Preface -- Introduction -- From Strasbourg to Waldersbach: 1740-1767 -- Heritage and Childhood -- Preparation -- The Ban de la Roche -- Educational Reform, Economic Development, Spiritual Regeneration: 1767-1782 -- The Children -- The Beautiful Life of Poverty -- The Preacher and Pastor -- The Lonely Years: 1782-1788 -- A Man with His Contradictions1 -- “You Have Taken My Wife from Me” -- Of Mysteries and Dark Enchantments -- Revolution and Liberation: 1789-1804 -- Christian Patriotism -- Citizen Oberlin -- Refuge and Liberation -- The Years of Fulfillment: 1804-1826 -- Happy Endings, New Beginnings -- From Parochial Obscurity to World Celebrity -- Last Days, Death, and Burial -- Appendix -- Notes on the Oberlin Literature