Legacy, Influence and Parallels
William Penn records in his journal a meeting with the Labadists in 1677, which gives an insight into the reasons why these people chose to live a communal lifestyle. Labadie’s widow, Lucia, testified to Penn about her younger days in which she had mourned the insipid state of the Christianity which she saw around her:
If God would make known to me his way, I would trample upon all the pride and glory of the world. ...O the pride, O the lusts, O the vain pleasures in which Christians live! Can this be the way to Heaven? ...Are these the followers of Christ? O God, where is Thy little flock? Where is Thy little family, that will live entirely to Thee, that will follow Thee? Make me one of that number.
Hearing Labadie’s teachings, she was convinced of her need to be joined in community living with her fellow believers.
Labadie’s approach to Christian spirituality, but not his communitarian approach with its separation from mainstream churches, was paralleled in the Pietist movement in Germany. Many of its leaders, such as Philipp Jakob Spener, approved Labadie’s stance but preferred for their own part to trust in the established structures.
Some Pietist community enterprises did, however, arise. August Francke, professor at Halle University, founded there an orphanage (the Waisenhaus) in 1696, to be run along Christian communitarian lines, with equality and sharing of goods. This caused a stir and was famed abroad. Its example inspired in George Whitefield, the English preacher and revivalist, a yearning for a similar foundation which eventually came to being in America.
Read more about this topic: Labadists
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