Bruderhof

A Hyperbole is an exaggeration to make a point for impact. 'He has a brain the size of a pea' is an example.

The Sermont on the mount has been seen as a hyperbole by the traditional church but a few non-conformist take a literatal view of the sermon.

St. Francis of Assisi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Leo Tolstoy and Ghandi are more famous people that take an absolutist view.

A lesser known charcater is Eberhard Arnold - which I have had 'contact' with.

He came from the German Youth movement which dates back to 1896 this was a sort of early 1960's movment.

'To escape repressive and authoritarian society and parents, groups of young people searched for free space to develop some life of their own. Also a romantic longing for a pristine state of things played a part. For this they turned to nature, confraternity and adventure. Soon the groups split and there originated ever more organisations, which still all called themselves Wandervogel'

The Bruderhof communities were started by Eberhart Arnold in 1920 with the first 'place of brothers' and it has a very intersting history from there on.

So where am i leading you here? well its the aboslutism view.

The sermon which inspires many thousands of intentional communities around the world - it says in the sermon -

But if thy right eye be a snare to thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell.

Sadly the Bruderhof have taken this verse in an absolutist way again - they find the internet a evil place so they have completely withdrawn their presence at a great cost to the web users. Up until a few years ago they had very good websites and it is so sad to see them disappear. I wanted to give you a proper introdution to the Bruderhof but I cannot. Most links are now dead on the web!

But they are true to what they believe - the sermon on the mount.

Their publishing house was also closed down and many important works were no longer available as a result.

Looking into the current situation the 'Plough Publishing' is now making a come back and the Bruderhof is starting to make presence again!

You can visit the Bruderhof in Kent UK and other countries as well.