Moravians in Two Worlds: A Study of Changing Communities

Moravians in Two Worlds: A Study of Changing Communities by Gollin, Gillian L.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780231030335.

A major contribution to the comparative study of social change, this book recounts the history of the two communities of the Moravian Brethren – Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Herrnhut, Saxony – which were founded in the first half of the eighteenth century as communitarian settlements. Religious values and practices, including a strong emphasis on missionary work, took precedence over all other segments of social life in both communities; the Moravians pietism, and the closely similar forms of political, economic, and social organization established in Herrnhut and Bethlehem, set them sharply apart from their neighbors in Europe and America. This, then, is a study of two changing communities viewed from a dual perspective. On the one hand, the world of the Moravians in Herrnhut, living in the Old World of pre-industrial Europe, will be contrasted with that of the Moravians in Bethlehem, witnessing and ultimately participating in the emergence of a new nation. On the other, comparisons will be made over time, focusing within each community on the gradual secularization and consequent transformation of each settlement from religious enclave to worldly community.