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Winner, 2004 Dale W. Brown Book Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies
Winner, 2005 Outstanding Publication, Communal Studies Association
Co-published with the Pennsylvania German Society/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
The Ephrata Cloister was a community of radical Pietists founded by Georg Conrad Beissel (1691–1768), a charismatic mystic who had been a journeyman baker in Europe. In 1720 he and a few companions sought a new life in William Penn’s land of religious freedom, eventually settling on the banks of the Cocalico Creek in what is now Lancaster County. They called their community “Ephrata,” after the Hebrew name for the area around Bethlehem. Voices of the Turtledoves is a fascinating look at the sacred world that flourished at Ephrata.
In Voices of the Turtledoves, Jeff Bach is the first to draw extensively on Ephrata’s manuscript resources and on recent archaeological investigations to present an overarching look at the community. He concludes that the key to understanding all the various aspects of life at Ephrata—its architecture, manuscript art, and social organization—is the religious thought of Beissel and his co-leaders.
- Sales Rank: #2725454 in Books
- Published on: 2005-08-02
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .79" w x 6.00" l, .89 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 304 pages
Review
“Where numerous scholars failed in past centuries to write a definitive work about Ephrata Cloister during its peak years as an ethnic, religious, and cultural curiosity in America, Jeff Bach successfully articulates the context in which Ephrata was created and functioned. His research is grounded in thorough knowledge of the European religious thought, practice, and writing that heavily influenced Ephrata’s founder and spiritual leader, Conrad Beissel.”
—Nadine A. Steinmetz, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Site Director of Ephrata Cloister, 1984–1995
“Bach uses the unique, mystical language of Ephrata to present an overarching view of this sacred community.”
—Review Newspaper
“Bach uses the unique, mystical language of Ephrata to present a comprehensive view of this sacred community.”
—Susquehanna Life
“Bach (Bethany Theological Seminary) has mastered the primary sources—many are in German—and deciphered the religious language and images of Ephrata’s extensive devotional literature, letters, hymns, and art. The author’s narrow focus on interpreting the religious language of Ephata will limit interest in this monograph to advanced students and scholars.”
—W.B. Bedford, Crown College, Choice
“Jeff Bach allows us to understand the ingredients of Ephrata’s theology and challenges us to explore how these particular Protestant Pietists fit into the religious smorgasbord that was colonial Pennsylvania. Voices of the Turtledoves answers many questions and raises still more.”
—Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe, William and Mary Quarterly
“Although dozens, if not hundreds, of book and articles have previously told Ephrata’s story and attempted to plumb its mystical theology, Jeff Bach’s is the first book to do the job comprehensively, empathetically, and accurately. . . . No one, however, has set out the community’s history or illuminated its ideological basis and coherence nearly as well as Bach has. This book will be the standard work on the subject for decades to come, and it constitutes an important contribution to scholarship in American religious history and the history of intentional communities.”
—Timothy Miller, Journal of American History
“No one, however, has set out the community’s history or illuminated its ideological basis and coherence nearly as well as Bach has. This book will be the standard work on the subject for decades to come, and it constitutes an important contribution to scholarship in American religious history and the history of intentional communities.”
—Timothy Miller, Journal of American History
“The virtues of Bach’s book are considerable; however, its chief value is in providing a solid intellectual history of the Ephratan experiment. Bach’s clear understanding of the tenets of mysticism and of Boehmist thought allows him to explain elements of Ephratan life and thought which would otherwise be unexplainable.”
—James Gallant, Utopian Studies
“For the serious student of colonial Pennsylvania, the Brethren movement, communal societies, or Pietism in early America, Bach’s work is essential reading. The excellent bibliographical essay alone (pp. 197-217) makes it indispensable for academic libraries.”
—David B. Eller, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
“Bach’s book is a hard read, but not because he does not handle his subject deftly and with competence. Rather, as Beissel’s successor Peter Miller observed about the mystical language of Ephrata, ‘Those who speak it are hard to understand.’ Thanks to Bach, their voices (likened as they are to the cooing of turtledoves) become much more intelligible.”
