AMANA (Society or Community of the True Inspiration). - This sect arose in Germany during the Pietist movement, among those who maintained that the direct inspiration of God had not yet ceased in the Church. In 1714 a small group of such believers, led by Johann Friedrich Rock and E. Ludwig Gruber, organized at Himbach in Hesse. With Rock's death in 1749, they say the gift of divine inspiration temporarily ceased, and the small group called the "Community of the True Inspiration" remained compact, though few in number, until 1817. In that year it received a new impulse from Michael Kraussert and from an Alsatian girl, Barbara Heinemann, in whom the elders recognized the gift of inspiration. A little later Charles Metz joined them. The members of the Community were persecuted by the various governments of Germany as conscientious objectors to taking the oath of allegiance, because they said their promise was enough; then Metz received the divine inspiration to move to America, where he arrived with some companions in 1842, followed later by others; they settled first in the state of New York near Buffalo, and then in 1855 they all emigrated to the state of Iowa, founding there several villages, all with the name of A. (from the Hebrew word of the Song of Songs, taken in the sense of "to believe faithfully"), whence the Community took its name.
Their confession of faith is based on Holy Scripture and on the words of those who have had the "true inspiration," which however ceased again for some time after the death of Metz in 1867 and of Heinemann in 1883. The reading of the 23 reasons with which Gruber explains why divine inspiration is now so rare, of the 21 rules for the daily examination of conscience and of the 24 rules for true piety is interesting. The A. society has barely 2000 members; it is governed by a council of 13 members, elected annually by the Board of Elders. All property is held in common and for this reason it is also called a "communist society." The adherents devote themselves to agriculture, industry and commerce; with the proceeds the common expenses are paid, and the surplus is employed in works of public utility, such as schools, hospitals, etc.
Bibliography3 works
Camillo Crivelli