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Christian Renatus von Zinzendorf

Christian Renatus, Imperial Count von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf was the charismatic leader of the Single Brethren's Choir of the Moravian Church and of Herrnhaag (God’s Grove), a Christian religious community built near Büdingen by his father, Nicholas Ludwig, head of the Brüdergemeine or Moravian Unity. Christian Renatus, affectionately known as Christel, took his father’s marriage religion (Ehereligion) literally, proclaiming himself to be the living Sidewound of Christ in 1748, which meant he was the embodiment of Christ's sacrificial and compassionate love.The younger Zinzendorf and his co-elder of the Single Brethren, Joachim Rubusch, also proclaimed themselves to be married to the Sidewound. This derived in part from the teaching of Zinzendorf’s father that all souls are female, regardless of gender, so that they may be married to Christ. (This image is derived from the fact that "soul" in German, die Seele, is always a feminine noun.[Cassel's German-English Dictionary, entry die Seele.] It was also in 1748 that Christian Renatus von Zinzendorf declared all Single Brethren to be Sisters and therefore Brides of Christ.The compounding of sexuality and spirituality at Herrnhaag led to virulent attacks from outside and within the church, threatening to undo the goodwill with other denominations that the elder Zinzendorf had sought for decades. He dismissed his son from his positions and brought him to England for the remaining three years of Christian's life.After his death, Christian's followers in Pennsylvania named a settlement farm after him. Since there was a flowing spring there it was called "Christiansbrunn", Christian's Spring. while church leaders systematically destroyed most of the documents referring to the events at Herrnhaag. Only within the past two decades has a new generation of scholars and historians begun to reexamine that period to determine what happened.