"St. Francis in Knickerbockers": The Christian Pacifism of Eberhard Arnold as Material Witness to the Common Life.

This article examines the theological development and pacifist commitment of Eberhard Arnold, a twentieth-century German theologian and founder of the Bruderhof communities, whose thought was deeply shaped by early Christian texts, anarchist communism, and the Sermon on the Mount. Arnold advocated for a radical pacifism rooted in communal life and the Spirit-led practice of early Christian communism, emphasizing nonviolence as an embodied social ethic inseparable from shared goods and brotherly love. The article contrasts Arnold's uncompromising pacifism with "legal pacifism," which permits Christian participation in state institutions like the military, proposing that both forms can coexist ecumenically as complementary expressions of Christian witness, symbolized by Jesus' metaphors of salt and light. Arnold's vision highlights the church community as a prophetic "city on a hill," called to embody peace and renewal within the world while engaging constructively in public life.