Difference between revisions of "Pietism" - New World Encyclopedia

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Part of the series on Methodism

John Wesley
Background Christianity Protestantism Pietism Anglicanism Arminianism
Doctrinal distinctives Articles of Religion Prevenient Grace Governmental Atonement Imparted righteousness Christian perfection
People Charles Wesley George Whitefield Thomas Coke Francis Asbury Richard Allen Albert C. Outler
Largest groups World Methodist Council United Methodist Church AME Church British Methodist Church
Related movements Holiness movement Salvation Army Personalism Pentecostalism

Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late-17th century] to the mid-18th century. It proved to be very influential throughout Protestantism and Anabaptism, inspiring not only Anglican priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist movement, but also Alexander Mack to begin the Brethren movement. The Pietist movement combined the Lutheran emphasis on Biblical doctrine with the Reformed, and especially Puritan, emphasis on individual piety, and a vigorous Christian life.

Forerunners

As forerunners of the Pietists in the strict sense, certain voices had been heard bewailing the shortcomings of the Church and advocating a revival of practical and devout Christianity. Amongst them were Christian mystic Jakob Boehme (Behmen); Johann Arndt, whose work, True Christianity, became widely known and appreciated; Heinrich Müller, who described the font, the pulpit, the confessional and the altar as "the four dumb idols of the Lutheran Church"; theologian Johann Valentin Andrea, court chaplain of the landgrave of Hesse; Schuppius, who sought to restore to the Bible its place in the pulpit; and Theophilus Grossgebauer (d. 1661) of Rostock, who from his pulpit and by his writings raised what he called "the alarm cry of a watchman in Sion."

Pietism did not die out in the 18th Century but was alive and active in the Evangelische Kirchenverein des Westen (later German Evangelical Church and still later the Evangelical and Reformed Church) The church president from 1901 to 1914 was Dr. Jakob Pister and a pietist. A discussion of some of the earlier pietist influence in the E and R church can be found in Dunn et.al, "A History of the Evangelical and Reformed Church" Christian Education Press, Philadelphia, 1962. Further commentary can be found by Rev. Dr. Carl Viehe under Pietism, Illinois Trails, Washington County. Some vestiges of Pietism were still present in 1957 at the time of the formation of the United Church of Christ.

The name Pietism

The name of Pietist was a pejorative term given to the adherents of the movement by its enemies as a term of ridicule, like that of "Methodists" somewhat later in England. The Lutheran Church continued Philipp Melanchthon's attempt to construct an intellectual backbone for the Evangelical Lutheran faith. By the 17th century the denomination remained a confessional theological and sacramental institution, influenced by orthodox Lutheran theologians such as Johann Gerhard of Jena (d. 1637), and keeping with the liturgical traditions of the Roman Catholicism of which it saw itself as a reformed variation. In the Reformed Church, on the other hand, the influence of John Calvin had not only influenced doctrine, but for a particular formation of Christian life. The presbyterian constitution gave the people a share in church life which the Lutherans lacked, but it involved a dogmatic legalism which, the Lutherans believed, imperilled Christian freedom and fostered self-righteousness.

History

Founding

The direct originator of the movement was Philipp Jakob Spener. Born at Rappoltsweiler in Alsace on 13 January 1635, trained by a devout godmother who used books of devotion like Arndt's True Christianity, Spener was convinced of the necessity of a moral and religious reformation within German Lutheranism. He studied theology at Strasbourg, where the professors at the time (and especially Sebastian Schmidt) were more inclined to "practical" Christianity than to theological disputation. He afterwards spent a year in Geneva, and was powerfully influenced by the strict moral life and rigid ecclesiastical discipline prevalent there, and also by the preaching and the piety of the Waldensian professor Antoine Leger and the converted Jesuit preacher Jean de Labadie.

