"This is the story of the Bruderhof, an experiment in Christian communal living now in its third generation. Of his first visit to the Bruderhof's largest colony, at Woodcrest, New York, Benjamin Zablocki writes: "I felt as if I had wandered in a dream into a medieval village, or into a world outside of history where neither time nor space existed. Never before or since have I felt the presence of brotherly love so permeating a place..." The Joyful Community offers a revealing look at this unique commune - its founding in Germany in 1920, the difficult period of persecution and exile, the years of schism and crisis in America from 1959 to 1962, and its new prosperity from the manufacture and sale of beautiful toys. Most especially, Zablocki emphasizes the everyday life of the community, showing its members at work, at play, at worship, and in the important problem-solving and decision-making processes of communal life. But he did not intend hsi book as a pure sociological document. Rather, he wrote it because he believes that the Bruderhof experiment is fundamentally related to mankind's undying quest for brotherhood." --From back cover