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Work and Hope: The Spirituality of the Radical Pietist Communitarians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Donald F. Durnbaugh
Donald F. Durnbaugh
Affiliation:
Mr. Durnbaugh is associate professor of church history in Bethany Theological Seminary, Oak Brook, Illinois
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Extract

Several essayists in a recent issue of Daedalus noted with regret the absence of utopian thought among twentieth-century intellectuals, a lack they held to be detrimental to progress. The tragic events of the century, compounded by disenchantment with the poor taste and judgment of the supposedly liberated masses, have turned writers to gloomy prophecies of totalitarian and science-ridden worlds of the f uture. Dystopia rather than utopia is ascendant, they claim.1

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , March 1970 , pp. 72 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1970

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References

1. Graubard, Stephen R., ed., “Utopia,” Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Spring, 1965)Google Scholar.

2. See Boorstin, Daniel J., The Americans: The National Experience (New York: Random House, 1965), title-page.Google Scholar

3. See the discussion in Bestor, Arthur E. Jr, Backwoods Utopias (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1950), pp. 1–19Google Scholar, and Bassett, T. D. Seymour, “The Secular Utopian Socialists,”in Egbert, D. D. and Persons, S., eds., Socialism and American Life (Princeton: Princeton University, 1952), I; 155–211Google Scholar. The quotations are from Tyler, Alice F., Freedom's Ferment (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1944), pp. 181–182.Google Scholar

4. Standard histories have passed into the public domain and have now all been reissued. Hinds, William A., American Communities and Cooperative Colonies, rev. ed. (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 1908)Google Scholar; Nordhoff, Charles, Communistic Societies of the United States (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1875)Google Scholar; and Noyas, John Humphrey, History of American Socialisms (Philadelphia: J B. Lippincott, 1870)Google Scholar. Calverton, V. F., Where Angels Dared to Tread (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1941)Google Scholar and Holloway, Mark, Heavens on Earth (New York: Library Publishers, 1951)Google Scholar, are recent general studies. Clark, Elmer T., The Small Sects in America (Nashville: Cokesbury, 1937, 2nd edition, 1949)Google Scholar, is very brief in its contents. The best study of American communitarianism before 1830, Bestor's Backwoods Utopias, devotes little more than a chapter to the “communitive sects.”The bibliographical note on one of the more important communities, Ephrata, is fully as long as the description in the text. A revised edition has been announced.

5. See, besides Bestor, , Doll, E. E. and Funke, A. M., eds., The Ephrata Cloisters: An Annotated Bibliography (Philadelphia: Carl Schurz Foundation, 1944)Google Scholar; Arndt, Karl J. R., George Rapp's Harmony Society, 1785–1847 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1965), pp. 617–643Google Scholar; Meynen, Emil, Bibliography on German Settlements in Colonial North America, 1683–1933 (Leipzig: Harrossowitz, 1937)Google Scholar; and Pochmann, Henry A., comp., Bibliography of German Culture in America to 1940 (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1954), among others.Google Scholar

6. Leland, and Harder, Marvin, Plockhoy from Zurik-zee (Newton, Kans.: General Conference Mennonite Church, 1952).Google Scholar

7. There is no recent monograph on Kelpius. See Lashlee, Ernest L., “Johannes Kelpius and His Woman in the Wilderness,”in Müller, G. and Zeller, W. eds., Glaube, Geist, Geschichte (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1967), pp. 327–338Google Scholar. See also Klein, K. K., “Magister Johannea Kelpius Transylvanus, der Heilige und Dichter vom Wissahickon in Pennsylvanien,”in Festschrift Seiner Hochwürden D. Dr. Friedrich Teutsch (Hermannstadt, 1931), pp. 57–77Google Scholar; Benz, Ernst, Die protestantisehe Thebais (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1963), pp. 93–101Google Scholar; Genzmer, George H., “Johann Kelpius, 1673–1708,” Dictionary of American Biography, X, 312–313Google Scholar; and Alderfer, E. Gordon, “Johannes Kelpius and the Heritage of Mysticism,” in Kelpius' devotional treatise, A Method of Prayer (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1951), pp. 11–73.Google Scholar