During a stay in Tübingen, Spener read Grossgebauer's Alarm Cry, and in 1666 he entered upon his first pastoral charge at Frankfurt with a profound opinion that the Christian life within Evangelical Lutheranism was being sacrificed to zeal for rigid Lutheran orthodoxy. Pietism, as a distinct movement in the German Church, was then originated by Spener by religious meetings at his house (collegia pietatis) at which he repeated his sermons, expounded passages of the New Testament, and induced those present to join in conversation on religious questions that arose. In 1675 Spener published his Pia desideria or Earnest Desires for a Reform of the True Evangelical Church, the title giving rise to the term "Pietists". In this publication he made six proposals as the best means of restoring the life of the Church:

the earnest and thorough study of the Bible in private meetings, ecclesiolae in ecclesia (" churches within the church").
the Christian priesthood being universal, the laity should share in the spiritual government of the Church
a knowledge of Christianity must be attended by the practice of it as its indispensable sign and supplement
instead of merely didactic, and often bitter, attacks on the heterodox and unbelievers, a sympathetic and kindly treatment of them
a reorganization of the theological training of the universities, giving more prominence to the devotional life
a different style of preaching, namely, in the place of pleasing rhetoric, the implanting of Christianity in the inner or new man, the soul of which is faith, and its effects the fruits of life.

This work produced a great impression throughout Germany, and although large numbers of the orthodox Lutheran theologians and pastors were deeply offended by Spener's book, its complaints and its demands were both too well justified to admit of their being point-blank denied. A large number of pastors immediately adopted Spener's proposals.

Early leaders

In 1686 Spener accepted an appointment to the court-chaplaincy at Dresden, which opened to him a wider though more difficult sphere of labor. In Leipzig a society of young theologians was formed under his influence for the learned study and devout application of the Bible. Three magistrates belonging to that society, one of whom was August Hermann Francke, subsequently the founder of the famous orphanage at Halle (1695), commenced courses of expository lectures on the Scriptures of a practical and devotional character, and in the German language, which were zealously frequented by both students and townsmen. The lectures aroused, however, the ill-will of the other theologians and pastors of Leipzig, and Francke and his friends left the city, and with the aid of Christian Thomasius and Spener founded the new University of Halle. The theological chairs in the new university were filled in complete conformity with Spener's proposals. The main difference between the new Pietistic Lutheran school and the orthodox Lutherans arose from the Pietists' conception of Christianity as chiefly consisting in a change of heart and consequent holiness of life. Orthodox Lutherans rejected this viewpoint as a gross simplification, stressing the need for the church and for sound theological underpinnings.

Spener died in 1705; but, the movement, guided by Francke, fertilized from Halle the whole of Middle and North Germany. Among its greatest achievements, apart from the philanthropic institutions founded at Halle, were the revival in the Moravian Church in 1727 by Count von Zinzendorf, Spener's godson and a pupil in the Halle School for Young Noblemen, and the establishment of Protestant missions.

Spener's stress on the necessity of a new birth and on a separation of Christians from the world led to exaggeration and fanaticism among some followers. Many Pietists soon maintained that the new birth must always be preceded by agonies of repentance, and that only a regenerated theologian could teach theology, while the whole school shunned all common worldly amusements, such as dancing, the theatre, and public games. Some would say that there thus arose a new form of justification by works. Its ecclesiolae in ecclesia also weakened the power and meaning of church organization. Through these extravagances a reactionary movement arose at the beginning of the 18th century; one leader was Valentin Ernst Löscher, superintendent at Dresden.

Later history

As a distinct movement, Pietism had its greatest strength by the middle of the 18th century; its very individualism in fact helped to prepare the way for the Enlightenment (Aufklärung), which would take the church in an altogether different direction. Yet some would claim that Pietism contributed largely to the revival of Biblical studies in Germany and to making religion once more an affair of the heart and of life and not merely of the intellect. It likewise gave a new emphasis on the role of the laity in the church. Rudolf Sohm claimed that "It was the last great surge of the waves of the ecclesiastical movement begun by the Reformation; it was the completion and the final form of the Protestantism created by the Reformation. Then came a time when another intellectual power took possession of the minds of men." Dietrich Bonhoeffer of the German Confessing Church framed the same characterization in less positive terms when he called Pietism the last attempt to save Christianity as a religion: Given that for him religion was a negative term, more or less an opposite to revelation, this constitutes a rather scathing judgement. Bonhoeffer denounced the basic aim of Pietism, to produce a "desired piety" in a person, as unbiblical.

