Church Community is a Gift of the Holy Spirit - The Spirituality of the Bruderhof Community

Abstract

This study examines the spirituality of the Bruderhof community. It gives particular attention to Eberhard Arnold (1883-1935) and a small number of people around him, including his wife Emmy and her sister Else von Hollander, who founded the first Bruderhof community in Sannerz, Germany, in 1920.

The argument made here is that the Bruderhof was formed as a consequence of a concern for a number of aspects which were seen as related: authentic evangelical spirituality, community of goods instead of private property, openness to the Holy Spirit, a simple form of church life that sought to draw from the New Testament, and ‘the way of peace’. This study explores these themes both in the early Bruderhof period and also in an important recent Bruderhof publication, Foundations of our Faith and Calling, and relates them to the Anabaptist tradition.

Keywords: Bruderhof, Spirituality, Christianity, Anabaptist, private property, community of goods