God's Revolution: Justice, Community, and the Coming Kingdom

By Eberhard Arnold and John Howard Yoder

Do you feel powerless to change the injustice at every level of society? Are you tired of answers that ignore the root causes of human suffering? This selection of writings by Eberhard Arnold, who left a career and the established church in order to live out the gospel, calls us to a completely different way.

Be warned: Arnold doesn’t approach discipleship as the route to some benign religious fulfillment, but as a revolution - a transformation that begins within and spreads outward to encompass every aspect of life. Arnold writes in the same tradition of radical obedience to the gospel as his contemporaries Barth and Bonhoeffer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Plough Publishing House
• Release date: Jan 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9780874865592

Eberhard Arnold

Eberhard Arnold (1883–1935) studied theology, philosophy, and education and was widely sought as a speaker at student conferences and other gatherings. In 1920, leaving a promising career as a writer and the privileges of upper-middle- class life in Berlin, he moved with his wife and children to Sannerz, a small village in central Germany, where they founded a Christian community on the basis of the Sermon on the Mount.

Reviews for God's Revolution

[cyclopaedantic · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a survey of Eberhard Arnold's thought. What is frustrating is that it is truly a "best of" collection, with one to two paragraph excerpts from various writings and speeches, so it's hard to get a good sense of Arnold.

[morningrob · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The book God’s Revolution provides excerpts from the works of Eberhard Arnold, the founder of the Bruderhof intentional community. As the book’s title suggests, this book proposes that living by God’s word is a revolution to how society currently lives. This is especially true I the areas of war, peace, and the economy. The Bruderhof leads a counter-cultural existence as compared to much of Western society and their communities provide a living example of one radical way of understanding how to live in that community. The book is a series of excerpts from Arnold’s writing with most selections about one or two paragraphs. Since it is a compendium of parts of several works the thought is sometimes difficult to trace. With each section, it was difficult to understand the organizing principle. I think that if the selections were organized by date within each section, then it would have been easier to understand. This book is especially helpful if one wishes to understand one way of living the Christian life.

[boyntonlodgeno236 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A Christian-focused look at the world. I found it an interesting read.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am overdue to review this book, which I read months ago. This is a collection of excerpts from Arnold's lectures, sermons and other writings. Some of them are quite striking but on the whole I find I prefer extended arguments Arnold makes to the excerpts, as insightful and often poetic as they are.

[chicobico-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Eberhard Arnold (1883-1935) founded the first Bruderhof (“place of brothers”) Christian community in Germany in 1920. Today Bruderhof communities can be found in the US, the UK, Germany, Austria, Paraguay, and Australia. They all practice non-violence, peacemaking, common ownership of assets, and life-long marriage. First published in 1984, God’s Revolution consists of selected passages drawn largely from Arnold’s lecture notes that lay out his vision and rationale for the communal life of the Bruderhof. Now in its third edition, the book has added a brief history of Arnold’s life by Mennonite theologian John Yoder and an introduction by Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas on Arnold’s message for contemporary readers. In his book, Arnold portrays the Bruderhof as offering the world a vision of the Church as a community that exhibits: (1) a practical expression of the coming kingdom of God; (2) a reflection of perfect unity, justice, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; and (3) a fellowship that faithfully observes the dictates of the Sermon on the Mound. His book is recommended for all readers ready to confront the challenges that this vision poses for today’s churches.

[nirrad_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Nice read, fun seeing things written in the early 1900s still relevant today. A lot of knowledge, but I can't say I agree with everything that Eberhard wrote. But a good read and worth the time.

[endaclon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Arnold's thinking was influenced by Christian Socialism, Anabaptist theology, and the German Youth Movement. His exposure to the Marxist influenced writings of Johann Christoph and Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt as well as his participation in the early twentieth century romantic movement Wundervogelbewegung, which emphasized a return to nature, abstinence from alcohol and tobacco, modest dress, and communal living influenced his theology. This current title presents selections from Arnold's writings which highlight his Marxist/socialist, pacifistic philosophy and his rejection of materialism, capitalism, and engagement with the wider world. In this the book succeeds admirably. The work would have been well served by a broader outline of the origin of Arnold's thinking and a franker admission of the philosophical works which influenced him.