Part 4
shreds. This worship of idols - the worship of money
and property - is the curse of our century.
People defend their collective egotism by explaining
that they don't want their property for themselves, but
for their wives and children. They say they don't fight
wars to protect their own personal property, but to protect
their neighbors or village or country. But a man who
loves wife and child loves his own flesh. And love for
one's own family or clan, as well as loyalty to one's tribe
or nation or state or even social class, is nothing other
than collective egotism.
Let me speak frankly: I oppose nationalism and
patriotism; I oppose the laws of inheritance. I oppose the
class rule of the property owners and the class war of the
proletariat. I oppose the party system. Why are there
armed forces? Why are there courts of law? Why is there a
militia? These exist simply for the sake of protecting
property, that isolated thing which is detached from all
else, and which is doomed to death.
We have fallen into a state of disintegration; we have
fallen from God. And we will remain lost as long as the
deciding factors in our lives remain the covetous will,
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
its struggle for existence, its selfish claims and rights
and privileges. The curse that lies over us - this ruined
life - has been accepted as normal and even tolerable.
We must be freed from the curse of life without spirit
and without God!
The natural world around us shows the way to relief.
All of life is maintained by the sun, by the air, by water,
by the earth and its resources. And to whom was the sun
given? To everyone. If there is any one thing that people
do have in common, it is the gift of sunlight. But as the
early Christians said, "If the sun were not hung so high,
someone would have claimed it long ago."
And the desire to own property, to take for ourselves
things which in no way belong to us, does not stop short
at the sun. The air is already bought and sold as a
commodity, by health resorts. And what of water? Or
waterpower? Why should the earth be parceled out into
private hands? Is it any different from the sun? No; the
earth belongs to the people who live on it. God intended
it for them, but it has been taken over by private
individuals. Privare means to steal. Thus private property
is stolen property - property stolen from God and from
humankind!
Jesus is the friend of humanity and therefore the enemy
of private property. He wants people to have true 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
He attacked the urge to self-preservation and privilege.
He gave up everything and became not only the poorest
but also the lowest, for he was classed as a criminal. He
kept nothing back for himself. He had no money of his
own: his wandering community had a common purse.
He said quite plainly that those who follow the urge
to self-preservation are lost. He who tries to keep his
life will lose it. He who does not leave all that he has
cannot come with me. Sell all that you have and give it
away. Keep one coat only, and give anything beyond that
away. If a man asks one hour of work from you, give
two. Do not gather possessions. Do not hang on to rights
and privileges.
Even Nietzsche said that Jesus confronts the false life
with a real life. But what is life? And what is the true life
that we should lead? A body is alive only when all its
organs function as one unit. Life is coherent unity in
movement. Life is inseparable from unity, unity of will,
of feeling and of thought, and cannot exist apart from it.
And humanity will be united only when it is directed by
the spirit of community - when each individual works
for the good of all.
If we want community we must want the spirit of com
munity. For this reason I reject the so-called Communist
society. My faith rests solely in that communism that has
faith in the Spirit. The collective soul of community is the
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Holy Spirit. In this spirit the church community is
unanimous and united, rich in gifts and powers.
We must remember, however, that just as the unity of
the body cannot be maintained without sacrifice, so the
unity of fellowship demands sacrifice if it is to be
maintained. If this community could endure without
any sacrifice on the part of its members, it would be
nothing other than the gratification of self.
Individuals in the community must be prepared to sacrifice
themselve and all their powers.
This is true love: that we lay down our lives for our
brothers and sisters. And it is the only way to belong to
the church. If we grasp this, we will understand the
message that is the affirmation of life: not renunciation
for the sake of renunciation, but liberation for the sake
of new birth - liberation from illusion to reality, from
the non-essential to the essential. Then we shall be
united at the communal table, as guests at a wedding
feast.
Lecture at the Tolstoy Club, Vienna, November 1929
Regarding our relationship to the Religious Socialists:
we are very much concerned that the objective
proclamation of the Kingdom of God not degenerate
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into some new theoretical orthodoxy. Therefore we
agree with you that we must take a lively interest in the
socialist and pacifist movements of our day, and we
affirm the global conscience they represent - without
resorting to their false methods. What we share with
them is simply the view that the community of the
future will be a life in which all goods are shared freely
and lovingly.
Letter to Professor Evert, Hillsboro, Kansas, 1920
We are not simply a society for colonizing, for forming
new settlements or villages (as if there weren't enough
villages already) where people live as close together and
yet as far apart as anywhere else. Nor is it our aim to
create a community of the human race or to bring
people together for communal living just as they are.
That would be a complete failure. All attempts based on
the present state of humanity will be unsuccessful.
Right from the beginning, they are doomed to go bankrupt.
Address, October 1933
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Unless our justice is better than that of the moralists and
theologians - and that of the Bolshevists - we cannot enter
the kingdom of God. The justice of Bolshevism is
inadequate because it does not come from the heart, nor
from spiritual fellowship; it is forced down people's
throats. And that is no way to build community.
Bolshevism and political communism are based on an
ideal of centralized government and economy. They
force a way of life on people. They approach things from
without. They tackle the outward problems of economics
in the hope of improving inner relationships. But murder is
not the way to peace. Killing is not the road to love.
Thus Bolshevism is a dangerous abyss; it is anti-
Christian. And yet it can point us to something better
and purer: Christ and his perfect love.
Talk, July 1933
The basis of our communal life is God and God alone.
But we cannot ever say we have acquired this basis, that
we now own religion as one owns property. What we
have must rather be given to us again each day. It is a
dreadful thought, but we can lose it at any time. We are
placed on this foundation only by God's grace. Our 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
does not result from our natural abilities or wishful
thinking. It must be given to us by the Holy Spirit.
