Page - 70 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/02

Charivari or the Historicising of a Question | 69www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/2, 67–79 Zinzendorf feels therefore a deep chasm between the polarities of earth – heaven on the one hand. But on the other hand he believes that it is vital to encourage the community to overcome this chasm. The theological premise for this line of thought is formed by the redemptive act of Christ, on which the restoration of harmony be- tween humans and God is initially based.4 In the time of sifting, dated here to the years 1738 to 1753,5 during which the Kleines Brüdergesangbuch was developed and published, Moravian piety was undergoing a significant change. The Kleines Brüdergesangbuch consists of two parts. The first part, entitled “Shepherd songs from Bethlehem. For use by all who are poor, small and lowly”, was first published in 1742 by C. Saur in Ger- mantown in the United States and comprised 360 songs on 128 pages, with an additional nine pages containing a register of melodies.6 As this version was out of stock after only one year, in 1751 the Moravians began work on a new edi- tion.7 In the edition from 1754, published by Johann Jacob Würz, the first part, consisting of 368 songs on 122 pages, is joined by a second part, with the title “The song of the dance at Sharon, as the hymnbook of the small brothers, part two”. The songs contained in the hymnbook were not written and composed solely by Count Zinzendorf for they were reviewed by the community, making the composition of the hymnbook a communal project.8 Judgement on that period, from 1738 to 1753, oscillates between vehement condemnation and approval of the literary-poetic and communal achievements. The historian Paul Peucker has drawn our attention to the emergence between 1745 and 1748 of the concept of the Creutzluftvögelein (little bird in the air of the cross) and the adoration of the piercing in Christ’s side, which became increas- ingly eroticized.9 Both images followed the idea that the human soul could find shelter in the wounds of Jesus Christ – especially the wound in his side– with the bird reference alluding to motifs like the dove in the cleft of the rock in Song of Songs 2:14. These two topics were closely linked to, or rather form a distinctive element of, the worship of the stigmata and the bridal mysticism of the Mora- vian community. Absent Moravian diaries, the lyrical expression of this piety within the hymnbooks brings us closest to the actual piety of that age. The prin- ciple of the Singstunden, which took the form of spontaneous singing of a mix of various verses, is mirrored in the structure of hymnbooks such as the Kleines 4 Wehrend 2009, 99. In the partial absence of English versions of the literature referred to, all direct translations from German are mine. 5 For the discussion of the dating of the Sichtungszeit see Peucker 2002, 77. 6 Hirten-Lieder von Bethlehem, Zum Gebrauch für alles was arm ist, was klein und gering ist; see Meyer 1987, 206. 7 See Görnandt, 1926, 41; Meyer 1979, 59. 8 See Meyer 1979, 59. 9 See Peucker 2002, 78.