The Fire at Herrnhut

In the summer of 1727, a ragged community of refugees was falling apart. Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf had opened his estate in Saxony to persecuted believers from across Europe — Moravians, Lutherans, Reformed, Anabaptists — and they could barely stand one another. Theological arguments erupted daily. Factions formed. Some threatened to leave. Zinzendorf did something unexpected. He gathered them, not to debate doctrine, but to read the Scriptures together and confess their need for God.…