Our inner fire, yes, even our enthusiasm, our inspiration, and soul, and Eros—everything that is fire and love—must flow together with the one great light, with the holy Agape, with the heart of God, with Jesus Christ; and being born out of Him, it must gain new life in purity and power. It is quite clear that this means that everything which is greed, desire for possession, despotism, the demand of the individual, is consumed and completely spent in this sun fire. The one—the old world with its greed for possession—perishes, and the other—the new creation with its divine life that dedicates, embraces, and pours itself out in joy—is born.
- Eberhard Arnold
Selected Reading
Who Is My Mother? Who Are My Brothers?
Eberhard Arnold
We find Jesus' mother, who had previously seemed to separate herself from him, waiting with all the others for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and for the creation of the first communal church at Pentecost. From then on she belonged fully to the circle of those who believed in her Son.
Continue ReadingThe Spirit of the Early Church
Eberhard Arnold
The early church was not perfect, nor can it be blindly imitated, admits Eberhard Arnold in this groundbreaking 1926 essay. And yet, never since in church history has the Spirit been so forcefully at work. Why has the example of the first Christians never ceased to fuel renewal and reform?
Continue ReadingQuick Quotes
Marriage, this is what I call the resolve of two to create a unity which is more than those who created it. I call marriage reverence for one another and for the fulfillment of such a resolve. You should love this land of children, and may this love be your nobility. Faith as the power of truth which clarifies and frees from confusion, is the character of true marriage. Freedom does not demand intoxication or blindness, but power and clarity. Love opens up paradise.
- Eberhard Arnold
True community of marriage can move only from unity of spirit through the emotional into the physical. It can live, therefore, only in faithfulness, only and solely in steadfast, everlasting unity. This is possible only under the rulership of the Spirit. Only out of this can physical purity be desired. Only when the emotions are ruled by the Spirit can freeing and purification become reality.
- Eberhard Arnold