Religion and Profit: Moravians in Early America (review)

Moravian settlements in colonial Pennsylvania have attracted a considerable amount of attention in recent years, with Craig D. Atwood's Community of the Cross: Moravian Piety in Colonial Bethlehem (2004) and Aaron Spencer Fogleman's Jesus Is Female: Moravians and Radical Religion in Early America (2007) addressing various aspects of religious life in Moravian Bethlehem. Katherine Carté Engel's Religion and Profit: Moravians in Early America is an outstanding contribution to this literature. She effectively places Moravian missionary activity and economic relationships in the context of the larger global community of the Unitas Fratrum by exploring the bonds between the community at Bethlehem with the "home base" on Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf's estate in Herrnhut, Saxony.

Engel contends that missionary work was the basis of Moravian life. Zinzendorf established the main community of Bethlehem in December 1741 as a pilgrim congregation ( Pilgergemeine), and it quickly became the hub for missionary activity throughout the mid-Atlantic. Led by August Spangenberg, who began Moravian work in the colony in 1736, and Zinzendorf, Bethlehem developed into a thriving religious and economic center. These Moravian founders created a communal economic system known as the Oeconomy that, according to Engel, "implied a natural link between a practical, earthly household and a larger spiritual order" (33). A devotion to work dominated the daily life of Bethlehem's settlers; unfortunately, the emphasis on missionary work depleted the labor force and made the communal society less viable.

During the early years of Bethlehem, Zinzendorf's focus on uniting all of the German-speaking peoples into one Church of God in the Spirit caused considerable problems for the Moravians. All of their missionary efforts fit into the context of the Great Awakening, but Zinzendorf's efforts to include other German religious groups in the revivals met great resistance. Through a series of ecumenical conferences in early 1742, Zinzendorf hoped to incorporate these disparate religious groups into the Moravian fold. His efforts failed when some of the religious groups objected to the manner in which he baptized native converts. Because of this opposition, the Moravians concentrated their missionary efforts on converting the native populations to Christianity, although they did achieve some success in establishing new Moravian congregations in present-day Berks and Lancaster Counties.

Throughout the book, Engel reinforces the relationship between missionary activity among the natives and economic ventures—religion and profit—among the Moravians. Bethlehem's location along the Lehigh River enabled the community to engage in regional and international trade, along with developing trading partnerships with the Native Americans. These economic interactions with the Indians attempted to teach them moral trading practices, and financial considerations were often part of treaty negotiations.

The French and Indian War in the colonies and the Seven Years' War in Europe adversely affected the Moravians in Bethlehem and Herrnhut. The naval confrontations, in particular, disrupted communication and travel between the two communities, and the French navy sunk commercial vessels. Herrnhut was on the front lines of the European theater, and colonists feared that the Moravians supported the French because of their interactions with the Indians. The native attack on Gnadenhütten, however, demonstrated that these fears were unjustified. Treaty talks at Easton kept Bethlehem in the middle of diplomatic affairs during the conflict. The renewed violence of Pontiac's War, with additional attacks on mission towns, led the Pennsylvania government to demand that the Moravians end the new missions at Nain and Wechquetank. As a result, Bethlehem Moravians had to accept that "biracial communities would no longer be accepted in eastern Pennsylvania," and they located new missions further into the interior (184).

The early 1760s saw a change in Bethlehem. After Zinzendorf's death in May 1760, Moravian leaders reevaluated the effectiveness of the Oeconomy and planned for the dissolution of the communal society. In Herrnhut, meanwhile, Moravian leaders sought to centralize all missions in Germany, resulting in the elimination of Bethlehem's pilgrim congregation by 1765. This change...