Address, July 1932
Why We Live in Community
Arnold's own words sum up this essay best: community is
not a choice or ideal, but an imperative. And community must be built by the Holy Spirit, or it will fail. Our best
instincts may lead us to community, but we will remain in capable of living in community as long as we try to build it
with sentimental love or on social ideals. What we need is work - love in action - and faith in God. Work will bring us true joy, and faith in the Spirit will bring us victory over
sin.
Life in community is no less than a necessity for us - it is
an inescapable "must" that determines everything we
do and think. Yet it is not our good intentions or efforts
that have been decisive in our choosing this way of life.
Rather, we have been overwhelmed by a certainty - a
certainty that has its origin and power in the Source of
everything that exists. We acknowledge God as this
Source. We must live in community because all life created
by God exists in a communal order and works toward
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
God is the source of life. On him and through him our
common life is built up and led time and again through
cataclysmic struggles to final victory. It is an exceedingly
dangerous way, a way of deep suffering. It is a way that
leads straight into the struggle for existence and the reality
of work, and into all the difficulties created by the human
character. And yet just this is our deepest joy: to see
clearly the eternal struggle - the indescribable tension
between life and death, man's position between heaven
and hell - and still to believe in the overwhelming power
of life, the power of love to overcome, and the triumph
of truth, because we believe in God.
This faith is not a theory for us; neither is it a dogma,
a system of ideas, or a fabric of words, nor a cult or an
organization. Faith means receiving God himself - being
overwhelmed by God. Faith is the strength that enables
us to go this way. It helps us to find trust again and again
when, from a human point of view, the foundations of
trust have been destroyed. Faith gives us the vision to
perceive what is essential and eternal. It gives us the
eyes and hands to see and grasp things which, though
everywhere, cannot otherwise be seen or touched.
If we possess faith, we will no longer judge people in
the light of social custom or according to their weaknesses,
for we will see the lie behind the many masks of our
mammonistic and murderous society. Yet we will not
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believe either that maliciousness and fickleness, however
real, are the ultimate nature of the human character.
Admittedly, in our present nature, without God, we
humans are incapable of community. Temperamental
mood-swings, possessive impulses and cravings for
physical and emotional satisfaction, powerful currents
of ambition and touchiness, the desire for personal
influence over others, and privileges of all kinds - all
these place seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the
way of true community. But if we have faith we cannot
be deluded into thinking that these realities are decisive:
in the face of the power of God and his all-conquering
love, they are of no significance. God is stronger than
these realities. The unifying energy of God's Spirit
overcomes them all.
It is abundantly clear that the realization of true
community, the actual building up of a communal life, is
impossible without faith in a higher power. People try
again and again to put their trust in human goodness,
which really does exist, or in the force of law. But all
such efforts are bound to come to grief when faced with
the reality of evil. The only power that can build true
community is faith in the ultimate good, faith in God.
We must live in community because only through this
positive venture will it ever become clear to us how
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incapable of life man is without the life-giving and
community-building power of God.
There are political organizations that stand, as we do,
for international peace, the abolition of private property,
and full community of goods. Yet we cannot simply side
with these organizations and fight their battles in their
way. We do feel drawn, with them, to all people who suffer
need and distress, to those who lack food and shelter and
whose very mental development is stunted through
exploitation. With them, we stand side by side with the
underprivileged, with the degraded and the oppressed.
And yet we cannot support the kind of class struggle
that employs violent means to avenge exploitation. We
reject the defensive wars of the oppressed just as much
as we reject the defensive wars of nations.
We must live in community because we have taken
our stand in the spiritual fight on the side of all those
who fight for freedom, unity, peace, and social justice.
All revolutions, all communes and idealistic or reform-
oriented movements, force us to recognize again and
again that only one thing can arouse faith in the good:
action born of truth. We have only one weapon against
the depravity that exists today - the weapon of the
Spirit, which is constructive work carried out in the
fellowship of love. We do not acknowledge sentimental
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love, love without work. Nor do we acknowledge
dedication to practical work if it does not daily give
proof of a heart-to-heart relationship between those
who work together, a relationship that comes from the
Spirit. The work of love is a matter of the Spirit. The
love that comes from the Spirit is work.
When working men and women voluntarily join
hands to renounce everything that is self-willed, isolated,
or private, their alliances become signposts to the ultimate
unity of all people. The will that works toward this
unity comes from God. Work as spirit and spirit as work
- that is the fundamental nature of the future order of
peace, which comes to us in Christ. Work alone makes it
possible to live in community, for joy in work means joy
in those with whom we work. Such joy is given to us only
to the extent that we sustain a consecrated relationship to
the eternal, even when performing the most mundane
tasks. For everything that is material and earthly is, at
the same time, consecrated to God's future.
We must live in community because God wants us to
respond to the unclear longings of our time with a clear
answer of faith.
The life of love that arises from faith has been witnessed
to over the centuries, especially by the Jewish prophets
and later by the first Christians. We acknowledge Christ,
the historical Jesus, and with him his entire message as
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proclaimed by his apostles and practiced by his followers.
Therefore we stand as brothers and sisters together
with all those who have lived in community through the
long course of history: the Christians of the first century;
the Montanists in the second; the monastics and Arnold
of Brescia; the Waldensians; the itinerant followers of
Francis of Assisi; the Bohemians and Moravians and the
Brothers of the Common Life; the Beguines and
Beghards; the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century; the
early Quakers; the Labadists of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries; and many other denominations
and movements down to the present day.
We must live in community because we are compelled
by the Spirit that leads to community again and again,
over the centuries.
We acknowledge Jesus and early Christianity. The
early Christians dedicated themselves as much to
people's outward needs as to their inner ones. Jesus
brought life: he healed sick bodies, resurrected the dead,
drove out demons from tormented souls, and carried his
message of joy to the poorest of the poor. His message
means the realization of the future invisible kingdom
now. It is the promise that ultimately the earth will be
won wholly for God.
