The Writings of Eberhard Arnold
As Eberhard Arnold says, we really do experience in ourselves, at the same time as the power of Christ, the power of the cross to create community. Yet we also find in ourselves everything that goes against community, and we have to be completely aware of this fact. We are and we are not communal people. ...We are also weak and selfish, and there is in us this struggle between trust and mistrust, where we all believe and don’t believe. ...You cannot possibly live a religious life realistically unless you realize that this is going on all the time.
Articles
Who Was Eberhard Arnold?
Like thousands of young Germans in the 1920s, Eberhard and his wife Emmy were disillusioned by the failure of the establishment – especially the churches – to provide answers to the problems of society in the turbulent years following World War I. In their seeking, they were influenced by the German Youth Movement (in which Eberhard was a nationally-known participant), the German pastor Johann Christoph Blumhardt and his son Christoph Friedrich, the sixteenth-century Anabaptists, and, most significantly, the early Christians.
Free E-books
The Early Christians
What did Christianity look like before it became an institution? Find out for yourself with this collection of firsthand accounts of the early church. Includes excerpts from Origen, Tertullian, Polycarp, Clement of Alexandria, Justin, Irenaeus, and others—and equally revealing material from their critics, detractors and persecutors.
Eberhard Arnold - Selected Writings
If you've never read any of Eberhard Arnold's writings before, this collection may be the best place to start. For those already familiar with the author, this e-book might be described as the Portable Arnold - a collection of the strongest and best of his prolific output.
Against the Wind
A journalist's biography of Eberhard Arnold, a man who, in his search for Christ, ended up turning the Christianity of his day on its head. Markus Baum looks at the forces that shaped Arnold's life, recreates the colorful era in which he lived, and shows Arnold's connection with other thinkers of his day.
God's Revolution
Eberhard Arnold doesn't approach discipleship as a benign route to religious fulfillment, but as revolution - a transformation that begins within and spreads outward to encompass every aspect of life. Here is the raw reality of the gospel that has the power to change the world.
The Individual and World Need
Timeless yet as timely as ever, this short book explores the relationship of the individual to world suffering and points to a solution.
Innerland
Arnold's classic guide into the heart of the gospel invites readers to turn from the chaos of a society distracted by violence and greed to that "inner land of the invisible, where our spirit can find the roots of its strength."
Love Letters
They were passionately in love, yet they rejected romance as the basis of their relationship, building instead on the promise of Jesus' words, "Seek first the kingdom of God." Circumstance (and scandalised parents) kept them separated for most of the next three years. But that separation bore its own fruit: an intense exchange of letters.
Poems and Rhymed Prayers
Eberhard Arnold published most of his essays during his lifetime, but almost none of his poems. It might have been shyness: many are love poems, and others reveal private struggles. All of them open a window on a man's inmost thoughts, and show him at his most essential and Christ-centered.
The Prayer God Answers
In this e-book, Eberhard Arnold describes the kind of prayer that pleases God, and challenges us to rediscover the prayer that has the power to transform our lives and our world.
Salt and Light
Seventeen challenging talks and essays on the Sermon on the Mount, by a writer who believes their demands are viable and inescapable - and must be lived out today.
A Testimony to Church Community
A concise, readable introduction to the life and writings of a man who, in his search for Christ, spent his life turning conventional Christianity on its head.
Why We Live in Community
In this time-honored manifesto, Arnold adds his voice to the vital discussion of what real intentional community is all about: love, joy, unity, and the great "adventure of faith" shared with others along the way. He does not describe (or prescribe) community here, but provides a vision to guide our search.