8. See his biography in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographic, XLV (1900), 270–271Google Scholar; Boemer, Hermann, Geschiohte der Stadt Bietigheim an der Enz (Stuttgart: W. Kohihammer, 1956)Google Scholar; and Ritschl, Albrecht, Geschichte des Pietismus (Bonn: Adolph Marcus, 1884), II, 175.Google Scholar

9. Hull, William I., William Penn and the Dutch Quaker Migration to Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1935), pp. 337–339Google Scholar and Benjamin Furly and Quakerism in Rotterdam (Lancaster, Pa., 1941)Google Scholar. These are studies in the Swarthmore College Monographs in Quaker History.

10. Sachse, Julius F., ed., The Diarium of Magister Johannes Kelpius (Lancaster, Pa.: New Era, 1917)Google Scholar, reprinted from the Proceedings of the Pennsylvania-German Society, XXV (1917)Google Scholar. Sachse has a long discussion of Kelpius and his society in his German Pietists in Provincial Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: privately printed, 1895), pp. 219–250Google Scholar, but this is marred by his fanciful emendations. More dependable is Seidensticker, Oswald, “The Hermits of the Wissahickon,” Pennsylvania Magazine of Histery and Biography, II (1887), 427–441.Google Scholar

11. Vagts, Alfred A., Deutsch-Amerikanische Rückwanderung (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1960), p. 64Google Scholar, based on Adelung, Joh. Chr., Geschichte der menschlichen Narrheit (Leipzig: Weygandache Buchhandlung, 1785), V, 86ffGoogle Scholar. See also Sachse, , German Pietists, pp. 251–298Google Scholar. According to Adelung, Köster died in 1760.

12. Falckner, Daniel, Curieuse Nachricht von Pensylvania in Norden-America (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1702)Google Scholar, translated and edited by Julius F. Sachse (Lancaster, Pa.: New Era, 1905), reprinted from the Proceedings of the Pennsylvania-German Society, XIV 1905).Google Scholar

13. Thune, Nils, The Behmenists and the Philadelphians (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1948), pp. 103–135Google Scholar, and Hutin, Serge, Les Disciples anglais de Jacob Boehme (Paris: Denoel, 1960), p. 119.Google Scholar

14. Quoted in Randolph, Corliss F., “The German Seventh Day Baptists,”in Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America (Plainfield, N.J.: American Sabbath Tract Society, 1910), II, 960Google Scholar. Dr. Johann Wilhelm Petersen (1649–1727) was the leading German miflenialist. Whittier seems to be in error in associating Kelpius with the German city Helmstadt. “Morning Redness”is another name for Böhmes chief work, Aurora.

15. Alderfer, , “Kelpins,” 30.Google Scholar

16. The only biography of Beissel is Klein, Walter C., Johann Conrad Beissel: Mystic and Martinet (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1942)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, a careful study but marred by lack of sympathy. All of the writings on Ephrata of course deal at length with his story.

17. See Dnrnbaugh, Donald F., ed., The Brethren in Colonial America (Elgin: Brethren Press, 1967), pp. 65ff.Google Scholar

18. The fullest study is Bartlett James, B., The Labadist Colony in Maryland (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1899)Google Scholar; see also Bestor, , Backwoods Utopias, 27–28.Google Scholar

19. Lamech, and Agrippa, [psend.] Chronicon Ephratense (Ephrata, 1786)Google Scholar; translated by J. Max Hark (Lancaster, Pa.: S. H. Zahn, 1889). The quotation is from Hark, 31.

