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Why We Live in Community: With Two Interpretive Talks by Thomas Merton (Plough Spiritual Classics: Backpack Classics for Modern Pilg) by Eberhard Arnold
Everyone’s talking about “community” these days. Arnold and Merton say it can be lived, too.In this time-honored manifesto, Arnold and Merton add their voices to the vital discussion of what real community is all love, joy, unity, and the great “adventure of faith” shared with others along the way. Neither writer describes (or prescribes) community here, but they do provide a vision to guide our search.For both the uninitiated seeker and the veteran, this book offers guidance – and a disarming call to a renewed commitment and a deepened faith.
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About the author
Eberhard Arnold
70 books68 followersEberhard was born in Königsberg, East Prussia into an academic family. He studied theology but, because of his views on infant baptism and his decision to leave the Lutheran church, he was refused his degree. He changed majors to philosophy. He married Emmy von Hollander and together they dedicated their lives in obedience to God’s will. This led to the beginning of community in 1920.
Eberhard was criticized for his uncompromising faith, which cost him many friends. Not wanting to form a separate sect, he always sought out others who felt as he did. This led to a year’s trip to North America (1930-31) to visit the Hutterites. He was accepted as a minister and the Bruderhof became part of the larger Hutterian movement.
When Hitler came to power in 1933 Eberhard spoke out clearly, recognizing early on the direction German politics were taking. He spent the last years of his life preparing the Brotherhood for possible persecution. Returning from a visit to government authorities in October 1933, he slipped and broke his leg—a complicated fracture which ultimately led to his death.
Eberhard was criticized for his uncompromising faith, which cost him many friends. Not wanting to form a separate sect, he always sought out others who felt as he did. This led to a year’s trip to North America (1930-31) to visit the Hutterites. He was accepted as a minister and the Bruderhof became part of the larger Hutterian movement.
When Hitler came to power in 1933 Eberhard spoke out clearly, recognizing early on the direction German politics were taking. He spent the last years of his life preparing the Brotherhood for possible persecution. Returning from a visit to government authorities in October 1933, he slipped and broke his leg—a complicated fracture which ultimately led to his death.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 19, 2025
A super short introduction into what community looks like (or should look like) within Christianity. I liked this book; besides the fact that it literally took me an hour and a half to read it entirely (lol), it raises valuable questions/ways of thinking for everyone, but especially for those who identify as Christian/Catholic. It emphasizes the fact that while community is, yes, done by the people and for the people, it is pushed/motivated *to do so* by the Spirit. It made me think of how I see and understand the Holy Spirit.
The only thing I didn't quite agree with was when it said that Christians shouldn't take sides with the right or left, but rather just exist *as* Christians. As, yes, a Catholic, but also a left(ist) I think there is a lot of good that can come from identifying with a certain way of political thought.....This is just a half baked thought of my own and I don't have all the words right now, so more to come...
Overall though, a great little book! Would recommend, whether you are a person of faith or not!
The only thing I didn't quite agree with was when it said that Christians shouldn't take sides with the right or left, but rather just exist *as* Christians. As, yes, a Catholic, but also a left(ist) I think there is a lot of good that can come from identifying with a certain way of political thought.....This is just a half baked thought of my own and I don't have all the words right now, so more to come...
Overall though, a great little book! Would recommend, whether you are a person of faith or not!
November 15, 2018
At the core of Arnold's book is the idea that we (namely Christendom) need community because within community we find an environment where it is absolutely crucial that we are unified by love/The Spirit, that that love be lived out in service, mutual submission and sacrifice, and that community brings the reality of our inability to do these things without the love and strength of God to the immediate foreground.
His work definitely caught the grand themes of christian community, and definitely the spiritual intensity of responding to the call to live in such a way. I found that the work focused mostly on very lofty and spiritual/immaterial realities of community life, which I believe to be very important, but I found myself wishing for a little bit more of the in-the-moment examples of community life, which, in my experience is filled with a lot of mundane tasks made holy.
I would say it is a great book for those who have been doing community for a while and need to be reminded of why they are still living this way, or for those who are considering communal living and want to know more about the heart of why Christian Community maters. For those just in the door, or having spent some time in community and are getting past the honeymoon phase, I would still recommend the book but supplement it with more down to earth accounts as well.
All in all a great read, just maybe not incredibly approachable or for everyone.
