About the Book
A stunning photo essay paired with 100 stories of members gives a rare glimpse into the Bruderhof, a Christian community that has stood the test of time.
Yes, it is possible to create a society where there are no rich or poor, where children and elderly are welcome, where no one lives in isolation. Meet 100 individuals from diverse backgrounds who ventured everything to build a life together where everyone belongs and each can contribute, pooling their income, possessions, talents, and energy.
As the community marks its first 100 years, the people in this book tell why they have chosen this radical way of life and share insights gleaned along the way. Their stories represent a cross section of the Bruderhof as an international and intergenerational community. With photography by British photojournalist Danny Burrows, this book celebrates what is possible when people take a leap of faith. It will inspire anyone working to build a more just, peaceful, and sustainable future.
Table of Contents:
1. What Money Can’t Buy
2. Working for a Purpose
3. Looking for Freedom
4. Fighting Injustice and Inequality
5. Finding and Sharing Faith
6. What about Technology?
7. In Defense of Children
8. Illness, Old Age, and Death
9. Seeking and Making Peace
10. From Isolation to Community
About the Author :
Clare Stober is Creative Director at Plough Publishing. Danny Burrows is a professional photographer and journalist whose work has appeared in GQ, Time Out, and the Guardian.
Review :
The Bruderhof Christian movement shares similarities to groups like the Amish and Mennonites. Bruderhof community members live quiet lives, serving God. The fact that they eschew many of the trappings of modern life makes them endlessly fascinating to the outside world. This beautifully produced book, sure to draw in the spiritually curious, is a centenary celebration of the Bruderhof, told via testimonials by members from communities around the world. Some members, like Dorothy, have grown up within the Bruderhof; others, like Quaker Tom, came from similar traditions. Some people, like Josef, come from non-Christian faiths, and some, like Brian, step out of the Bruderhof for a while and return later, always welcomed back. The accounts all share a sense of having come home, and of finding peace in not having to prove one's worth or achieve material success. Photographs are vivid and beautifully composed; some pop with vitality; others are respectful windows into another world. A timeline of Bruderhof history and a world map of their communities complete this lovely book. —Booklist
Celebrating a century of Christian communal living, this oversized volume is filled with photo-essays describing the lives and contributions of past and present residents of the Bruderhof. . . . Photographer Danny Burrows illustrates ten chapters with images of society participants organized by the goals of this movement . . . showing how they work for a purpose, seek peace, share their faith, practice charity, and work together in sickness and health. . . . A laudable centennial presentation for this community that also serves to introduce this group to the general public. —San Francisco Book Review
This full sized coffee-table style volume is a delight to browse through and an impressively informative, beautifully illustrated, inspired, and inspiring history that is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and academic library collections. —Midwest Book Review
This book belongs in every church library and on the coffee tables, or their equivalents, of anyone in the world thirsty for examples of wholesome, peaceful, and beneficial living. — Englewood Review
Instead of keeping up with the Joneses, what about settling in with them, living life with them, sharing bread with them—along with their joys and pains? This is what peering through this window into the life of the Bruderhof makes me wonder. It is possible to have a different orientation towards our children, our homes, our material goods, our neighbors—to be driven less by meritocratic competition and more by “inconvenient hospitality” that prizes substance over appearance, sacrificial love over its feel-good counterfeit. —Amber Lapp, Institute for Family Studies
Another Life Is Possible tells the story of the Bruderhof and its communities today in realistic photography by Danny Burrows, with narrative by Clare Stober and autobiographical statements … from a wide variety of backgrounds: a Mexican American, a former UCC pastor, an Iraqi refugee, a prominent Philadelphia Quaker, a man with epilepsy and a woman with chronic pain, a gardener or ten, a single mother, a Buddhist traveling in Sri Lanka, and a video game enthusiast. The book is an incredibly good portrait of lives lived well in great intention and humility undertaken within a community as a vessel for the Holy Spirit. —Richard Mammana, Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, The Episcopal Church