It is the whole that matters here. The love of God does
not stop at boundaries or barriers; neither does Jesus
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
stop in the face of property any more than he does in the
face of theology, moralism, or the state. Jesus saw into
the heart of the rich young man, whom he loved, and
said, "One thing you lack: sell all you have, give it to the
poor, and come with me!" It was a matter of course for
Jesus that his disciples should hold no personal possessions
but rather keep a common purse. Only one man was
entrusted with the hateful responsibility of managing
the disciples' money, and he broke under it - a lesson with
no little significance for our mammonistic society today.
Yet even Christ's betrayal and execution did not mean
defeat. The Spirit with which the Risen One endowed
his itinerant disciples brought forth communal life on a
much larger scale. The first church became a community
of several thousand people who, because love was burning
in them, simply had to live together. In all questions
regarding communal life, the forms that emerged were
in keeping with an understanding of life as one unified
whole.
The first Christians in Jerusalem held everything in
common. Whoever owned property felt compelled from
within to share it. No one possessed anything that did
not belong to the church. Yet what the church owned
was there for all. Its generous love excluded no one; its
door and heart were closed to no one. At the time of its
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
flowering it found ways to reach all people. And though
its members were bound to become the target of hatred
and hostility, they still won the love and trust of those
closest to them.
The early Christians lived in the Spirit. The Spirit
blows like the wind - it is never rigid like iron or stone.
The Spirit is infinitely more sensitive and delicate than
the inflexible designs of the intellect or the cold, hard
framework of governmental or societal structures. The
Spirit is more sensitive even than all the emotions of the
human soul, more sensitive than all the powers of the
human heart, on which people so often try - in vain - to
build lasting edifices. Just for this reason the Spirit is
also stronger and more irresistible than all these other
things. It can never be overcome by any other power,
for it is the breadth, depth, and height of being. And it
lives on powerfully in Jesus as the inner voice and inner
eye that leads to community.
The light of the early church illuminated the path of
humankind in only one short flash. Yet its spirit and
witness stayed alive even after its members had been
murdered and scattered. This happened again and again
through history, as various groups of people formed
new expressions of the same living Spirit. Witnesses
were killed, but new ones were - and are - born to 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
Spirit again and again. Communities pass away. But the
church that creates them remains.
Efforts to organize community artificially can result
only in ugly, lifeless caricatures. But when we are empty,
when we open ourselves to the Living One - to the Holy
Spirit - we will experience the same life as did the early
Christians. This Spirit is joy in the Living One, joy in
God as the only real life. It is joy in all people, because
all people have life from God. This Spirit drives us to all
people and brings us joy in living and working for one
another, for it is the spirit of creativity and love.
Community life is possible only when we surrender
to this Spirit. This is such a powerful experience that we
may never feel equal to it; in truth, we never will. But
our energies can be quickened by its white-hot heat, and if
we allow it to burn us to the core -to the point of sacrifice-
its flames will radiate far and wide. Community life is
martyrdom by fire: it means the daily sacrifice of all our
strength and all our rights, all the supposedly justified
claims we commonly make on life. As individual logs
we must be burned away - must be united in glowing
flames - if we want to send warmth and light out into the
land.
We must live in community because the spirit of joy
and love gives us such an urge to reach out to others that
we wish to be united with them for all time.
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 whole of natural life is a parable of God's future
community. Just as the air surrounds us, or as a blowing
wind engulfs us, we need to be immersed in the blowing
Spirit who unites and renews everything. Just as water
washes and cleanses us every day, so in baptism we must
witness to our purification from everything that is of
death. This "burial" in water must signify a complete
break from the status quo. It must be a vow of mortal
enmity toward all evil within us and around us. And the
raising of ourselves up out of the water must proclaim
resurrection in vivid imagery and unforgettable clarity.
The resurrection we see everywhere in nature is no
different: after the dying of autumn and winter comes the
blossoming of spring and the fruit-bearing of summer;
after seedtime comes harvest. In fact, the whole course of
human history, from man's origins to his final fulfillment,
is symbolized by the cycle of nature.
Symbolism can be found in the trivialities of existence,
too: when approached with reverence, even daily rites
such as mealtimes can become consecrated festivals of
community. On a deeper level, we can find expression
of community in the symbol of the Lord's Supper: the
meal of wine and bread. The Meal of Remembrance not
only witnesses to the catastrophe of Christ's death and
to his second coming, but also to the fact that we receive
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
him in ourselves. It witnesses to his church, his body, as
the ultimate unity of life.
In the human body, community is maintained only by
the constant cycle of cells dying and being replaced by
new ones. In a similar way, a life of full community can
exist only where there is heroic sacrifice. Because it is
an educational fellowship of mutual help and correction, of
shared resources, and of work, true community is a
covenant made in voluntary surrender and sacrifice. As
such it fights for the existence of the church.
In the context of church community, justice has nothing
to do with satisfying even reasonable demands for
personal rights; on the contrary, it consists in surrendering
everything to God. This cannot come about through
hard demands made on others, however, but in joyous
self-sacrifice - for God's Spirit comes to expression as
cheerful and voluntary work.
We love the body because it is a consecrated dwelling
place of the Spirit. We love the soil because God created
it to be cultivated by the communal work of man. We
love physical work - the work of muscle and hand - and
we love the craftsman's art, in which the spirit guides
the hand. We see the mystery of community in the way
spirit and hand work through each other.
We love the activity of mind and spirit, too: the richness
of all the creative arts and the intellectual and spiritual
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
exploration of history and humanity. Whatever our
work, we must recognize and do the will of God in it.
And God has entrusted the earth to us not only as an
inheritance but also as a task: our garden must become
God's garden, and our work must further God's work.
We must live in community because we are stimulated
by the Spirit who calls nature, work, and culture to unity
and community with God.
