A Joyful Pilgrimage: My Life in Community

    By Emmy Arnold

    Plough Publishing House   (November 1998)

    A Joyful Pilgrimage is the story of a remnant that survived: the Bruderhof, a community movement that began when Emmy Arnold and her husband Eberhard, a well-known writer and lecturer, abandoned their affluent Berlin suburb to live a completely different life. 

Between the two World Wars in Germany, writer and lecturer Eberhard Arnold and his wife, Emmy, founded the Bruderhof, a communal Christian fellowship that later formed a loose affiliation with the Hutterite communities. Emmy's memoir carries the reader through the Arnolds' courtship and marriage, their involvement in Germany's postwar youth movement, the founding of the Bruderhof in 1920, and the community's struggles until its expulsion from Nazi Germany in 1937. Arnold's portrait of communal life is brutally honest. Although her commitment to the ideals of such a life are clear, she does not veil the personality conflicts inherent in community life. 

In addition, the Bruderhof's life of voluntary poverty and hard labor, writes Arnold, led to numerous health problems in the community. Still, Arnold endured these problems because of her strong call to community. Perhaps most valuable is a short summary of the Bruderhof's theological history and vision. While Arnold's style is not eloquent, she is factual and precise in her memoir of the Bruderhof way of life.

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