Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the WindEberhard was no super-hero. The breakup of the Sannerz community sappedhis strength and was sometimes more than he could bear. The fact that he showedsuch self-control to the outward eye, that his rocklike certainty always won theday, can only be explained by his faith. In ways difficult to understand he had beenprepared for the controversy. He was not simply caught unawares, unsuspectingand defenseless, in the face of accusations. Eberhard had seen beyond the crisiseven before it reached its peak. How was that possible? A plausible answer is thathe never took his eyes off the ultimate, far-reaching goal.thE blumhardtSOne cannot speak of Eberhard’s perception of that final goal without noting theinfluence the two Blumhardts exercised on his faith and thinking.As a nineteenth-century pastor of Möttlingen in the Black Forest, JohannChristoph Blumhardt experienced the might of demonic forces, but still morepowerfully the liberating strength of Jesus Christ. 13 “Jesus is victor” was hiswatchword. A movement of repentance and renewal arose in his parish, one fruit ofwhich was healing of the sick. Blumhardt took Jesus’ words about the approachingkingdom of God very seriously; the kingdom of God became the central theme ofhis theology. He had not developed this theology sitting in his study. It was rootedin his pastoral experiences in Möttlingen and later, when church authorities madehis work there impossible, in Bad Boll, on the edge of the Swabian Alps. His sonChristoph Friedrich Blumhardt followed in his footsteps and further developedhis father’s theology of the kingdom of God. 14Both Blumhardts insisted that the kingdom of God must be effective here andnow, not just in the afterlife. In their opinion, to comfort people by pointing tothe hereafter narrowed and distorted the gospel. Christoph Friedrich Blumhardtwent so far as to refuse to accept the inevitability of sickness, premature death,and unjust conditions. Because of his concern for the working class and itsestrangement from the church he joined the Social Democratic party and wasa member of the Württemberg parliament for several years. But parliamentaryrules and partisan bickering and intrigue remained foreign to him. As a citizenand ambassador of the kingdom of God he felt committed to obey other laws andanother code of conduct. Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt died in 1919. But in BadBoll, the center of the two Blumhardts’ activities, the witness of their lives and thespirit they embodied remained tangible for many years.118