No less significant than the symbol of the body is the
symbol of community as the harbinger of God's kingdom.
Where God reigns there will be joy and peace and justice.
In the same way that every body consists of millions of
independent cells, so millions of people will become one
organism. This organism exists already today as the
invisible church.
When we acknowledge as reality the unity and order
of this invisible church, we acknowledge at the same
time the freedom of the Spirit within it. The more
clearly a community defines its unique task, the more
deeply conscious it must be of belonging to the una
sancta, the One Church. Because it is part of a larger
organism, it needs the give-and-take that comes from
serving the whole body, and it needs to be instructed and
guided by the united witness of all those who believe in
the church.
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 secret of community is to be found in the freedom
of self-determination, in the personal decision of the
individual member to surrender to the whole and, at the
same time, to exercise their will for the good. This free
dom, without which communal life cannot exist, is not a
matter of power exercised by human self-will, nor is it a
matter of spinelessness or unrestraint. In a community of
deeply moved people who believe in the Spirit, the freedom
of an individual lives in their free decision for the will of
the Spirit. Working from within each member as the
will for the good, freedom becomes unanimity and
concord. The will of a person liberated in this way will
be directed toward the kingdom, toward God's unity,
and toward the good of the whole human race. As such it
will be vital and intensely energetic.
Standing as it does in a world of death, an active will
must constantly assert itself against the destructive and
enslaving powers of lying, impurity, capitalism, and
military force. It is engaged in battle everywhere:
against the spirit of murder, against all hostility (including
the venom of the taunting, quarrelling tongue), and
against all the wrong and injustice people do to each
other. It must fight in public as well as in private life
against the very nature of hatred and death, and against
all that opposes 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
The call to freedom is a call to battle without pause.
Those who are called to it must be continually alert.
They need not only the greatest willpower they them
selves can muster, but also the aid of God, in order to
meet the plight of the oppressed, to stand with the poor,
and to fight against all evil in themselves and in the
world around them.
This fight must be waged more strongly against the
evil within a community than against the evil of the
world outside. Most importantly, it must be fought
within each individual, who must take up the fight
against the old Adam from the position of the new. In
this way all softness and all flabby indulgence will be
overcome by the burning power of love.
We must live in community because the struggle of
life against death demands united ranks of souls and
bodies.
Community of goods presupposes the willingness of
each individual member to turn over unconditionally to
the common household whatever he acquires in the way
of income or property, large or small. Yet even the
community does not regard itself as the corporate
owner of its inventory and enterprises. Rather, it acts as
a trustee of the assets it holds for the common good of
all, and for this reason it keeps its door open to all. By
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 same token it requires for its decision-making
undisturbed unanimity in the Spirit.
The struggle for unity and for love is fought on many
fronts with many different weapons. So too, the work of
community will find expression in many different ways.
But we must have certainty of purpose for every stretch
of the way we are called to go, and when we possess this
certainty we will be given the strength for loyalty and
unerring clarity - even in small things - to the very end.
There can be no great commission without a clearly
defined task. Only those who stand firm can bear the
standard. Nothing can be entrusted to the person who
cannot hold out.
It is of decisive importance that our work lead only to
Christ, that it serve the whole, the church, the coming
kingdom. When a person sees his task as something
special in itself, he will go astray. But when he serves the
whole, he serves God and the community. Before our
human service can become divine service, however, we
must recognize how small and limited it is in the face of
the whole.
A special calling - living in community, for instance
must never be confused with the church of Christ itself.
Life in community means discipline in community,
education in community, and continual training for the
discipleship of Christ. Yet the mystery of the church is
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
something different from this - something far greater.
It is God's life, and coming from him it penetrates
community. This penetration of the divine into the
human occurs whenever the tension of desperate yearning
produces an openness and readiness in which God alone
may act and speak. At such moments a community can
be commissioned by the invisible church and given
certainty for a specific mission: to speak and act in the
name of the church - albeit without mistaking itself for
the church.
The church we acknowledge lives in the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit in which we believe bears the church within
itself. This church of the Spirit will give life to the
future unity of humankind. It gives life already now to
all truly living communities. The foundation and basic
element of every community is not merely the combi
nation of its members but simply and solely the unity of
the Holy Spirit, for the true church is present there.
An organism becomes a unit through the unity of
consciousness brought about by the spirit that animates
it. It is the same in a believing community. The future
unity of humankind, when God alone will rule, is ensured
by the Holy Spirit. For this Spirit is the coming leader
and Lord himself. The only thing we can hold on to here
and now, the only thing we can already perceive of this
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
great future of love and unity, is the Spirit. Faith in the
Spirit is faith in the church and faith in the kingdom.
In the life of a community, several decisive questions
will need to be confronted again and again. How are we
called? To what are we called? Will we follow the call?
Only a few at a time will be called to the special way that is
ours. And those who are called must hold to the common
task shown them by God for the rest of their lives. They
must be ready to sacrifice life itself for the sake of unity.
People tear themselves away from home, parents, and
career for the sake of marriage; they risk their lives for the
sake of wife and child. In the same way it is necessary to
break away and sacrifice everything for the sake of this
way. Our witness to voluntary community of goods and
work, to a life of peace and love, will have meaning only
when we throw our entire life and livelihood into it.
It is now [1925] over five years since our tiny fellowship
in Berlin decided to venture, in the sense of this confession,
to live and work together in community on the basis of
trust. With time, a life of total community came into
being. We are small in number, and we come from the
most diverse backgrounds and walks of life, but we want to
place ourselves as one movement in the service of all
people. Given our basis of faith, we cannot approach the
development of our community from a purely economic
point of view. We cannot simply select the most capable
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
people for our various work departments. We aim for
efficiency in all areas; but far more important, we seek
faith. Each of us - whether committed member, helper,
or guest, and no matter what his task - must ask himself
daily whether or not he is growing into the coming
community ruled by Christ.
