Research Catalog

Title

Serving two masters : Moravian Brethren in Germany and North America, 1727-1801 / Elisabeth W. Sommer.

Author

Sommer, Elisabeth W.

Publication

Lexington, Ky. : University Press of Kentucky, ©2000.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvii, 234 pages : illustrations, map; 24 cm.

Summary

• "The eighteenth century was a time of significant change in the perception of marriage and family relations, the emphasis of reason over revelation, and the spread of political consciousness. The Unity of the Brethren, known in America as Moravians, experienced the resulting tensions firsthand as they organized their protective religious settlements in Germany. A group of the Brethren who later settled in Salem, North Carolina, experienced the stresses of cultural and generational conflict when its younger members came to think of themselves as Americans."
• "Serving Two Masters traces the sense of alienation that grew between the American and European Brethren. While the group's leadership usually associated the Enlightenment with rebellion and religious skepticism, the younger Brethren were drawn to its message of individual autonomy and creative expression. Elisabeth Sommer looks at the impact of this generational and cultural change among Moravians on both sides of the Atlantic and examines the resulting debate over the definition of freedom and faith."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Religion in the South

Uniform Title

Religion in the South.

Subject

• 1700-1799
• Moravians > North Carolina > Winston-Salem > History > 18th century
• Moravians > Germany > History > 18th century
• Moravians
• Herrnhutters
• Moravians > North Carolina > Salem > History > 18th century
• Salem (Winston-Salem, N.C.) > Church history > 18th century
• Germany
• North Carolina > Winston-Salem
• North Carolina > Winston-Salem > Salem
• Salem (N.C.) > Church history > 18th century

Genre/Form

• Church history.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-222) and index.

Contents

Preface: Searching for the American Freedom -- Introduction: In the Beginning -- Forming the Ideal: The Development of the Ortsgemeine -- Order in the Wilderness: The Planting of the Ideal -- Battling Chaos: Discipline and Declension in the Ortsgemeine -- Gambling with God: Revelation, Reason, and the Use of the Lot -- Testing Authority and Defining Freedom: A Tale of Two Continents -- Hands across the Water: The Challenges of a Transatlantic Relationship -- Epilogue: The Shattering of the Ideal.

ISBN

• 0813121396
• 9780813121390

LCCN

99028731

OCLC

• ocm41224046
• 41224046
• SCSB-1032957

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library