised up into

God's world of light, into the Spirit's world of power.

He is morally renewed; has turned toward God in

everything. He is awakened to a fresh and joyful life.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

When Jesus proclaimed repentance, he used the word in

a way that conveys action. And since Jesus added

nothing else to this word but proclaimed it as a single

totality, he showed us that it is a deed of entirety. There

is no repentance if it is not the repentance of the whole

person. There is no repentance if it is not repentance in

all departments of life. There is no repentance that does

not embrace the whole man, starting from the innermost

being and pressing outward into all other spheres.

Repentance must start in the thought-life. Thoughts

are giants that produce deeds, and if repentance has not

taken place in the depths of our heart and mind, we will

never be able to prove it in deeds. But when the life of

self is overcome within us, through the divine life of

Jesus, then there will be a complete transformation of

the outer life. A total change will take place in our

dealings with other people, and we will place our former

friends before the same decision. If they do not accept

repentance, we can no longer be at one with them.

Our repentance will stand the test in our professional

lives, in our concept of duty and of work. We will flee

from everything to do with Satan: the lusts of youth, the

love of money, and the rulership of mammon. Our

reading, our leisure, our political activity and our work

will all be placed under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Repentance as upheaval! If anyone is in Christ, then

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he is a new creature. The old has passed away, and ev

erything has become new.

The great agitation in the world of today makes it more

and more urgent to gain inner strength in those quiet

encounters with Christ that make it possible for us to

remain under his rule and authority. Situated as we are

in the midst of a world that is so terribly unpeaceful, we

need constant nourishment for our inner life. It is

important to look beyond confining externals... Instead

of following the alien spirits of hatred and violence, of

lying, impure, and greedy possessiveness, we must

follow the one spirit who alone is stronger than all other

spirits...

Without a rebirth in our hearts, we will glean from

fluctuating world events either a false meaning - based

on material considerations or on emotional or racial ties

- or no meaning at all. The course of history is interpreted

falsely by very many, in the interests of their own nation

or society. For most people, though, it never has any

meaning at all. There is only one possible way of bringing

this confusion to an end: the whole person, for the whole

of life, must undergo a complete about-face toward the

kingdom of God.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

Rebirth is the only name we can give to such a radical

change - to the complete opposite of our former life.

Only through such a complete change can we see in all

that happens the approach and intervention of God's

rule. We can never see the kingdom of God, or have any

part in it, without a rebirth of heart; without breaking

down the whole structure of our life and then making a

completely new start. Only a new beginning that proceeds

from the very bottom - a rebirth that goes back to the

root - can prepare us for the kingdom of God. We need a

new foundation for our entire personal life.

If we want to avoid suffering inward shipwreck in the

storm of public opinion and chaos, then our hidden

inner being needs daily the quiet haven of communion

with God...

Innerland

God's Revolution

"Revolution" was a catchword in the upheaval of postWorld War I Germany, and Arnold took it as one of his

favorite themes. "World Revolution and World Redemp tion" appeared first in May 1919, and by 1921 there were

two more lectures of the same name. All of his life, he decried modern theology's emphasis on "otherness" as

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

opposed to social responsibility. But Arnold was no Marxist, nor even a socialist. Together with Berdyaev, the Russian

philosopher and theologian, he maintained that the social problems of society could not be solved apart from the

spiritual ones - that without a Christ-centered renewal, the ideals of socialism were destined to fail. This article,

published in 1926, is typical: it hails not to Lenin, but to the Cross.

A radical social revolution, a turning upside down of

all relationships and all things in the cause of God's

justice, is something we can talk about only when we

feel wholeheartedly that this revolution is meant for all

people.

All of us need to be turned upside down. We are all

guilty of the injustices in our society and the degrading

of others in personal and public relationships. And only

when we dare to face this corruption squarely can any

upheaval begin within us.

In the end, this revolution does not center around the

oppressed, who also must be raised up to a genuine life.

No, the aim of this decisive battle is essentially greater.

It grasps at the root of hostility to life, of mortal sin

against life, in every single human being and in public

life as a whole.

God's revolution leads towards a community of

justice and of goods that produces new life-values in the

material and physical world just as much as in the

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

development of character. It is everlasting and without

end; it has in its view the origin of life, which lies in

eternity and infinity. Its purpose and goal is the ultimate,

eternal and all-encompassing future.

We, however, are limited and restricted. We are

short-lived and weak. We are base, and again and again

we represent our own mortal interests. Because of this,

it is evident that God's revolution can never be realized

completely by people such as we are. Therefore the

weapon we must choose is faith in the beginning of a

new life - the weapon of the Spirit itself.

We must carry on the battle without judging or

punishing our fellow human beings, and without injuring

them. Our attitude to life, and the way we work, must

correspond absolutely to the purity of the prophetic

Spirit, to the nature of the Eternal and Infinite - to the

spirit of man's ultimate calling. Only in this way will

our authority be effective at all times. And we must

allow this revolution to begin over and over and always

more profoundly within ourselves. All of us are called

to revolution, because all of us are guilty.

