This extraordinary history of the Bruderhof shows how its unwavering commitment to religion, family, and community have enabled it to maintain its unchanging way of life from its beginnings seventy-four years ago to the present day. Although Oved describes social tensions in the movement, which he claims are a consequence of the needs of the larger community and obligations to the church, he considers the Bruderhof to be a shining -example of communal stability. Sociologists, theologians, anthropologists, and psychologists ...
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This extraordinary history of the Bruderhof shows how its unwavering commitment to religion, family, and community have enabled it to maintain its unchanging way of life from its beginnings seventy-four years ago to the present day. Although Oved describes social tensions in the movement, which he claims are a consequence of the needs of the larger community and obligations to the church, he considers the Bruderhof to be a shining -example of communal stability. Sociologists, theologians, anthropologists, and psychologists alike will find the Bruderhof experience to be a source of deep analysis-for it takes up conditioning of communal survival no less than risks in marginal -movements. At the end of World War I, having experienced the horrors of war, the collapse of the German Kaiser regime, and its values shattered, German youth sought out new directions in various youth movements. Youngsters from bourgeois families rejected materialism, celebrated nature, and longed for a simple way of life devoid of class barriers. Eberhard and Emmy Arnold, a couple from an affluent background who identified fully with the radical pacifist youth circles, fused the German Christian socialist youth into a new movement. They settled a commune in Sannerz known as The First Bruderhof, which became a working and learning community whose members could shape their lives according to their faith and find concrete ways of living a life of brotherhood. The Bruderhof at first supported itself by publishing, printing, and providing reliable child care. In 1937, responding to Nazi harassment and to escape conscription, the pacifist settlement fled first to Liechtenstein, then to England. There they provided shelter for many Jewish refugees, among whom was a training group destined for kibbutz life. World War II forced this German-rooted group with pacifist ties to emigrate to Paraguay and eventually to the United States where they settled in New York State. There they doubled their population and the number of their communities in the space of a single generation.
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Seller's Description:
Hardcover. NOT Ex-library. Very good condition. Dust jacket in excellent condition. Mylar cover on dust jacket, NOT taped to book. Proceeds benefit the Pima County Public Library system, which serves Tucson and southern Arizona. Until further notice, USPS Priority Mail only reliable option for Hawaii.
