The Blumhardts
The capacity to hope is extremely important both for the kingdom of God and for our own development, because something very real and powerful has been laid in our hearts with this hope. One might say that we have been given a power that corresponds to the power of God. A power goes forth from God to make something of us; and from us there goes forth a hope that we shall become something. And this power of God and our hope go together hand in hand, as in a marriage, walking together. We in hope and God in his power, we belong together so that we can follow a purpose, the good purpose of God.
Blumhardt Free Ebooks
Action in Waiting
These seventeen essays give a fresh look at the spiritual life as "active expectation" of God's kingdom breaking into this world. This kingdom is no longer relegated to some afterlife, but takes effect today.
The Awakening: One Man's Battle with Darkness
A must-read for anyone who has doubts about spiritual warfare, The Awakening provides a rare glimpse into the eternal fight between the forces of good and evil in the daily lives of ordinary men and women.
"When Blumhardt, a 19th-century pastor from the Black Forest, agreed to counsel a tormented woman in his parish, all hell broke loose - literally. But that was only the beginning of the drama that ensued. Zuendel's account, available here in English for the first time, provides a rare glimpse into how the eternal fight between the forces of good and evil plays itself out in the lives of the most ordinary men and women...."
Christoph Blumhardt and his Message
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt (1842-1919) was an original. He was at home nowhere – he belonged neither to church circles nor to secular ones. He was an embarrassment to Christians and non-Christians alike. He seemed to challenge and disconcert everyone. And yet he possessed a strange confidence in God’s history; a confidence that inspired hope in many, and continues to do so even today.
The Hidden Christ: Taking the Gospel into the World
How are Christians to bring the gospel to the world? After centuries of misguided crusades, how can we rediscover mission as Jesus understood it? Must peoples embrace Christianity to know Christ and his liberation?
"These letters from Blumhardt to his son-in-law, a missionary in China, turn the traditional concept of Christian mission on its head...."
Jesus Is the Victor
If you ever doubt that Jesus has power to change the world, or despair of seeing his victory come to fruition in your own personal life, you should read this book. Compiled from Blumhardt’s talks, sermons and writings, Jesus Is the Victor reveals his unconventional understanding of the battle and victory which ought to define the life of every follower of Christ.
Lift Thine Eyes: Evening Prayers for Every Day of the Year
Christian prayers of comfort, courage, and hope for every day of the year, each with a corresponding verse from the Old or New Testament. The peace that flows from Blumhardt's prayers comes from an unshakable conviction that God's kingdom is indeed on the way.
Now Is Eternity: Comfort and Wisdom for Difficult Hours
For the friend or family member who just isn't coping, no matter what you say, the sturdy simplicity of this little volume offers something most well-meaning sympathy cards forget: a gentle insistence that there is still a God who watches over all, and a stubborn faith that the worst trials of life's "difficult hours" will one day be overshadowed by his comfort and peace.
Thoughts on Children
It is sometimes said that each child is a thought in the mind of God. But even if we believe this, and approach the children entrusted to us with reverence, we may often feel helpless—whether in the face of a two-year-old’s tantrum or a teenager’s silence.
Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader
Christians the world over pray "Thy kingdom come" daily, but do they know what they are asking for? These short selections will spark a burning expectation for this kingdom to break into this world, here and now.
Meet Johann Christoph Blumhardt and Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt, two German pastors who experienced this kingdom as a daily reality, through this compilation of excerpts from their sermons and discussions. This book is not intended to be an analysis of the Blumhardts' thought, rather an opportunity for the Blumhardts to introduce their thoughts for themselves. "If their own words fail to inform, enlighten, or move the reader," writes Eller, "there are no words of mine that could reverse that situation."
Articles about the Blumhardts
Who Were the Blumhardts?
Excerpts from the introduction to Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader.
"The two Blumhardts, Johann Christoph (1805-80) and Christoph Friedrich (1842-1919), were father and son. Their careers—much more pastoral than theological in character—focused upon the son’s succeeding his father as leader of what might be called a Christian retreat center that the father had established at Bad Boll in southwestern Germany..."
Möttlingen and Bad Boll Today: Tracing the Footsteps of the Blumhardts
As Albrecht Esche, a theologian and “Blumhardt friend” as he called himself, showed us around, he brought across in a fiery way Blumhardt's certainty of Jesus' victory over the whole world. As well as bringing Blumhardt's huge vision across, visiting Bad Boll showed the down-to-earth nature of Blumhardt. He was a real man with two feet on the ground. As some letters show, he loved life, cracking jokes with friends, taking on practical aspects of Bad Boll, and caring for the needs right around him...