The Holy Spirit produces a judgment upon everything that resists him, for the light he brings is a fire that he kindles. For this reason he is a Spirit of reverence. As the Spirit of truth he brings into the light everything that tries to hide. He leads into the reality of ultimate truth by testifying to Christ and, as the Spirit of mercy and of prayer, by bestowing and granting whatever the believing person needs.
- Eberhard Arnold
Selected Reading
The Church Comes Down to Us
Eberhard Arnold
Eberhard Arnold always emphasized Gemeinde – the living congregation of believers – over Kirche, the church as an institution or establishment. In a series of talks given in response to a letter from his friend, the Swiss Religious Socialist Leonard Ragaz, Eberhard talks about this question.
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The Spirit of the Early Church
Eberhard Arnold
The early church was not perfect, nor can it be blindly imitated, admits Eberhard Arnold in this groundbreaking 1926 essay. And yet, never since in church history has the Spirit been so forcefully at work. Why has the example of the first Christians never ceased to fuel renewal and reform?
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The Jesus of the Four Gospels
Eberhard Arnold
We live in an age where it seems Jesus has become almost unknown or his words distorted and disfigured, his work weakened. All the more, we must rediscover this Jesus and hold him up before all the world. We must place the Jesus of the four Gospels in the center of our faith and our life.
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The Courage of Love
Eberhard Arnold
How should the church relate to politics? Eighteen months after Hitler’s rise to power, Arnold spoke about this to members of his community, whose German branch had already been raided twice by Nazi forces. The question was no longer just theory...
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Why We Live in Community
Eberhard Arnold
Everyone’s talking about community these days. In this time-honored manifesto, Eberhard 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.
Called to Burning Light
Eberhard Arnold
“We are called to burning, life-giving light, but can we conquer the freezing cold and deadly darkness? Will we survive in the struggle against this dangerous power, which constantly besets us from within and without?” A meditation for Pentecost written in opposition to the spirit of Nazism.
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The Root of Grace
Eberhard Arnold
On his fiftieth birthday on July 26, 1933, when Eberhard Arnold gave a talk to members of the Bruderhof community, he surprised his listeners. Instead of looking back at what he had accomplished, he saw only his own human weakness and pointed his audience to One who is truly great.
Quick Quotes
In the church of the Holy Spirit, the future kingdom of God is present with its perfect justice, its absolute peace, and its joy in love and unity. In the midst of the church, the king of peace brings here and brings now her inviolable community of peace both within and without – nothing but peace. Where there is redemption and reconciliation through Christ, even the locking-up of Satan for the thousand years of rejoicing is present reality because peace is here and now put into action.
- Eberhard Arnold
We ask only one thing: that the Holy Spirit come to us and establish among us the government and reign of God; that nothing else count for us but only this one thing, the Spirit of the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ. Him we entreat to step into the life of this community, so that from here he may stream out and radiate into the whole world, into the hearts of all men; a hidden and mysterious working of this very Spirit who speaks his word from heart to heart and from soul to soul, who carries his message onward, reveals his life, proclaims his prophecy, and manifests his reality.
- Eberhard Arnold