| Conrad Beissel |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT CONRAD BEISSEL | |
| church of the brethren americans | |
| beissel | |
| radical pietism | |
| beissel, conrad | |
| 1690 births | |
| 1768 deaths | |
| church of the brethren clergy | |
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Beissel was born in Eberbach in Germany , and came to Pennsylvania in 1720 . In 1732 he established a semi-monastic community (the Camp of the Solitary) with a convent (the Sister House) and a monastery (the Brother House) at Ephrata , in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania . The orders were celibate. Other believing families settled near the community, accepted Beissel as their spiritual leader and worshipped with them on the Sabbath. Beissel served as the community's composer as well as spiritual leader, and devised his own system of musical composition that was intended to simplify radically the process by relying on pre-determined sequences of "master notes" and "servant notes" to create harmony, which was mentioned in Thomas Mann 's Doctor Faustus as a kind of precursor to Serialism . Beissel's colony was noted for its printing facilities. However the utopian community declined in population after the Revolution. Also see Johannes Kelpius . When Beissel arrived in America, he tried to make contact with Kelpius, but Kelpius had died in 1708. Nevertheless, Beissel did meet with one of Kelpius' associates, Konrad Matthaei. The group around Kelpius had arrived in 1694. They settled on a ridge above the Wissahickon Creek. There they prayed, meditated, watched the stars looking for signs of the coming kingdom of Christ, and they educated children. Some were celibate until death. Others married. Kelpius described his kind of meditation in a booklet called ''A Method of Prayer.'' This booklet has been newly translated by Kirby Don Richards, Ph.D. (''A Method of Prayer. A Mystical Text from Colonial America.'' Philadelphia: Schuylkill Wordsmiths, 2006. Available on Amazon.) EXTERNAL LINKS Beisel, Johann Konrad (1690-1768) in ''Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online'' |
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