20. See the discussion in Benz, , Thebais, 101–117.Google Scholar

21. The fullest treatment is given by Sachse, Julius F., The German Sectarian, of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: privately printed, 1899-1900)Google Scholar, two volumes, but this is also marred by legendary embroidering. The most recent history is Ernst, James E., Ephrata, A History, ed. by Stoudt, J. J. (Allentown, Pa.: 1963)Google Scholar; this is largely a collation of the material in the Chronicle and Sangmeister, Henry, Leben und Wandet des…Bruders Ezechiel Sangmeister… (Ephrata, Pa.: J. Bauman, 1825-1827)Google Scholar. A very valuable compilation is Reichmann, Felix and Doll, Eugene E., eds., Ephrata As Been by Contemporaries (Allentown, Pa., 1953)Google Scholar. Both of these recent publications were issued by the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society.

22. The contemporary was the Germantown printer Christopher Saner I; see Reichmann, and Doll, , Ephrata, 45–48.Google Scholar

23. A good summary discussion of the music at Ephrata is found in David, Hans Theodore, “Hymns and Music of the Pennsylvania Seventh-Day Baptists,” American-German Review 9 (06 1943), 4–6, 36Google Scholar. Thomas Mann devoted a lengthy section of his novel Doktor Faustus to Ephrata hymnody; this is discussed in Briner, Andres, “Conrad Beissel and Thomas Mann,” American-German Review, 26 (12 1959-01 1960), 24–25, 32Google Scholar. Ephrata art is described in Stoudt, John Joseph, Pennsylvania German Folk Art (Allentown, Pa., 1966)Google Scholar and in Shelley, Donald, The Fraktur Writings or Illuminated Manuscripts of the Pennsylvania Germans (Allentown, Pa., 1958)Google Scholar. The later two publications were issued by the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society.

24. The Sauer-Beissel controversy is related in Reichmann, and Doll, , Ephrata, 13–26Google Scholar; Pennypacker, Samuel W. first discussed the printing of the Martyr's Mirror in his Historical and Biographical Sketches (Philadelphia: R. A. Tripple, 1883), pp. 157–173Google Scholar. J. Franklin Jameson picked up the story of the unbound copies of the martyrology being seized by Revolutionary soldiers in The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement (Princeton: Princeton University, 1926)Google Scholar, but confused the book with Fox's Book of Martyrs and erroneously asserted that the Ephrata brethren donated the paper for cartridge stuffing.

25. Randolph, , “Baptist,” II, 1131–1248Google Scholar; Treher, Charles M., Snow Hill Cloister (Allentown, Pa.: Pennsylvania German Society, 1968)Google Scholar, is the most comprehensive study of the Snow Hill community.

26. Hermelink, Heinrich, Gesckichte der Evangelischen Kirehe in Württemberg (Stuttgart and Tübingen: R. Wunderlich, 1949), pp. 208–243Google Scholar; Roessel, Julius, Von Bengel bis Blumhardt: GestaUen und Bilder aus dee Geschichte des schwäbischen Pietesmus (Metzingen: B. Franz, 1960)Google Scholar; and Kolb, Chr., Die Aufklärung in dee unürtternbergschen Kirche (Stuttgart, 1908).Google Scholar

27. The best published source for the early history of the Rappites is by Rauseher, Juhan, “Des Separatisten G. Rapp Leben and Treiben,” Theoiogische Studeen aus Württemberg, 6 (1885), 253–313Google Scholar. The early chapters of Arndt, Harmony Society, are largely a paraphrase of it. A good brief summary is found in Christian Palmer, Die Gemeinschaften und Sekten Württembergs (Tübingen; H. Lauff, 1877), pp. 45–48Google Scholar. Insight into the way-the separatist movement looked to contemporary rationalists may be secured from two long anonymous articles in Henke's, H. P. K. journal, “Ueber das Separatistenund Pietisten-Wesen,” Beligionsannalen, 8 (1803), 1: 129–189Google Scholar and “Briefe über die Sepa.ratistengemeindeu ha Wirttenibergisehen,” Religionsannalen, 10 (1804), 3: 431–482Google Scholar. The former journalist and president of West Germany, Theodor Heuss, has a chapter on Rapp in Schattenbeschwörung: Randfiguren der Gesehiehte (Stuttgart and Tübingen: R. Wunderlich, 1947), pp. 117–128.Google Scholar