Only the creative Power itself can usher in the New

Day. After the long day of the dinosaurs, those gigantic

dragons of prehistoric times, a new day dawned. In just

the same way, after the present time of degenerate and

sinful man, the Son of Man must dawn, ushered in by a

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

revolution such as the world has never seen. But we cannot

comprehend the dawn of this New Day unless we

understand the witness of the prophets and the apostles.

Prophecy bears witness against all that is self-seeking,

murderous, and antisocial; against all crime against life

and community; against all gain through injury to

another; against luxury and affluence at the expense of

those who suffer want; against violence and war.

Prophecy is the most positive witness to love: to the

sharing of bread, roof, and clothes with all who are

hungry, homeless, and ill-clad; to the release of all

people from chains, servitude, and imprisonment; to

open hospitality for all wanderers and travelers; to the

uprooting of the old and the planting of the new.

Prophecy witnesses to the heart's purification from

injustice and egocentric limitations; to forgiveness and

the removal of evil; to a new heart; to the unconditional

dictatorship of the Holy Spirit and the reign of Christ.

The prophet believes in the realization of the impossible

through God. He is a fighter and spokesman for God's

goal, and God's future is his present strength. He speaks

and acts in it, and is ready to lay down his life for it. His

goal is unity in God: the unity of the Spirit that gives life

and breath to everything. Instead of the coercive state,

he seeks the unified, all-fulfilling, and all-guiding Spirit

of true community.

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

This Spirit was the very breath of life for the first

Christians. To them, property was rooted in sin. Thus

every storeroom and fund belonged to the poor. They

saw it as their duty to uncover and to overcome distress;

to search out and relieve poverty street by street. Their

life was one of utmost simplicity, and their leaders lived

like the poorest.

This attack on property as the legal foundation of

economic order was consistent with the life-and-death

struggle of the early church against the state's pretensions

to absolute authority. The rejection of any high public

office invested with judiciary power, the refusal to pass

judgment on life or death or civic rights, the refusal to

carry out orders to kill whether imposed by the law or

the military - this rejection applied also to the highest

government office, that of emperor. With this attitude,

in spite of all their works of love, the first Christians

remained everywhere "aliens" and "foreigners" within

their society, citizens and ambassadors of a coming

supra-political order.

This revolution of faith had its roots in the certainty

that every single individual, and even earth's whole

atmosphere and the whole of public life, would be freed

from the rule of evil and taken possession of by God. In

the same way today, the certainty that the New Day is

drawing near calls us to a revolution that turns everything

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upside down. Just now, when most people have chosen a

patient acceptance of evolution, when people have

resigned and adapted themselves to the fact of degenerate

reality, the call to the tragic way of the cross must be

heard again.

It is not possible to equate a life in Christ, lived by

grace, with political socialism. On the other hand I feel

strongly that many of the demands of conscience raised

by socialists are born of the same longings that ani

mated people in the time of John the Baptist...

The movement of conscience that is alive in socialism

and communism is directed against the rule of mammon

and bloodshed, against class hatred and greed. This

movement comes from deep within; it is a movement of

God. But this does not prevent me from recognizing, at

the same time, the presence of powerful satanic and

demonic forces at work in these same political movements.

What we need today - and what none of us has yet at

tained - is a simple discipleship of Jesus that responds to

the longing of the present but goes beyond spiritually

edifying experiences.

Letter to Friedrich Böhm, 1920

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

Against Bloodshed and Violence

"Against Bloodshed and Violence" was published in

Arnold's magazine, Das neue Werk, in April 1921. Although he had supported the war effort with nationalistic fervor

prior to 1917, Arnold was by this time clearly convinced that reconciliation was not only to be preached, but lived.

His premise is straightforward: God's kingdom cannot remain a future ideal, but must become present reality. The

character of the present-day church must therefore be in accordance with God's future plan. It follows that the

church cannot condone or support violence of any kind.

Again and again in the life of a nation, and in the class

struggle for existence, pent-up tensions and conflicts

erupt in violent outbursts. These outbursts reveal

exploitation and oppression and the savage instincts of

covetous passion. People respond in different ways to

this violence: some try to uphold law and order by

murderous means, while others feel called to fight for

social justice with the oppressed. As Christians,

however, we must look further ahead.

Christ witnessed to life, to the unfolding of love, to

the unity of all members in one body. He revealed to us

the heart of his father, who lets his sun shine on the

wicked as well as the good. He commissioned us to

serve life and to build it up, not to tear it down or

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destroy it. Thus we believe in a future of love and

constructive fellowship - in the peace of God's kingdom.

And our faith in this kingdom is much more than any

wishful longing for the future. Rather, it is a firm belief

that God will give us his heart and spirit now, on this

earth.

As the hidden, living seed of the future, the church has

been entrusted with the spirit of this coming kingdom.

