Voices of the Turtledoves: The Sacred World of Ephrata(Pennsylvania German History and Culture)

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.

Table of Contents:
Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations Prelude Introduction 1. The Religious Thought of Ephrata: Conrad Beissel 2. The Religious Thought of Ephrata: Other Writers 3. "Holy Church Practices": Ritual at Ephrata 4. Manly Virgins and Virginal Men: Gender at Ephrata 5. "God’s Holy Point of Rest": Ephrata’s Mystical Language in Space and Time 6. Roses in the Wilderness: Ephrata’s Manuscript Art 7. "Heavenly Magic": Hidden Knowledge at Ephrata Epilogue Bibliographical Essay Notes Index

About the Author :
Jeff Bach is Associate Professor of Brethren and Historical Studies at Bethany Theological Seminary. During the summer of 1995, he served as Scholar in Residence at the Ephrata Cloister.

Review :
"Although dozens, if not hundreds, of books 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.... 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, The Journal of American History "For the serious student of colonial Pennsylvania, the Brethren movement, communal societies, or Pietism in early America, Bach's work is essential reading." - David B. Eller, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography