Each one of us, of course, must preserve his inner freedom, so that each one follows the holy Shall and the holy Must that lives within him, without making himself in any way dependent.
- Eberhard Arnold
January 06,2026
- Eberhard Arnold Why We Live in CommunityWe love the soil because God’s spirit spoke and created the earth, and because he called it out of its uncultivated natural state so that it might be cultivated by the communal work of human beings. We love physical work – the work of muscle and hand – and we love the craftsman’s art, in which the spirit guides the hand. In the way spirit and hand work together and through each other, we see the mystery of community. God – the creative Spirit – has formed nature, and he has entrusted the earth to us, his sons and daughters, as an inheritance but also as a task: our garden must become his garden, and our work must further his kingdom.
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Only the Spirit of Christ can guarantee such a working together. It is a fact that today the Spirit is again urging the realization of this communal life. All are expecting the Christians to give an example; all expect that they will be able to attain what others seek in vain. In our circles, in us all, there is still much weakness. Yet I have the invincible certainty that our small strength will urge us toward results that do not come from ourselves.
- Eberhard Arnold
We are filled with the faith that the living Spirit of Christ is today causing countless small focal points to arise, where not only community of gathering and building up is to be found, but real community of life and of productive work and vocation.
- Eberhard Arnold, April 1920