A Wider Horizon: The Primavera Journals of Ray Sabin
Ray Sabin left the Unitarian ministry in the early 1950s and moved his family to an intentional religious community in Paraguay. The journals he left behind trace his meandering path from well-paid Chicago utility worker to failed minister to skeptical enthusiast of Christian communal living. His search for meaning tested his faith, his marriage, and the very definition of an authentic life. Editing his journals opened a new perspective on an old chapter in the life of his son, Edward Sabin. Nearly three-quarters of a century later, the story is ongoing, as it must be for any of us picking our way backward on the path that led us to our present.
Author: Raymond Sabin
Editor: Edward Sabin
"...enlightening to anyone contemplating the challenges...of life in a religious commune."
—Tim Johnson
Praise for A Wider Horizon
"Ray Sabin takes his family on an odyssey to the backwoods of Paraguay, South America, after meeting members of the Bruderhof, a faith based group of people living in community, sharing all things in common and being pacifists....The book is broken down into many chapters to catch the many mood swings Ray and his family encountered. This book is especially interesting for us first generation of Bruderhof children who can still remember Rays time on the Bruderhof in Paraguay which coincided with an influx of American visitors many of whom joined and brought a lot of money to the table which created a seismic shift in the direction of the Bruderhof....Ray and his family had made a wise decision not to join." —Hans Zimmerman
"Though Ray never truly found the enlightenment he sought, this hardly stopped his search. Ray's often wry diary entries, particularly during his two years in Paraguay, in a long-standing rural religious commune, give a fascinating perspective by a generally sympathetic outsider, considering the possibility of casting in his lot with these seekers. What would this entail, for him and his family? I believe this very readable volume would prove enlightening to anyone contemplating the challenges for themselves or their families the pros and cons of life in a religious commune. Thanks to the authors for bringing this story to a wider audience, which may find itself also contemplating other roads they've travelled, or chosen not to!" —Tim Johnson