—Edsel Burdge, Jr., Mennonite Quarterly Review
From the Publisher
"Where numerous scholars failed in past centuries to write a definitive work about Ephrata Cloister during its peak years as an ethnic, religious, and cultural curiosity in America, Jeff Bach successfully articulates the context in which Ephrata was created and functioned. His research is grounded in thorough knowledge of the European religious thought, practice, and writing that heavily influenced Ephrata’s founder and spiritual leader, Conrad Beissel."—Nadine A. Steinmetz, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Site Director of Ephrata Cloister, 1984–1995
From the Inside Flap
Co-published with the Pennsylvania German Society
The Ephrata Cloister was a community of radical Pietists founded by Georg Conrad Beissel (1691–1768), a charismatic mystic who had been a journeyman baker in Europe. In 1720 he and a few companions sought a new life in William Penn’s land of religious freedom, eventually settling on the banks of the Cocalico Creek in what is now Lancaster County. They called their community "Ephrata," after the Hebrew name for the area around Bethlehem. Voices of the Turtledoves is a fascinating look at the sacred world that flourished at Ephrata.
At its height in the 1760s, the community at Ephrata probably numbered more than two hundred members. Celibate brothers and sisters were divided into two separate but cooperative orders, jointly called the Solitary, that followed a rule of ascetic devotion. A third order, the Householders, consisted of families that worshipped with the brothers and sisters and contributed to the communal economy. Jeff Bach is the first to draw extensively on Ephrata’s manuscript resources and on recent archaeological investigations (conducted annually since 1994) to present an overarching look at the community. He concludes that the key to understanding all the various aspects of life at Ephrata—its architecture, manuscript art, and social organization—is the religious thought of Beissel and his co-leaders.
In Ephrata’s devotional literature, the turtledove appears as a metaphor for a faithful spouse, representing the desire of Ephrata members to be joined faithfully to Christ. Voices of the Turtledoves allows various Ephrata members to speak through their writings and provides an important key to understanding their symbolic religious community.
Today, Ephrata is one of Pennsylvania’s premier tourist destinations, located near the heart of Amish country. Visitors are drawn to its magnificent buildings and idyllic setting and imagine a lost oasis of peace and contemplation. Voices of the Turtledoves will appeal to anyone who has visited or is planning a visit to Ephrata. Based on impeccable research, it will also interest students of history, religion, and the communal societies of colonial America.
Most helpful customer reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Doesn't get much better than this!
By C. Renstrom
Not only does the author know his material, but he has a wonderful prose style as well. Highly recommend this to anyone interested in this community. Actually, I'd recommend it even if you weren't all that interested. The subject of Ephrata can either be terribly dry (to be expected of academia) or esoteric (Ephrata has a kind of "Burning Man" appeal among certain circles). The author brings the community to life and gives us a unique and penetrating glance into one of American History's best kept secrets.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Early American Protestant Theosophic Monasticism
By Cameron B. Clark
According to Bach in his introduction: "This book investigates the eighteenth-century Sabbatarian monastic community at Ephrata through their religious language and its European sources as the primary, but not sole, avenue of interpretation. This book proposes that Conrad Beissel and others at Ephrata used familiar elements from German Radical Pietism to create a language and ritual practices to convey a mystical awareness of God." The book's title is taken from the idea that "many people at Ephrata sought to be united with Christ in mystical union, like the turtledoves frequently found in pairs in Ephrata's art" and "the writing gave voice to Ephrata's language for the quest of each soul to be joined to Christ, like a pair of turtledoves."
I visited the Ephrata Cloister earlier this month (10/6/2009). Bach's fascinating book made the visit more meaningful and provided information not available through the site's museum and tour. My interest in the site and its history coincides with my study of the esoteric/mystical tradition of Christian theosophy, especially its development through the German mystic Jacob Boehme and his followers. It was through Arthur Versluis' books that I was introduced to the tradition as an "esoteric" form of Christianity, although I was familiar with Boehme and other theosophers influenced by him such as William Law because of my extensive study of Christian mysticism. Versluis discusses Conrad Beissel and references Bach's earlier 1997 Ph.D. Dissertation that became this book in his own book, Wisdom's Children: A Christian Esoteric Tradition, calling it "an excellent contemporary resource". Bach's book gives significantly more details and shows how Beissel was influenced by Boehme's thought primarily through Johann Georg Gichtel's interpretation of it. Beissel also held beliefs such as universal restorationism which were in common with theosopher Jane Leade and her Philadelphian Society (located in England). The ideological context of German Radical Pietism in which Beissel and his Cloister falls is also well discussed.