Our work, then, is a venture dared again and again. Yet
we are not its driving force - rather, it is we who are driven
and who must be urged on. The danger of exhaustion and
uselessness is always present, but it will be continually
overcome by the faith that underlies mutual help.
Essay, 1925
It is certainly true that God works in people, in men and
women. But when this truth is exaggerated to the point
where we believe solely in ourselves and other human
beings, we are on the wrong track. We must believe in God
in such a way that not we but God is in the center. Only
then can God work in us and through us. We must become
so transparent that what other people see is no longer us,
but God. Community can come into being in no other way.
No matter how humble, dedicated, or unassuming we may
be, we cannot build community in our own strength.
Talk with visitors, June 1933
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
We have nothing. If we ever thought we had community,
we have now seen that we do not have it. And it is good
for us to have seen that. Community exists exclusively
in Christ and his life-giving Spirit. If we forget him and
are left without his influence - if we forfeit his working
among us - it is all over with our community.
Address, November 1935
Our communism of goods, of table, of work, and of life
should never take the place of what is essential - even if
all these things have sprung out of the essential. The
only essential is God himself: his will for complete love,
his power for renewed life, and his Spirit for active
brotherhood.
Letter, 1927
The Fight Against Mammon
All his life, Arnold fought against mammonism, that is, "the enslavement of the soul to circumstance." This fight was not
lessened even by a life of poverty. His children remember that their mother would occasionally bring up her worries about
financial debts at breakfast - the one time of day when the family might have relaxed. Arnold's response was
predictable: "Emmy, worry is also mammonism. Let's spend time with the children."
God or Mammon
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the
one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one
and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and
mammon." This great and dynamic struggle of which
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
Jesus spoke is still raging today. Mamona was the
Aramaic word for wealth, and with it, Satan tempted
even Jesus: "I will give you all this if you will fall down
and worship me."
In the early Christian era, some scholars interpreted
"Mammon" as a name of the devil Beelzebub. Others
interpreted it as the name of a demon particularly
connected with money. Any attempt to combine service
to God and service to mammon will end in failure. We
must cleave to God alone and despise mammon!
God and mammon are the two masters between
whom we must choose. They are two goals that cannot
be reconciled. The pursuit of money, the preoccupation
with outward things, is incompatible with all other
goals and purposes. Devoting ourselves to a life of ease
and pleasure means letting outward things become the
determining force in our lives. Serving mammon means
secretly worshipping things, clinging to them and loving
them to the exclusion of God.
Materialistic people demand everything for themselves.
They are carried away by their senses and seek nothing but
bodily ease, comfort, and pleasure. They value things and
not people, and are dominated by their power. They
have been made a slave to them and has been deprived
of the wealthy life that gives and bestows. They ask only
what life can give to them; they know only rights and
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
not responsibilities. Their uppermost goal is payment
and gain. They strive to secure property and comfort at
the expense of others. Believers, however, see in this
love of money the old - and ever new - danger that
threatened even the first Christians.
Nothing but overcoming the self can rid us of the false,
debasing life that serves mammon. Even nonbelievers
recognize this. Nietzsche said, "Consume yourself in
your own flame; how can you become new unless you
first turn to ashes?" And Goethe wrote, "As long as
you've not learned / to die and live again, / you're just a
gloomy guest / here on this dark earth."
But how is it possible to "re-become," as the mystic
Eckhart demanded; how can one, in Goethe's words,
"de-self oneself" when one is bound and fettered as
mammon's slave? How can one enter a strong man's
house and steal his goods, unless the strong man is
bound first?
When a strong man guards his own dwelling his goods
are left in peace; but if someone stronger comes and
conquers him, the spoil is soon divided. And Jesus is
stronger than mammon: he has overcome, disarmed, and
bound the enemy. The cross is stronger than the devil.
Its victory is deliverance from mammon, from the
deadness of a debased life. If we die with Christ, 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
shall live with him. Therefore, "Set your hearts on what
is above, not on what is on earth. For you have died, and
your life is now hidden in Christ."
Essay, 1915
The Fight Against Mammon
If life is love, and love means fellowship; and if all living
things interact to promote life and unity and freedom,
then how is it possible that death, destruction, and murder
are so rampant in the world today?
Two powers are at work in the world: the power of
love that leads people to associate with each other, and
the power of death that separates people and destroys
the fellowship of love. This power of death poisons the
organism of humanity, making it sick and corrupt. It
murders and kills. It covets and isolates. It attacks all that
holds life together. It destroys the coherence of all living
things. But alongside this power that murders and
enslaves, a constructive and creative power is still at work.
This tension between opposites is a reality of life.
People who try to consecrate their lives or devote
themselves to a cause must face this either/or, this
question of God or mammon. And it is not true 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
everything religious is united against everything irreli
gious. It would be nearer the truth to draw the dividing
line through both.
Not all who call themselves Christians are connected
to the same center, nor are they motivated by the same
thing. The religion of many who confess to the name of
Jesus Christ has nothing to do with God or the coming
kingdom. Their religion is really that of the Anti-god; it
is permeated by the demonic powers of the abyss that
cause the disintegration of human solidarity.
Is not the great world organization that names itself
after Christ serving a god other than the God whom
Jesus confessed? Has not the institutional church sided
with wealth and protected it; sanctified mammon,
christened warships, and blessed soldiers going to war?
Has not this church in essence denied him whom it
confesses? Is not the Christian state the most ungodly
institution that ever existed? And are not the state and
the organized church, which protect privilege and
wealth, diametrically opposed to what is to come: God's
new order?