His work definitely caught the grand themes of christian community, and definitely the spiritual intensity of responding to the call to live in such a way. I found that the work focused mostly on very lofty and spiritual/immaterial realities of community life, which I believe to be very important, but I found myself wishing for a little bit more of the in-the-moment examples of community life, which, in my experience is filled with a lot of mundane tasks made holy.
I would say it is a great book for those who have been doing community for a while and need to be reminded of why they are still living this way, or for those who are considering communal living and want to know more about the heart of why Christian Community maters. For those just in the door, or having spent some time in community and are getting past the honeymoon phase, I would still recommend the book but supplement it with more down to earth accounts as well.
All in all a great read, just maybe not incredibly approachable or for everyone.
Read
August 4, 2011There are some amazing insights in this book that can only be learned or expressed by someone who has started and lived in community for a period of time. No theory here but real and practical advice that I really appreciated reading. I told my wife that there are two or three profound thoughts here that may be the most important I have read in the last ten or twenty years.
If you are into developing church community, new testament churches, body-life church, the priesthood of all believers, organic church or the emerging church, here are PRICELESS insights you should absorb into your lifeblood!
I wouldn't worry about those that question the current movement, as this was written quite a number of years ago when the movement was new and still the first-generation alive to the call of Christ. I cannot say that this is not still absolutely true, it may well be. Only I know some are put off by the communal aspects of the movement and they shouldn't be. Critical reading for believers whether one chooses to live in a communal way or not.
If you are into developing church community, new testament churches, body-life church, the priesthood of all believers, organic church or the emerging church, here are PRICELESS insights you should absorb into your lifeblood!
I wouldn't worry about those that question the current movement, as this was written quite a number of years ago when the movement was new and still the first-generation alive to the call of Christ. I cannot say that this is not still absolutely true, it may well be. Only I know some are put off by the communal aspects of the movement and they shouldn't be. Critical reading for believers whether one chooses to live in a communal way or not.
December 31, 2022
This text had me wishing we'd studied Eberhard Arnold in seminary, and got me planning to do some more studying on my own. I only took one star off because of the consistent underestimation of convicted atheists' ability to promote godly community, and because of some glaring oversights in Merton's second essay. All in all though, this is some of the best theological writing on community that I've ever read.
April 13, 2025
The post script of this short book should have come at the beginning, as neither the intro nor Arnold himself explains what this "community" looks like (I didn't know until the end that this guy founded an anabaptist community called the Bruderhof). Overall, I found the answer to the titular question wasn't really answered, and many statements were alienating and exclusive of any interfaith community. I picked it up because of Merton and he did redeem it a bit with the end half.
January 15, 2020
Erg boeiend. Kende Eberhard Arnoldd niet, maar het was een dapper man. En Merton is vaak leerzaam.
Read
December 26, 2022Bruderhofs and community on a large scale.
May 23, 2024
More like 3.75 stars. Arnold lost me several times but Merton’s thoughts toward the end of the book helped put some skin on it.
November 27, 2023
I read it in Spanish first but I'd like to review it in English, due to weakness and faintness of heart. The main text of this book was originally written in German. It was translated first into English and then into Spanish, each translation printed with additional material from other authors in the same language.
The primary text explained why members of one church in Germany were selling their surplus property and other valuables, if any, and sharing their homes with people who needed help. In the early twentieth century there was a great deal of interest in, and sympathy for, the various forms of Communist and Socialist thought. Well-off Christians felt that in order to follow Jesus they needed to give up wealth and live on equal terms with the poor. Many efforts to do that have failed; many explanations have been written of why, as Rush Limbaugh put it, if you want to help poor people, the most important thing is not to be one of them. What Eberhard Arnold wrote proved to be, though Arnold did not know this, an explanation of one of the very few of these efforts that succeeded.
Arnold's congregation's attempt to live in "bruderhof," brotherhood, did not eliminate poverty, or prevent Nazism, or even spare Arnold's congregation from being banished from Germany by the Nazis. As radical pacifists the church members had to say that they would not serve any army in any way. This did not even make the exiles seem like desirable immigrants, and the terms on which they entered other countries, having left Germany, were not ideal. But over time, as they gained a reputation for being sincere hardworking people--who lived by vows, like monastic vows, except that couples were allowed to marry--they gained respect, too, and even converts. The Bruderhof grew from a congregation, a hundred years ago, to a growing denomination today.
