Leadership and Loss of Leadership
Herrnhaag was a community designed by Nicholas whose inhabitants were to live under the direct rule of Christ with Christian Renatus as his representative. At Herrnhaag, Christel was the link between the spiritual and the earthly as the spirit took human form. During the 1748 Single Brothers Festival at Herrnhaag, Christel and his assistants entered wearing white robes, implying it was Christ who was actually entering. Later that day, Christel and twelve assistants led Communion, further representing Christ and the apostles. During the service, those in attendance believed that the sidehole of Christ was literally standing before them in the bodily forms of Christel and Rubusch, his co-leader of the brothers. Christel sang a welcoming hymn for Christ entering the hall, and while kissing, the brothers believed they were literally kissing the sidehole.
The combination of sexuality and spirituality shown at Herrnhaag was not unknown in Christian history but it caused increasing scandal both within and without the church, particularly embarrassing for Nicholas "who was trying to be recognized as a rightful theologian after joining the confession of Augsburg" in 1748. Even Christel’s mother was concerned, realizing the events taking place at Herrnhaag and its nearby sister community of Marienborn were at the edge where metaphor and reality meet. Referring to a plowshare that can be raised and lowered, she later wrote to her son that "I sometimes said we have already put the peg in the last hole. If we wanted to remain in the world, the Savior would have to make three or four holes further back and lower down."
In addition to increasingly embarrassing scandal and rumor, the cost of sustaining Herrnhaag and its numerous festivals put a severe financial strain on the church at a time when its missionary efforts were expanding around the world. Events reached such a point that Christel’s father denounced what was happening at Herrnhaag and ordered Christel to attend him in England. "When the twenty-two-year-old returned to Herrnhaag, he was physically and mentally broken. In August 1750 he founded a Bund auf die Marter Gottes (Covenant on the ordeal of God). During this 'phase of consolation' ordered by his father, he also composed several 'purified' poems."
Read more about this topic: Christian Renatus Von Zinzendorf
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