Nobody can serve two masters. Nobody can serve
God and mammon. The message of Christ had to do
with the "trans-valuation of all values" - the coming
kingdom of God. His first witnesses testified to a radically
new order, an order concealed from those blinded by 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
god of this world. This god - the god of greed and
murderous possessiveness - stands opposed to the
kingdom of justice, unity, and love. Jesus defined its
nature with utmost sharpness. He called Satan the
"murderer from the beginning."
Even the blind can see that economic development
means the murder of thousands of people - that big
business rules through the power of the lying spirit, and
that governments wage war by means of deception. A
capitalistic society can be maintained only by lies; if
people were to recognize this, there would be a total
revolt against the greatest deception in the history of
mankind. But we are a long way from revolting. Most
pious and even many working people think, "Rich and
poor have to be." They ignore the fact that it is impossible
to amass any kind of fortune without cheating, without
depriving and hurting others and destroying their lives.
They fail to realize that big business, concentrated in a few
hands, can steer hundreds of thousands toward certain ruin
through unemployment.
Why do these facts remain hidden from us? How is it
possible to be cheated of justice and be blind to it? It is
because we ourselves are also under the rule of this god,
mammon.
Mammon is the rule of money over people. It means
dependence on income and finances instead of on 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
We recognize that mammon is the enemy of God, but
we cannot apply the lever that lifts it off its hinges: we
ourselves are so dominated by it that we lack the
strength to rebel.
The deepest human relationships are based not on
mammon, but the spirit. No one of us can live in isolation;
we are all interdependent. All of us are interrelated in
groups, families, classes, and trade unions; in nations,
states, churches, and all kinds of associations. And
through our humanity we are interrelated in an even
deeper way: through the love of God that flows from
spirit to spirit and heart to heart, leading to organic,
constructive fellowship.
But there is a devilish means that seeks to rob us of
heart and spirit and God. This means is money. Money
reduces human relationships to materialistic associations.
It destroys the highest human goals. At first it may be just
a means of barter, but later it becomes a commodity in
itself. It becomes power. In the end, it destroys all true
fellowship.
Money and love are mutually exclusive. Where
mammon rules, the possessive will is stronger than the
will to community. The struggle to survive becomes
stronger than the spirit of mutual help. Where mammon
rules, matter is stronger than spirit, and self-assertion
stronger than solidarity. Mammon never motivates
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
people to work in a creative way for a life of fellowship.
Instead, it engenders the enslavement of the soul to
circumstance. It is the spirit of lying, impurity, and
murder, the spirit of weakness and death.
Jesus, the prince of life, declared war on this spirit, and
we must declare war on it too. When our inmost eye has
been opened to his light, it can no longer respond to what
mammon demands. When our hearts are set on the future
when we expect God's kingdom - we can no longer
accumulate property. We will turn our backs on everything
present and live instead for freedom, unity, and peace.
Jesus entered the temple with a whip not to strike people,
but to show his contempt for money: his father's house
belonged to God, not to mammon. In the Gospel of Mat
thew, he exhorted the otherwise blameless rich youth to
confirm his love by selling everything: "Give all you have
to the poor, and come follow me." And when he was shown
the coin of the emperor, he answered, "Give to Caesar
what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God."
This attack on the order of mammon resulted in his
death. Yet life had the final victory. The men and women
who had gathered around him in life waited for something
new after his death. They waited for the Spirit. They
knew that the spirit of love, order, and freedom was the
spirit of God's kingdom. And this Spirit came upon
them, bringing about a church: a fellowship of work and
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
goods in which everything belonged to all, in which all
were active to the full extent of their powers and gifts.
This church succumbed to the process that destroys
life. Just as individuals die, so this church also died. But
in the course of the centuries a new church rose. Time
and again small communities were formed in which men
and women declared war on mammon and took upon
themselves the poverty of generosity. In choosing this
poverty, they chose the richest way.
Simple communism existed among primitive people.
And throughout history the revolutionary struggle, the
fight against materialism, has continued. We who see
the appalling results of capitalism today stand at the
point where the uprising against capitalism begins. The
words of Jesus - "He who is not with me is against me"
- hold true also for us. We are on the same side as all
revolutionaries who fight against mammon.
There are two ways to fight against mammon. One
holds to the ideals of socialism and communism. The
other is the way of communal work and fellowship in all
things spiritual and material - the voluntary gathering
of those who are free of private property and capital.
This is the seed that sprouts in the stony field.
At first, just a little tip of grass shows. After a few
days of sun and rain, there are patches of living green.
And then, only weeks later, the whole field is flourishing
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
with life. In spite of weeds and stones, the young crop
has broken through. What the individual blade of grass
cannot achieve, the whole field can. The harvest is
there!
But wheat and weeds cannot be separated before the
harvest. We must wait for harvest time, otherwise the
wheat will be torn out and the weeds left standing. It
would be completely contrary to the spirit of Jesus to
hang the servants of mammon on lampposts in bloody
revolution. We can have no part in violent revolution
because it allies itself with the father of lies.
It is self-deception to think we can overcome mammon
by violence, for violence is of the same evil spirit as
mammon. We cannot drive out poison by means of poison.
The new can be born only of the new; only out of life
comes life; only of love can love be born. Only out of the
will to community can community arise.
And community is alive wherever small bands of
people meet, ready to work for the one great goal, to
belong to the one true future. Already now we can live
in the power of this future; already now we can shape
our lives in accordance with God and his kingdom. The
kingdom of love, which is free of mammon, is drawing
near. Change your thinking radically so that you will be
ready for the coming order!
Lecture, 1923
God With Us
How do we come to Jesus? To experience the heart of
God we need Jesus; to experience Jesus, we need to
experience that moment in which he sacrificed his heart.
And that was the moment when he sealed the surrender
of his life with the last drop of his blood, when his eyes
dimmed and his heart broke - the hour when he also
comforted a criminal. It was Golgotha: that time and
place in which we enter into pure, unclouded fellowship
with God's eternity, God's heart, God's love. Golgotha
is the window through which we can look from this
darkened earth into the radiance of God's heart.