Bach covers not only Beissel's thought, but also the religious thought of other writers at Ephrata such as Johannes Hildebrand and Ezechiel Sangmeister, the latter being adversarial in some ways to Beissel. Bach carefully sticks with the historical facts, not being automatically swayed by negative opinions such as those by Sangmeister while clearly stating and assessing them. He is also concerned to warn readers that most of the secondary literature related to Beissel and his Cloister "depends too uncritically on Julius F. Sache's two-volume history, The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania: A Critical and Legendary History of the Ephrata Cloister and the Dunkers". He points out areas of unreliability throughout his book, although he admits that Sache's text is "valuable for its preservation of much source material" apart from Sache's altering some of it to suit his own purposes (see his cautionary comments in the Bibliographical Essay near the end of his book).
The book covers ritualistic practices involving water baptism, the love feast, anointing, the holy kiss, and the laying on of hands. It also covers devotional and ascetic practices related to the monastic life at Ephrata such as "tonsure", fasting, monastic dress, and prayer. Chapter 4 covers the topic of gender at Ephrata, showing the role of the Virgin Sophia, important to Christian theosophy, as the feminine aspect of God closely associated with Christ. Attitudes toward women, men, celibacy, sex, and marriage are explored (there were celibate orders for men and women as well as a congregation of married families known as "the householders"). Ephrata's mystical language is expounded on, including its relation to space and time, and the manuscript art of calligraphy and designs is explored in prose and pictures, touching on areas of symbolic significance.
The last chapter covers the fascinating, albeit controversial, topic of "heavenly magic". The introduction to Bach's book began with a quote from Beissel who wrote to a friend, "I wish in all my expressions to be understood magically and mystically." Ephrata's mysticism was covered in earlier chapters, leaning towards scholar of mysticism Bernard McGinn's definition of it. The last chapter approaches magic through definitions from authors such as Keith Thomas and Stanley Tambiah, and notes that "Ephrata emerged at a time when both Protestant clergy and empirical scientists dismissed magic". Bach shows that Beissel, following Gichtel, "distinguished between the evil magic of sorcery (Zauberey) and the good magic, or faith magic, which he often called simply 'magic' (Magia). For Beissel, magic was not a manipulation for personal benefit" (pages 175 - 176). Some of the discussion may leave one wondering how mysticism and miracles relate to the so-called magic, especially as it relates to God's working. Versluis in his book Wisdom's Children didn't hesitate to liken theosophical magic to the miracles in the New Testament (see Ch. 21 - Theosophy, Herbal Medicine, Magic, and Astrology, pages 272 - 273).
Although Bach explores the areas of astrology and alchemy which were mined in Ephrata for spiritual metaphors, I highly recommend Versluis' book for a more thorough introduction to this area of Christian theosophy, including its relationship to Johannes Kelpius who preceded Beissel's community in Pennsylvania. Bach also lightly touches on the belief in and experience of ghosts at Ephrata, but Versluis gives additional information about theosophic encounters with spirits in general (including angels and demons - see, for example, his discussion of John Pordage). Lastly, Bach discusses the question of Rosicrucianism at Ephrata. According to Versluis: "Historian Jeffrey Bach calls into question, I think rightfully, Beissel's 'Rosicrucianism' in Sachse's account, but it is also true that later Rosicrucian treatises are deeply indebted to Bohmean Theosophy." Those looking for discussion about possible connections to later Pennsylvania Dutch folk magic practices ("powwowing") will be disappointed. For these connections, see Versluis' Wisdom's Children, chapter 21.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Bach's exposition, and his chapter notes as well as lengthy Epilogue, bibliographical essay, index, and 29 illustrations were appreciated.
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