Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
of turning to our forefathers, you should turn to the apostles and prophets as
did the Hutterian Church of the early days.” That was a warning against the
pitfalls of tradition and sectarianism. Only the Bible can bring a common basis
in faith – nothing else. “You want to unite,” David Hofer went on, “but unite
with whom? We are no longer united ourselves. Here is Dakota, there Manitoba,
there Alberta. Here we are Lehrerleut, there Schmiedeleut, and there Dariusleut.
Where is their bishop? Who takes any notice of the elders? If you want to unite,
you must try to unite thirty-three times with thirty-three different communities.”
(And that is exactly how it would turn out for Eberhard.) Finally the old minister
concluded, “If God has given you the true spirit, zeal, and faith there in Austria,
you had better stay there and make do without us.” This can also be understood
to mean that the Rhön community should, in David Hofer’s opinion, remain selfsufficient
rather than allow the obvious defects of the old Hutterian communities
to infest it.
After this brief and blunt instructive session David Hofer said little more.
Nonetheless he grew more friendly. Right up until the day of Eberhard’s departure
from the Rockport community, David Hofer gave no indication as to whether he
would support or reject uniting with the Rhön Bruderhof. But he drove Eberhard
to the railway station himself and, at the last minute, he came out with his answer:
David Hofer would support any decision reached by the brothers in Canada. This
was not an agreement, but it did show his belief in unanimity. At least he would
not hinder the unity Eberhard sought.
Just as Eberhard’s three weeks of medical care at the Wolf Creek community
had treated the infirmity in his eye, so too old David Hofer from Rockport had
cured him of another, different infirmity: he took away all Eberhard’s illusions
and helped him to see things in their true persective. He pointed Eberhard
back to the source of faith. Who else would have had the authority to give the
forty-seven-year-old doctor of philosophy such a dressing-down? In his diary
descriptions Eberhard certainly paints other Hutterian ministers and elders in a
more sympathetic light, reflective of the more heartfelt relationship he found with
most of them. But in important and critical situations Eberhard often went back
to the advice he had received from David Hofer. 18 A year after their meeting in
Rockport he commented on a particular occasion, “As so often before, old David
Hofer has proved to be a prophetic figure among the brothers.” 19
For the time being Eberhard’s community-to-community travels in South
Dakota continued. He received both pampering and strenuous demands wherever
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