"If Christ were born a thousand times in Bethlehem
but not in you, you would still be lost eternally." That is
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
what the mystery of religion witnesses to: the uniting of
the individual soul with Jesus Christ; the uniting of the
individual spirit with the universal Spirit at one moment
in time.
Lecture, March 1921
The Experience of God
In this excerpt from Innerland, Arnold stresses Christ as a person, not a concept or a merely historical figure. Jesus
did not bring a new religion, but new life. And his message is meaningless if it does not affect the way we live.
The kingdom of God is the will of God made real. And
God's will is unconditional; it cannot be restricted. It
does not acknowledge any other will, and tolerates no
rival authority. Nor does it ally itself with anything that
curtails, restricts, or limits love. The kingdom of God is
power: it is the righteousness of God, the peace of Jesus
Christ, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
And God's kingdom can begin already now, in our
time, wherever the peace of Christ reigns. For God sends
the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. This brings both
obligation and authority: those gripped by this spirit
must drive away all other spirits, and must establish 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
valid the spiritual laws of the kingdom even in the outer
spheres of life.
God's peace within our hearts will enable us to become
builders and bearers of outward peace. For God fills the
believing heart with such overflowing joy that it must
go out in love to all, driving away the spirits of war and
strife, of competition and private property. Those who
receive this joy will be drawn, one after the other, into
the circle of love and complete community. The spirit of the
church is the spirit of God's kingdom - the spirit of justice,
peace, and joy. And it is the church of Jesus Christ that
brings this kingdom down to earth here and now.
The spirit of God works within our hearts, but it
brings about outward consequences as well. It wants
community in everything, and so it tears down all existing
human relationships and builds them up anew. This
spirit does not originate with people, but is poured into
believing hearts - hearts which, when filled with God,
radiate a faith that strengthens life and increases works
a thousandfold. This faith is something personal, and yet
it is also objective: it is the confident trust with which
Paul declares: "I live, yet it is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me; the life I live now in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God." There can be no life of
faith other than that lived in unity and community with
Christ.
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
Faith is made alive in Christ. We live in Christ, and
Christ lives in us; it is he who transforms our lives from
within. Luther experienced this mutual relationship only
after years of struggle; for this reason, his experience of
God is of historical importance. His consciousness of
sin and his fear before God's justice threw him into such
agony that he did not know which way to turn. He could
find no consolation, either from within or from without,
and felt he must perish utterly.
Only through the grace of Christ's love could he later
affirm, writing to his friend Spenlein, that Christ justifies
us without our own efforts or works - and that without
this justification, we cannot live before God, before
ourselves, or before others:
Learn to know Christ, that is, the crucified Christ... Say to him: "You, Lord Jesus, are my righteousness, but I am
your sin. You have taken upon yourself what was mine and given me what was yours; you have accepted what you
have not been, and given me what I have not been." Yes, you will learn from Christ himself that, in the same way as
he has accepted you, he has made your sins his and his righteousness yours.
This mutual relationship, this receiving and giving of
one to the other, is Luther's understanding of the words:
"It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."
And the certainty of this oneness depends not on us, but
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
on him; we die to ourselves only when our will becomes
one with his will to die. Everything we have ever been
or experienced or achieved must die at the cross. Only
from Christ's grave can the will be resurrected into
freedom.
It is the loneliness of the Crucified One that gives us
freedom from self-importance. It is the step taken by faith,
into death and through the grave, that leads to certainty
of life. Christ accepts us so completely that he says, "I
am this poor sinner; his sin is my sin, and his death is my
death." This unity in death frees us from sin, despite the
most terrifying consciousness of it. We have life in the
Risen One!
Now Christ is in us: he has taken our lives upon himself.
Our old lives are taken away; through his life, we now
share all that he is. Everything he possesses he now offers
to us. The same Jesus who says, "All power in heaven and
on earth has been given to me" now gives us his authority.
The same Christ who takes as his own the seat at the
right hand of the Father makes us partakers in his divinity.
He, the Son of Man, the last Adam, has made us his
brothers and sisters.
People often forget that for Luther, faith meant taking
hold of the precious and costly treasure itself, that is,
Christ. Only Christ himself could give substance and
content to Luther's faith. But we need not define 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
what we need is simply Christ. Christ comes down to us
and becomes our life. His coming is faith; what he does
is faith. With all their understanding and good intentions,
the human forces of piety, wisdom, and religion have no
faith. Their efforts to rise up to God are futile. Believing in
Christ means quite simply that Christ becomes one
with us. It means that he abides in us. The life we have in
faith is Christ himself.
And where Christ is, the law that condemns us is forever
canceled. Here is Christ, who condemns sin and throttles
death! Where he is, everything that destroys life must
withdraw. Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Christ is here! No power can sever us from the
love of God as long as he, the most powerful, is our master.
If we lose him, there is no help, no consolation, no counsel
anywhere. The terror of death will be all there is to
know. But to be with Christ means life and peace, within
and without.
The life of Christ is energy, for God is dynamic power.
Luther says expressly that the Holy Spirit does not
leave a believer idle, but impels him to "all manner of
good, in which he can exercise his faith and prove his
Christian character." But here we must go beyond
Luther, for here he goes no further.
If Christ lives in us, he will unfold his powers in us.
The justice and righteousness of his Father will become
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
our justice and righteousness. Christ in us means serving
others and working for others, for our faith must be as
active in love as was his. What he accomplished, we
must represent in deed as well.
The unity of Jesus with the Father is so complete that
he says, "What is mine is thine, and what is thine is
mine." In the same way, the believers are so united with
Christ that they too can say, to Christ and their brothers
and sisters, "Mine is thine, and thine mine." The love of
Christ impels them to act and live in this way. The
justice and righteousness of Christians is Christ and his
life. The Holy Spirit urges them toward the same good
deeds that Jesus did.
