Book Review: Seeking Peace

Title: Seeking Peace 

Author: Johann Christoph Arnold

Date: 2013

Publisher: Plough 

ISBN: 978-0-87486-249-2

Length: 248 pages

Quote: "We live in an unpeaceful world." 

Yes, this is the Christian book I've been reading this week. The one. All the other books I've read have been frivolous genre fiction, although one forthcoming novel TBR on its publication date was written by a Christian and can be read as a metaphor for a Christian comment on recent news. Anyway, yes, immediately after reading a new book in Spanish I like, when possible, to read it in English; this is the English edition of the book I reviewed last week.

If any Gentle Readers feel cheated or disappointed, please use the comments form below, and I'll pop another Christian book review out of the can for you. 

People who read last week's review may skip...

For those who did not read last week's review: this is a book about the Bruderhof (who operate a furniture factory, and other things, to support their unique calling as a church)--as one of the "Peace Churches" that grew out of the German Anabaptist movement. Of the Peace Churches in the United States, the Amish are the best known, the Mennonites are the largest, the Brethren are still fairly active in some places, the Hutterites still have their colonies in western Canada and adjacent States, and the Bruderhof are the newest group and the one that is actually growing. An allied group, the Moravians, trace their collective origin further back and still have churches of their own in Pennsylvania. The Society of Friends, or Quakers, are a Peace Church of English origin. 

Growth has not been the goal of the other German-American Peace Churches. Survival in their own peculiar little way seems to have been the goal. The Amish and Hutterites have resisted change and assimilation so vigorously that most of them still speak German at home; they avoid secular society except for a necessary minimum of trade. As a result they are so poorly understood that other Christians sometimes express confusion about whether these outlier congregations are Christian. (They are; they just don't proselytize.) In theory a person not born and brought up in a German or Moravian Peace Church could join one, but as the groups are conservative and follow rather strict rules, and the communities are close-knit, it seems to have been hard for members of Peace Churches to imagine outsiders ever wanting to join them. Though, as Sue Bender found, they do try to be courteous and hospitable if an outsider ever did want even to sojourn among them.

But the Bruderhof formed later, starting with one congregation led by a series of exuberant, radically Christian pastors who opened their homes to needy believers, growing into a neighborhood and then into several neighborhoods of people living in "intentional communities." Their appeal was to people who were attracted to the ideals of communism, but not to violent revolution or even use of force to impose communist ideals on anyone.  These people sought peace on three levels--"the inner peace of the soul with God; the fulfillment of non-violence through peaceful relationships with others; and the establishment of a just and peaceful social order." 

So members of the Bruderhof take vows, like monastic vows; they pool their resources and live in a sort of comfortable poverty; they can be married, and live with families, but they take vows of chastity in the sense of fidelity; they promise to serve the church in whichever of its communities, around the world, the church considers them most likely to be useful. Each community supports itself by some sort of work in which every member participates so far as they are able. People with severe disabilities may be offered rooms, as rooms become available, and allowed to "pay" with such work as they are able to do. It works in a more effective, egalitarian, friendly way than state socialism ever could. It's not for most people, but it's very attractive to many people who've come to terms with the failures of socialist national economies. 

In describing the Bruderhof's pursuit of peace Johann Christoph Arnold, a grandson of founding pastor Eberhard Arnold, has much to say to people who wonder if a communal or monastic lifestyle is for them. I'm afraid he makes the Bruderhof sound like a support group for extroverts, but...God must have had some reason for allowing otherwise intelligent human beings to have to live with extroversion, and any church that gives extroverts the discipline they need to do good work is doing a very good thing. 

For those who read last week's review: What, you may ask, does the English edition have to offer that the Spanish edition lacks? Different introductions, for one thing. The introductions to the English edition, by Madeleine L'Engle and Thich Nhat Hanh, are short essays that anyone who liked and misses those authors will want to read. 

Otherwise...some people read only one language. If you read both, you might want to buy both for parallel reading. I find parallel reading an easier way to build my vocabulary than trying to learn lists of words straight from the dictionary. The vocabulary in these books happened to be about the level I needed. The new words I'm learning from these books are not specifically theological vocabulary, either. If you no longer need parallel reading, congratulations, the translation is close enough (except for the introductions, written by and to different people) that you can choose the language you prefer. 

In any case, if you already have a religious identity, this book will not try to "convert" you to leave your own community and join a Bruderhof. It may warn you off trying to do that, or encourage you to do it, or simply give you something to think and talk about with your own faith community. As Eberhard Arnold said: not everyone is called to live in an intentional community but, if not that, what else are you called to do? (Fair disclosure: the Bruderhof's magazine has printed, among others, articles by a German aristocrat who wrote about how he believed God had called him to manage ancestral land. But, although a patron, he's not a member of their church, and his story is not among the many personal testimonies in this book.)

I don't believe anyone will regret reading this book. (Though it does contain some intense moments; people found their way to the Bruderhofs through horrible situations.) Written in consultation with non-Christian authors, it manages to be thoroughly Christian while politely engaging Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist thinkers in the discussion. Which is, if you think about it, a profoundly Humanist achievement.