RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Communism
is afterthe power of an endless life." All possessions were held in common; the seventh day was observed as the Sabbath, and the Lord's Prayer was presented as the offering of the mornmg and evening sacrifice. Rowland held also that the true followers of Christ had already begun the eternal life. The Adonai Shomo never had more than twentyfive or thirty members. It possessed 840 acres of land and a dwelling. It was chartered in 1876. In 1896, only one of its members surviving, the charter was annulled by the State Supreme Court; and in the following year the property was sold.
W H. Larkabee.
Bibliography: H. F. Hager, in American Socialist, 1877; W. A. Hinds, American Communities, pp. 403-407, Chicago, 1908.
2. The Altruist Community: A society occupying a small estate at Sulphur Springs, on the Mississippi River, 23 m. s. by w. of St. Louis, Mo. It was founded by Alcander Longley, who had been a member of the North American Phalanx (one of the most successful of the American communities based upon Fourieristic principles) and of the Icaria Community (see below, 7) and also a member and director in several cooperative stores and colonies. It allows equal rights and privileges to all its members, both men and women, in all the business affairs; and it makes no interference with the marriage or family affairs of its members, or with their religious, political, or other opinions. It carries on a poultry and gardening business. It has few members, but additional ones will be received as fast as they can be profitably employed. The society has also headquarters at St. Louis, with a printing establishment where its monthly journal, books, and tracts are published.
W. H. Larrabee.
Bielioghaphy: W. A. Hinds, American Communities, pp. 486, 487, Chicago, 1908; The Altruist, St. Louis (a monthly); A. Longley, What is Communism? St. Louis.
3. The Amana Society : Located at Amana, Iowa. The origins of the society go back to the revived communities of the " inspired " in Germany in the first quarter of the eighteenth century (see Inspired, The). The annoyances which the members of these revivified congregations suffered at home because they separated from the State Church, refused to send their children to the public schools, declined to bear arms, serve in war, take oaths, and the like, led to their emigration to America. Under the lead of Christian Metz, Barbara Heinemann(see Inspired, The), Councilor G. A. Weber of Lich, and a manufacturer of Ronneburg named Mbrschel, they bought a tract of land near Buffalo, N. Y., where they built six villages, besides two in Canada. About 800 persons came during the years 1843-46. They gave their settlement the name Ebenezer, and engaged in agriculture and cloth manufacture. In 1854 a tract was bought on the Iowa River, on which seven villages were laid out, and the colony removed thither during the ensuing ten years. The community was incorporated in 1859 as the Amana Society, under a constitution providing that all property should be held in common, that agriculture, manufacturing, and trade should furnish the means of sustenance,
and that the surplus should be applied to communal improvements and educational and benevolent purposes. Metz was the head till his death in 1867, when he was succeeded by Barbara Heinemann (who had married Georg Landmann). Since her death (1884) no member has received the gift of prophecy.
The fundamental doctrine of the Amana Society is that " God can now as well as of old inspire men to declare his word and will, and thus act as messengers of divine teaching to the world." This gift is not continuous, but is supposed to fall upon special persons. The utterances of all the society's prophets have been recorded and are read at the meetings along with the Scriptures. The doctrines of the Trinity, justification by faith, the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment are inculcated in the catechism. The Lord's Supper is celebrated whenever inspired direction is given to do so, and then with peculiar observances; baptism is not practised.
The basis of the communistic system is wholly religious. Persons joining the society surrender all their property and all claim to wages, and are promised in return board and dwelling, support in old age, sickness, and infirmity, and an annual allowance for clothing and other expenses. If they withdraw, they receive back what they originally contributed to the common fund. Marriage is permitted; but those who marry lose their standing for a time. Membership is of three orders, of which the first includes the youth and probationers. A thorough inquisitorial examination of the spiritual condition of the whole community is held every year. The temporal government of the society is vested in a board of thirteen trustees, who are chosen annually by the male members. A suit brought for the dissolution of the Amana Corporation on the ground of its carrying on a secular business was decided by the District Court in Iowa in 1905 in favor of the society. The society reports (1906) a membership of 1,770, and property aggregating in value 11,750,000.
W. H. Larrabee.
Bibliography: The society has issued A Brief History of the Amana Society (Amana, la., 1900). Consult W. A. Hinds, American Communities, pp. 301-326, Chicago, 1908; C. Nordhoff, Communistic Societies of the United States, New York, 1875; A. Shaw, Life in the Amana Colony, in The Chautauquan, viii (1888), pp. 300 sqq.; K. Knortz, Die wahre Inspirationsgemeinde in Iowa, Leipsic, 1896; R. Ely, Amana; A Study of Religious Communism, in Harper's Magazine, cv (1902), pp. 659 sqq. See the bibliography of Inspired, The.
4. The Church Triumphant, Koreshanity: A
religious society at Estero, Lee County, Fla., whither its headquarters were removed from Chicago in 1903. It was founded in Chicago in 1886 by Dr. Cyrus R. Teed, who claimed to have experienced a spiritual illumination in 1870, with a revelation of the system which he denominated Koreshanity (from Koresh, the Hebrew equivalent of his own name, Cyrus), while a practising physician of Utica, N. Y. The system is based on the Koreshan Cosmogony, which holds that the universe is a hollow sphere, whose physical body is the earth, and that men live in the inside of the cell. The sun, moon, planets, and stars
Communism