Zinzendorf was a contemporary of John Wesley who founded a religious community among Moravian immigrants called Herrnhut. He also wrote hymns and various books and instituted foreign missions.

He was, as Felex Bovet says, "a man who, more than any one before him, labored, not at the point of view of any particular Church, but for the Church Universal.... Convinced that it is life which is the light of men, he set himself to bring religion out of the region of abstractions. He endeavored to establish a spiritual union between Christians, not by inducing them to make concessions and compromises, but by awakening in them a livelier faith and a more ardent love to the Savior."