Special contents of this book include an essay translated from English, by Thomas Merton, and one originally in Spanish, by Oscar Romero.
I don't believe that socialism on a national scale ever has worked, or ever will. The lovely ideal of "from each according to ability, to each according to need" is difficult enough to achieve when everyone wants it, and no one wants another thing more. What socialists and communists dream of does, however, exist in the form of small voluntary communities of adults who want to live in such communities. They save money by pooling their resources and consequently are able to do more for their sick and aged than governments could do. Anyone interested in this idea should read Arnold's books. A community where the ideals of giving and sharing are made to work is a rare and beautiful thing.
The primary text explained why members of one church in Germany were selling their surplus property and other valuables, if any, and sharing their homes with people who needed help. In the early twentieth century there was a great deal of interest in, and sympathy for, the various forms of Communist and Socialist thought. Well-off Christians felt that in order to follow Jesus they needed to give up wealth and live on equal terms with the poor. Many efforts to do that have failed; many explanations have been written of why, as Rush Limbaugh put it, if you want to help poor people, the most important thing is not to be one of them. What Eberhard Arnold wrote proved to be, though Arnold did not know this, an explanation of one of the very few of these efforts that succeeded.
Arnold's congregation's attempt to live in "bruderhof," brotherhood, did not eliminate poverty, or prevent Nazism, or even spare Arnold's congregation from being banished from Germany by the Nazis. As radical pacifists the church members had to say that they would not serve any army in any way. This did not even make the exiles seem like desirable immigrants, and the terms on which they entered other countries, having left Germany, were not ideal. But over time, as they gained a reputation for being sincere hardworking people--who lived by vows, like monastic vows, except that couples were allowed to marry--they gained respect, too, and even converts. The Bruderhof grew from a congregation, a hundred years ago, to a growing denomination today.
Special contents of this book include an essay translated from English, by Thomas Merton, and one originally in Spanish, by Oscar Romero.
I don't believe that socialism on a national scale ever has worked, or ever will. The lovely ideal of "from each according to ability, to each according to need" is difficult enough to achieve when everyone wants it, and no one wants another thing more. What socialists and communists dream of does, however, exist in the form of small voluntary communities of adults who want to live in such communities. They save money by pooling their resources and consequently are able to do more for their sick and aged than governments could do. Anyone interested in this idea should read Arnold's books. A community where the ideals of giving and sharing are made to work is a rare and beautiful thing.
June 16, 2014
I have visited the Bruderhof and I have lived in Germany among groups associated with the early days of the Bruderhof, so I am not foreign to this way of thinking. I am also not surprised that Thomas Merton did not find this way of thinking foreign. This is a good, clear description of the "why" of community. It is short enough that one will not want to put it down, and yet has the depth of experience that is needed to talk about such things. It is a disturbing book in that for those not living in community it makes one ask, Why am I not doing this? For me the question would be, Why am I not joining the monastic expression of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity? Can I really live the values I embrace, the values that Eberhard Arnold embraced, without the support of community? That is a question that one will have to answer at the end of life, but for now it is right that the haunting question be well-put and that we start to answer it within ourselves. And putting the question is precisely what Eberhard Arnold does, and he does it well.
February 2, 2015
I'm gonna give this one 5* for the serious provocation it is to the way of life charted by most Christians. How little awareness we have to how and the extent we have been formed by the present evil age. Arnold begins to lift the vail on that and Merton chimes in with some very helpful comments and observations. I'd like to see another more contemporary commentator along the lines of Wilson- Hartgrove add to the conversation. As it is, it seems a bit too distant for most to even begin to take on board and grapple with.
April 3, 2010
The book has some really excellent incites that I would give 5 stars but it also has some poor parts as well that I wouldn't give 1 star. Arnold's portion is better than Merton's. Merton is where the book runs both hot and cold. I don't mind that he references hippies and Gandhi, but I disagree with the trajectory of some of his statements. Overall the book is a must read and will help those looking into community.
March 10, 2010
Arnold's often magnificent, but this one seemed a bit trivial and thin. Merton's essays didn't add much.
June 19, 2015
Some pretty good observations on the importance of community but when doing it the church's way becomes a requirement it is a little too catholic for me.
May 21, 2015
....a book that emphasizes on the importance of a community...
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews