About the Book

Eberhard Arnold was one of the most remarkable Christian figures of the twentieth century. In the years after World War I he abandoned his career ambitions to live by the radical teachings of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. With his family and a small circle of friends he founded the Bruderhof, an international pacifist community rooted in the Anabaptist tradition, which soon brought him into conflict with the Nazi state.

Whether you’ve never read Eberhard Arnold before, or have already been profoundly affected by one of his books, this introductory selection from many of his important works will give insight into of his thought on a wide range of topics, including justice, peacemaking, work, economic sharing, human nature, family, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and the church. A biographical introduction by his grandson Johann Christoph Arnold puts the selections in context.

This book was originally published in Orbis Books' Modern Spiritual Masters series.

Book Trailer

Praise

The witness of Eberhard Arnold is a much needed corrective to an American church that has lost the vital, biblical connection between belief and obedience.

Jim Wallis

Key selections from a prophetic voice-the contemporary church needs to wrestle with Eberhard Arnold.

Ronald J. Sider

Arnold's life is a testimony that in community the Spirit, which can be found in all traditions, can reveal to us the real causes of social injustice.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Arnold's writings has all the simple, luminous, direct vision into things that I have come to associate with his name. It has the authentic ring of a truly evangelical Christianity and moves me deeply. It stirs to repentance and renewal. I am deeply grateful for it.

Thomas Merton

Tablet of Contents

1. GOD’S REVOLUTION

  • A Call to the Inner Life
  • God’s Revolution
  • Against Bloodshed and Violence

2. THE NEW JUSTICE

  • Not a New Law
  • Away from Compromise and Shadow
  • God’s Kingdom - Future and Present

3. BECOMING HUMAN

  • The Better Righteousness
  • The Conscience

4. UNLESS YOU BECOME A CHILD

5. LOVE DIVINE AND LOVE HUMAN

  • Responsibility, Desire, and Love
  • The New Morality

6. LOVE IS WORK

  • Community as Work
  • Jesus and the Future State

7. FROM ISOLATION TO COMMUNITY

  • Consciousness and Community
  • From Private Property to community
  • Why We Live in Community

8. THE FIGHT AGAINST MAMMON

  • God or Mammon
  • The Fight Against Mammon

9. GOD WITH US

  • The Experience of God
  • The Spirit of the Risen One
  • The Living Word

10. THE CHURCH COMES DOWN TO US

  • Unity

11. CHURCH AND STATE

  • The New Incarnation
  • Church and State

12. EXPECTATION

  • Now Is the Time