28. Some of the correspondence was intercepted and is now preserved in archives in Karlsruhe and Ludwigsbnrg.

29. For its history, see Gilbert, Russet W., “Blooming Grove, the Dunker Settlement of Central Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania History, 20 (01 1953), 23–29Google Scholar, and Royer, Galen B., ed., A History of the Church of the Brethren in the Middle District of Pennsylvania ([n.p.]: District Conference, [1925]), pp. 268–273Google Scholar. An older narrative is McMinn, Joseph H., Blooming Grove (Wi]liamsport, Pa.: Seholl Brothers, 1901).Google Scholar

30. The document is published in Arndt, , Harriwny Society, 72–74Google Scholar and in Bole, John A., The Harmony Society (Philadelphia: American-German Press, 1904), pp. 6–9Google Scholar, reprinted from the German American Annals, II.

31. Arndt, , Harmony Society, 83–90Google Scholar, and Wilson, William E., The Angel and the Serpent: The Story of New Harmony (Bloomington, lad.: Indiana University, 1964), pp. 16–20.Google Scholar

32. Arndt, , Harmony Society, 143–252Google Scholar; Wilson, , Story, 95–113Google Scholar; Bestor, , Backwoods Utopias, 101–103Google Scholar. A movingly written description of New Harmony under Rappite and Owenite leadership, as well as today, is Young, Marguerite, Angel in the Forest, 2nd ed. (New York: Scribners, 1966).Google Scholar

33. See Knoedler, Christiana F., The Harmony Society, A Nineteenth Century Utppia (New York: Vantage, 1954)Google Scholar; also Williams, Aaron, The Harmony Society at Economy, Pa. (Pittsburgh, 1866).Google Scholar

34. The basic source is an anonymous book Der Wundermann des neunsehnten Jahrhunderts, translated by J. Kreideburg (Hanau, 1833)Google Scholar. The periodical Der Christen-Dote, edited by Johann Christian Burk (Stuttgart, 1832ff.)Google Scholar, contains repeated correspondence and articles about Müller or Proli, another name he used. See also Arndt, K. J. R., “The Life and Mission of Count Leon” American-German Review, 6 (06 1940), 518, 36–37Google Scholar and (August 1940), 15–19 as well as his Harmony Society, 433–524.

35. A critical account by a former Harmonist is Wagner, Jonathan, Geschichte und Verhältnisse der Harmoniegeselisehaft in Nord-Amerilca, ed. Deininger, W. G. (Vaihingen: C. Burkhart, 1883).Google Scholar

36. The last years are described from the inside by Duss, John S., The Harmonists (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Book Service, 1943)Google Scholar. There is a sharp review by Arndt, in the Western Pennsylvania Historical Magasine, 26 (1943), 109–116.Google Scholar

37. The best description of the early history is by Hafenbrak, H., “Die Separatisten in R[ottenaeker[,” Bes [ondere] Beilage des Btaatsanzeigers für Württemberg (1881), pp. 295–304, 327–333Google Scholar. See also Herinelink, , Geschichte, 345–347Google Scholar. Wernie, Paul, Der schweizische Protestantismus un 18. Jahrhundert (Tübingen; J. C. B. Mohr, 1923), I, 234Google Scholar, gives information on the Swiss background of the prophetess.

38. Gayler, Pastor, “Behandlung eines ‘Beparatisten nacli Rot'aenaekeriseheu Grundaätzen],” Blätter für Württembergsche Kirchengeschichte, N. F., 2 (1897-1898), 44–46Google Scholar describes the draconic punishment of the Bthimeler family.