Her present character must therefore show now the

same peace and joy and justice that she will embody in

the future. For this reason, we must speak up in protest

against every instance of bloodshed and violence, no

matter what its origin.

Our witness and will for peace, for love at any cost,

even our own lives, has never been more necessary.

Those who tell us that the questions of nonviolence and

conscientious objection are no longer relevant are

wrong. Just now, these questions are more relevant than

ever. But answering them requires courage and perse

verance in love.

Jesus knew he would never conquer the spirit of the

world with violence, but only by love. This is why he

overcame the temptation to seize power over the

kingdoms of the earth, and why he speaks of those who

are strong in love - the peacemakers - as those who will

inherit the land and possess the earth. This attitude was

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represented and proclaimed strongly by the first

Christians, who felt that war and the military profession

were irreconcilable with their calling. It is regrettable

that serious-minded Christians today do not have the

same clear witness.

We acknowledge the existence of evil and sin, but we

know it will never triumph. We believe in God and the

rebirth of humankind. And our faith is not faith in

evolution, in the inevitable ascent to greater perfection,

but faith in the spirit of Christ - faith in the rebirth of

individuals and in the fellowship of the church. This

faith sees war and revolution as necessary judgment on

a depraved and degenerate world. Faith expects

everything from God, and it does not shy away from the

collision of spiritual forces. Rather, it longs for

confrontation, because the end must come - and after it,

a completely new world.

I really believe that much good is being said and done in

the cause of peace and for the uniting of nations. But I

don't think it is enough. If people feel urged to try to

prevent or postpone another major European war, we

can only rejoice. But what troubles us is whether they

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

will have much success in opposing the war spirit that

exists right now:

When over a thousand of our German people have

been killed by Hitler - without a trial - isn't that war?

When hundreds of thousands of people in concentration

camps are robbed of their freedom and stripped of all

dignity, isn't that war?

When hundreds of thousands are sent to Siberia and

freeze to death while felling trees, isn't that war?

When in China and Russia millions of people starve

to death while in Argentina and other countries millions

of tons of wheat are stockpiled, isn't that war?

When thousands of women prostitute their bodies

and ruin their lives for the sake of money, isn't that war?

When millions of babies are murdered by abortion

each year, isn't that war?

When people are forced to work like slaves because

they cannot otherwise feed their children, isn't that

war?

When the wealthy live in villas surrounded by parks

while other families don't even have a single room to

themselves, isn't that war?

When some people build up enormous bank accounts

while others earn scarcely enough for basic necessities,

isn't that war?

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

When automobiles, driven at speeds agreeable to

their owners, kill sixty thousand people a year in the

United States, isn't that war?

Talk, August 1934

We do not represent the pacifism that believes it can

prevent future war. This claim is not valid; there is war

right up to the present day.

We do not advocate the pacifism that believes in the

elimination of war through the restraining influence of

certain superior nations.

We do not support the armed forces of the League of

Nations, which are supposed to keep unruly nations in

check.

We do not agree with a pacifism that ignores the root

causes of war - property and capitalism - and tries to

bring about peace in the midst of social injustice.

We do not agree with a pacifism that continues fighting

while it drafts peace treaties.

We have no faith in the pacifism held by businessmen

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

who beat down their competitors, nor do we believe in

the pacifism of people who cannot even live in peace

with their own wives.

We reject any pacifism that brings benefits or advantages

to certain nations or businesses.

Since there are so many kinds of pacifism we cannot

believe in, we would rather not use the word pacifism at

all. But we are friends of peace, and we want to help

bring about peace. Jesus said, "Blessed are the

peacemakers!" And if we really want peace, we must

represent it in all areas of life. We cannot injure love in

any way or for any reason. So we cannot kill anyone; we

cannot harm anyone economically; we cannot take part

in a system that establishes lower standards of living for

manual workers than for academics.

Talk, August 1934

God is our future, even as he is our origin. He

approaches us with a demand and a promise: Break new

ground! Away with what is old and petrified! Become

flesh and blood, stirred with life and feeling! Let the

Spirit come over you as rain comes over the desert,

cracked and fissured in its hardness. Let the Spirit who

E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D

is God himself enter into you, or you will remain dead

bones!

But what good is religious exercise, what good is

worship and song, if God's will is not done, if our hands

are stained with blood? What good is belief by the

unjust, or the confession to God by those who turn their

backs on dying children? Change completely! Become

different; become human! Believe God, and give your

life to God.

This is the message of all the prophets, including John

the Baptist: Change radically! Let everything be turned

upside-down! The new order is coming. That which

now rules the world will be abolished. Something

utterly different will come to this world. The rulership

of God is near!

Jesus did not believe in a god who brings unhappiness,

death and demons, crime and injustice. On the contrary,

he proclaims the God who eliminates all these things.

He knows that evil prevails in this world. But he knows

more: that it will be overcome, that everything will

become new and different.

This victory over evil is the sole task of Jesus' life.

The purpose of his mission is to overthrow Satan, the

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