The Ephrata Commune: An Early American Counterculture

By E. Gordon Alderfer

Book Overview

Tells of the founding and subsequent history of Ephrata, a mystical religious community that flourished in eastern Pennsylvania in the mid-eighteenth century. Its leader, Conrad Beissel, a German Pietist who came to America in 1720 seeking spiritual peace and solitude. Settled in Lancaster County, his talents and charisma attracted other German settlers who shared his vision of a community built in the image of apostolic Christianity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822958015
• ISBN13: 9780822958017
• Release Date: October 1985
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

An Excellent History of Ephrata, the birthplace of many Mormon ideas

Your "helpful" votes are appreciated, as well as your positive or negative comments. Thanks. This fascinating book tells the little-known history of Ephrata (Bethleham), Pennsylvania. The monks at Ephrata had the Melchizedeck priesthood and practiced baptism for the dead. Their high priest wore a metal breastplate in imitation of the Urim and Thummin talked about in Exodus in the Bible. They believed that the spirits of the just taught the newly arrived dead into the spirit world. All these themes will be instantly familiar to anyone interested in the origins of Mormonism. Joseph Smith's first wife (Emma Hale) grew up in Harmony, Pennsylvania, and Joseph Smith went to that town to hunt for buried treasure using a magic "peep stone." The 1750s Ephrata commune was world famous and the ideas taught there spread far and wide. Interestingly, Emma lived in the town founded by George Rapp, who had studied Emanuel Swedenborg, who taught that marriage with sex continued in heaven. Rapp taught celibacy, however. He was a prophet and had a 1000 member commune at Economy, Pennsylvania when Joseph Smith came to Harmony (12 miles away). Rapp also strongly opposed the use tobacco. Thus, within Pennsylvania lay most of the main elements of Mormonism that came into that religion after the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830.