39. The basic histories are Landis, George B., “The Separatists of Zoar,” American Historicat Association, Annual Report, 1898 (Washington, D. C., 1899), pp. 165–220Google Scholar; Nixon, Edgar B., “The Society of Separatists of Zoar,” (unpubl Ph. D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1933)Google Scholar; Randall, E. O., History of the Zoar Soatety, 3rd ed. (Columbus, Ohio, 1904)Google Scholar. Two recent popular descriptions are Catherine Dobbs, R., Freedom's Will (New York: William-Frederick, 1947)Google Scholar and Morhart, Hilda Disehinger, The Zoar Story (Dover, Ohio: Seibert Printing Co., 1967).Google Scholar

40. The standard description is by Goebel, Max, “Die Geschichte der wahren Inspirationsgemeindo von 1688 bis 1850,” Zeitschift für historisohe Theologie, 24–27 (1854-1857)Google Scholar, passim. See also Hadorn, W., “Die Inspirierten des 18. Jahrhunderts,” Schweirerische Theologische Zeitschrift, 17 (1900), 187–224.Google Scholar

41. A good survey is found in Boat, Ch., “Lea 'Prophètes des Cévennes’ au XVIIIe siècle,” Reijue d'Histoire et de Philosophie religieuses, 5 (1925), 401–430.Google Scholar

42. See Knox, Ronald A., Enthusiasm (New York: Oxford University, 1950), PP. 365–371.Google Scholar

43. Oppenheim, F. H., “Contribution à l'Histoire d'un Réveil-les ‘nouveaux prophètes’ allemands au début du XVIIIe siècle,” Revue d'Histoire et de Phiiosophie retigieusss, 37 (1957), 143–155 and 40 (1960), 229–241Google Scholar, provides excellent bibliographical information. The best collection of contemporary literature on the Inspired is found in the university libraries of Hale and Bonn. A recent article on the Berlin situation is Delins, Walter, “Die Inspirations-Gemeinde an Berlin,” in Zwischenstation: Festschrift für Karl Kupiseli (Munich: G. Kaiser, 1963), pp. 19–26.Google Scholar

44. Lankes, Frank J., The Ebenezer Community of True Inspiration (New York: Gardenville, 1949).Google Scholar

45. The best study is Shambaugh, Bertha M. H., Amana That Was and Amana That Is (Iowa City: State Historical Society, 1932)Google Scholar. A personalized story is Yambura, Barbara S. and Bodine, Eunice W., A Change and a Parting (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University, 1960).Google Scholar

46. Hirsch, Emanuel, GesoMchte der neueren evangelisehen Theoiogie (Gütersloh: Gerd Mohn, 1960), II, 208–255Google Scholar. The quotation is found on pp. 208–209.

47. Ensign, C. David, “Radical German Pietism (c. 1675-c. 1760),” (Unpubl. Ph. D.dissertation, Boston University, 1955).Google Scholar

48. Hirsch, , Gesdichte, 239–251.Google Scholar

49. Hirsch, , Geschichte, 260–274Google Scholar; Ritschl, , Pietisinus, 294–322.Google Scholar

50. Chronicle, 286.

51. Sachse, , Diarium, 51.Google Scholar

52. See Lowrie, Donald A., Rebellious Prophet: A Life of Nicolai Berdyaev (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1960), PP. 121ffGoogle Scholar.; Adams, James Luther, Paul Tillich's Philosophy of Culture, Science, and Religion (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), pp. 32ff.Google Scholar; and Brown, Norman O., Life Against Death (Middleton, Conn.: Wesleyan University, 1959), pp. 32ffGoogle Scholar. and Love's Body (New York: Random House, 1966)Google Scholar, passim.

53. There is a good discussion of this concept in Tanner, Fritz, Die Ehe un Pietismus (Zurich: Zwingli Verlag, 1952), pp. 10ffGoogle Scholar. See also Benz, Ernst, Adam, der Mythos vom Urmenschen (Munich: O. W. Barth, 1955).Google Scholar

54. Tanner, , Ehe, 19–57.Google Scholar

55. Landis, , Zoar, 188.Google Scholar

56. Lambura, , Change, 137.Google Scholar

57. Arndt, , Harmony Society, 577.Google Scholar

58. Arndt, , Harmony Society, 100–101.Google Scholar

59. Randal, , Zoar, 17.Google Scholar

60. Maurer, Charles L., Early Lutheran Education in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: 1932), pp. 167–168Google Scholar. Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Pennsylvania-German Society, XL (1932).Google Scholar

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