Those gripped by Jesus have, like him, a love that
relinquishes all privileges. When they confess that Christ
is their life, like Christ they choose voluntary poverty for
the sake of love; like Christ they sacrifice their lives
unconditionally for friend and foe, with all they are and
have.
Jesus was given all power and might. His love, therefore,
must rule unconditionally and unhindered in the lives of
those who receive his authority. Only then can he give
them his commission. And this commission must fill the
whole of life. It must transform all circumstances and
relationships in accordance with its objective demands.
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
We should not say that we believe in Christ and his
kingdom - or in unity and community with him - if we
do not sacrifice everything and share everything with one
another, just as he did. We should not claim that his
goodness and his righteousness have become our goodness
and our righteousness if we do not give ourselves to the
poor and oppressed just as he gave himself to them. We
should not think we have experienced the Strong One,
who exercises all authority at the right hand of the
Power, if his works of justice and community are not
fulfilled in our lives. If we have faith, the working of
this faith must become obvious in works of perfect love.
If Christ rules in us, his rule must go out from us into all
lands. If his spirit is in us, streams of his spirit must
transform everything around us in accord with his
promises about the coming kingdom.
Innerland
Deeds reveal the character of the heart. If the heart is
not clear and undivided - "single," as Jesus puts it - then
it is weak, flabby, and indolent, incapable of accepting
God's will, of making important decisions, or of taking
strong action. This is why Jesus attached the greatest
significance to singleness of heart, to simplicity, unity,
solidarity, and decisiveness. Purity of heart is nothing
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
else than absolute integrity, which can overcome desires
that enervate and divide. Determined single-heartedness is
what the heart needs in order to be receptive, truthful and
upright, confident and brave, firm and strong.
Innerland
The Spirit of the Risen One
Christian circles have often been attacked on account of
their call to repentance. They are told that the unceasing
accusation of the conscience paralyzes initiative, takes
away freedom, and destroys personality. Certainly one
would have to come to this conclusion if one were to
experience only the consciousness of sin by itself. But
those who proclaim Christ cannot separate repentance
from faith. The message of the Cross is inseparably one
with the proclamation of the Risen One.
Luther called for daily remorse and repentance because
he experienced again and again the unconditional
certainty of possessing the gift of salvation. He knew
that no one could accuse or condemn God's elect, and he
knew himself to be justified by God himself. He had
experienced the presence of the Christ who intercedes
for us with the very powers of his resurrected 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
One of the things that cannot easily be explained is
that for a Christian, the deepest recognition of sin and
absolute freedom from all condemnation must become
completely one. The source of inner freedom and faith
lies in God and Christ, while the murky depths of
remorse and repentance are found only in ourselves.
It is the soul's instinct of self-preservation which
holds us back from complete honesty about our own
moral condition. Without the strength of the Gospel,
unrestrained insight into our own helplessness and
depravity would lead us to despair, for it is just when we
attempt to apply the strictest self-discipline and the
firmest moral code that we are faced with the absolute
impossibility of justifying ourselves in the eyes of God.
The Gospel wants the truth about our condition to come
completely out into the open. At the same time, it offers
us the possibility of a clear and joyful conscience - a
merciful God in the midst of deepest self-recognition.
What we are unable to do by our own efforts, God has
done: He sent us his Son.
Faith in this fact cannot be shaken by anything. Even
though all men speak against us, even though they
accuse and condemn us, we believers in God and in
Christ still cannot be discouraged. However hard the
times, however low the ebb of moral and religious
power, this one fact remains: God gave his own Son for
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
us. And even if we cannot find other people who in their
actual lives reflect God's nature, still Jesus remains
the redemption for every person.
This historical fact must become the spiritual experience
of the present. It means that God, in giving us Jesus,
gave us everything. Perfect love became flesh, and this
means his love will become life and reality everywhere.
Once we grasp this we can no longer despair of God's
love, or question his intervention on our behalf.
However, we misuse and belittle the certainty of this
love if we accept it without at the same time destroying
our own vanity and self-will. The collapse of national
pride, self-accusation and guilt, the disintegration of
cultural values in state and church, and the repeated evi
dence that it is impossible to produce with purely human
powers the conditions of peace and justice we long for: all
these experiences convince us that we need grace.
Grace is a sovereign gift; we can do nothing to acquire it.
That inner state in which it seems everything is breaking
down is the preparation we need to receive Christ. Only
when everyone accuses us - only when we condemn our
selves in the sharpest way - are we in a condition of inner
readiness for the message of salvation.
The invincible power of the first Christians sprang
from the fact that they believed in the presence of that
same Christ who had ascended to the Father. We, too,
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
can believe in the powers of Jesus' death and the
strength of his resurrection only when we experience
the immediate presence of Christ.
The first Christians lived by the promise of the Risen
One: "I am with you always, even to the end of the world."
All their meetings were permeated by this certain faith;
they believed in and experienced his personal presence so
strongly that they lived entirely under his influence. The
awareness of Jesus' presence was the secret of their
strength. They experienced the Risen One as the Spirit
present among them. Through him they were freed from
all bondage, and through him they were freed to use all
their human gifts and powers.
For us, too, faith in the Risen One and in his spirit
must lead to a new attitude in everyday life. And faith
unlocks the spiritual powers at work in Christ. The
Lord is Spirit, and he molds our lives according to his
image. How we actually live - how we put love into action
-depends not on moral conviction but on faith. Everything
depends on whether we know the resurrected Christ and
whether we have his Spirit. It does not help us to long for
Christ to appear from heaven. The only way to truly
experience his presence is to know and feel in our hearts
that the Christ, who was raised from the dead by God, has
come to us as the living word.
Essay, 1919
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 call to repentance by the prophets and by John the