E. G. Alderfer has chosen a dramatic story to tell—the founding and subsequent history of Ephrata, a mystical religious community that flourished in eastern Pennsylvania in the mid-eighteenth century. The history of the commune is inseparable from that of its leader, Conrad Beissel, a German Pietist who came to America in 1720 seeking spiritual peace and solitude. When he settled in the virgin forest of Lancaster County, his talents and charisma attraced other German settlers who shared his vision of a community built in the image of apostolic Christianity.In its heyday, from about 1735 to 1765, the community at Ephrata numbered some two hundred people, the celibate members living in simple wooden buildings noted for the harmony and serenity of their architecture.The cultural achievements of the group were exceptional. They produced an extensive body of mystical literature and constructed the most complete printing establishment in the colonies at that time. They were also adept at the art of Fraktur, and many exquisitely decorated manuscripts survive. Music was a particular interest of Beissel's, and the choral music performed at Ephrata was well known and much admired.Mr. Alderfer, who has written widely on colonial Pennsylvania, shows the relationship of the Ephrata commune to other experiments at withdrawal from the world and in particular to the many strands of Old World mysticism and the German Pietist movement. He also discusses American religious and communal movements of later times in the light of the Ephrata experience. His is the first history of the community to provide extensive documentation, including analysis of many surviving manuscripts and books written at Ephrata.Although the commune died out in the nineteenth century, the site and many of the buildingts survived. Today the Ephrata Cloisters Park is operated by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Today a premier tourist destination in the heart of Amish country, Ephrata was a community of radical Pietist Germans who lived in peace and contemplation among magnificent buildings and an idyllic setting. This book is the first definitive work of The Ephrata Cloister and its charismatic founder, Georg Conrad Beissel.

During the first half of the 18th century, Pennsylvania became home to a variety of German-speaking sectarians. One such group was the Snow Hill Cloister, which was founded in 1762. In this book, Denise A. Seachrist tells the story of Snow Hill, exploring its spiritual and work life, its music, writings and craft traditions.

From the Shakers to the Branch Davidians, America's communal utopians have captured the popular imagination. Seventeen original essays here demonstrate the relevance of such groups to the mainstream of American social, religious, and economic life. The contributors examine the beliefs and practices of the most prominent utopian communities founded before 1965, including the long-overlooked Catholic monastic communities and Jewish agricultural colonies. Also featured are the Ephrata Baptists, Moravians, Shakers, Harmonists, Hutterites, Inspirationists of Amana, Mormons, Owenites, Fourierists, Icarians, Janssonists, Theosophists, Cyrus Teed's Koreshans, and Father Divine's Peace Mission. Based on a new conceptual framework known as developmental communalism, the book examines these utopian movements throughout the course of their development--before, during, and after their communal period. Each chapter includes a brief chronology, giving basic information about the group discussed. An appendix presents the most complete list of American utopian communities ever published. The contributors are Jonathan G. Andelson, Karl J. R. Arndt, Pearl W. Bartelt, Priscilla J. Brewer, Donald F. Durnbaugh, Lawrence Foster, Carl J. Guarneri, Robert V. Hine, Gertrude E. Huntington, James E. Landing, Dean L. May, Lawrence J. McCrank, J. Gordon Melton, Donald E. Pitzer, Robert P. Sutton, Jon Wagner, and Robert S. Weisbrot.

Harmony of the Spirits: Translation and the Language of Community in Early Pennsylvania

A landmark work that will instigate vigorous and wide-ranging discussions on institutions in Western life, and the power of material culture to both enforce and negate cultural norms Institutions pervade social life. They express community goals and values by defining the limits of socially acceptable behavior. Institutions are often vested with the resources, authority, and power to enforce the orthodoxy of their time. But institutions are also arenas in which both orthodoxies and authority can be contested. Between power and opposition lies the individual experience of the institutionalized. Whether in a boarding school, hospital, prison, almshouse, commune, or asylum, their experiences can reflect the positive impact of an institution or its greatest failings. This interplay of orthodoxy, authority, opposition, and individual experience are all expressed in the materiality of institutions and are eminently subject to archaeological investigation. A few archaeological and historical publications, in widely scattered venues, have examined individual institutional sites. Each work focused on the development of a specific establishment within its narrowly defined historical context; e.g., a fort and its role in a particular war, a schoolhouse viewed in terms of the educational history of its region, an asylum or prison seen as an expression of the prevailing attitudes toward the mentally ill and sociopaths. In contrast, this volume brings together twelve contributors whose research on a broad range of social institutions taken in tandem now illuminates the experience of these institutions. Rather than a culmination of research on institutions, it is a landmark work that will instigate vigorous and wide-ranging discussions on institutions in Western life, and the power of material culture to both enforce and negate cultural norms.

The United States is the only modern nation in which communes have continuously existed for the past two hundred years. This definitive history of communes in America examines the major factors that have supported the existence and growth of communes throughout American history. The most impressive survey of the communal experience since the works of Noyes and Nordhoff, it is informed by a deep respect for the human subjects and organizational forms of American communes. The findings in the analytical chapters are of considerably theoretical import beyond the historical narrative. Oved details the founding, growth, development, and sometimes failure of alternative societies from 1735 to 1939: Icaria, Ephrata, Oneida, Shaker, religious, secular, and socialist communes. Extensive reference material cited will assure this work a special place in the archives of the literature on communes.