Pietism is considered the major influence that lead to the creation of the "Evangelical Church of the Union" in Prussia in 1817. Upset by the fact that he and his wife could not take communion at each other's church, the King of Prussia ordered the Lutheran and Reformed churches in Prussia to unite; they took the name "Evangelical", meaning simply "Protestant" in German, as a name both groups had previously identified with. This union movement spread through many German lands in the 1800s. Pietism, with its looser attitude toward confessional theology, had opened the churches to the possibility of uniting. Lutherans who claimed to be more confessionally-strict dissented from the union movement; many immigrated to the American Midwest and formed the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and to Australia where they formed the Lutheran Church of Australia. (Many immigrants to American that agreed with the union movement formed German Evangelical congregations, later to be gathered as the Evangelical Synod of North America, which is now a part of the United Church of Christ.)

Pietism was a major influence on John Wesley and others who began the Methodist movement in 18th century Great Britain, and modern American Methodists and members of the Holiness movement continue to be influenced by Spener and also the Moravian legacy.

In the 19th century, there was a revival of confessional Lutheran doctrine, known as the neo-Lutheran movement. This movement focused on a reassertion of the identity of Lutherans as a distinct group within the broader community of Christians, with a renewed focus on the Lutheran Confessions as a key source of Lutheran doctrine. Associated with these changes was a renewed focus on traditional doctrine and liturgy, which paralleled the growth of Anglo-Catholicism in England^[1].

Some writers on the history of Pietism - e.g. Heppe and Ritschl - have included under it nearly all religious tendencies amongst Protestants of the last three centuries in the direction of a more serious cultivation of personal piety than that prevalent in the various established churches. Ritschl, too, treats Pietism as a retrograde movement of Christian life towards Catholicism. Some historians also speak of a later or modern Pietism, characterizing thereby a party in the German Church which was probably at first influenced by some remains of Spener's Pietism in Westphalia, on the Rhine, in Württemberg, and at Halle and Berlin.

The party was chiefly distinguished by its opposition to an independent scientific study of theology, its principal theological leader being Hengstenberg, and its chief literary organ the Evangelische Kirchenzeitung.

Atheistic pietism

A term used in Sweden to describe a pietistic (moralistic) approach to life without religion. “We have denied the existence of God but kept the pietistic rules”. Atheistic pietism has been suggested to be one of the characteristics (traits) of the modern day Swedish national spirit. [1] The term is first known to have been used by W.H. Mallock in 1879. [2]

References
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↑ Scherer, James A. (1993). The Triumph of Confessionalism in Nineteenth-Century German Lutheran Missions. Missio Apostolica 2: 71–78. This is an extract from Scherer's 1968 Ph.D. thesis, "Mission and Unity in Lutheranism". Scherer was Professor of World Mission and Church History at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago until his retirement.

Bibliography

Amongst older works on Pietism are

JG Walch, Historische und theologische Einleitung in die Religionsstreitigkeiten der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche (1730);
A Tholuck, Geschichte des Pietismus und des ersten Stadiums der Aufklärung (1865);
H Schmid, Die Geschichte des Pietismus (1863);
M Goebel, Geschichte des christlichen Lebens in der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Kirche (3 vols., 1849-1860).

The subject is dealt with at length in

JA Dorner's and W Gass's Histories of Protestant theology.

More recent are

Heppe's Geschichte des Pietismus und der Mystik in der reformierten Kirche (1879), which is sympathetic;
A Ritschl's Geschichte des Pietismus (5 vols., 1880-1886), which is hostile; and
C Sachsse, Ursprung und Wesen des Pietismus (1884).

External links

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[1] Scherer, James A. (1993). The Triumph of Confessionalism in Nineteenth-Century German Lutheran Missions. Missio Apostolica 2: 71–78. This is an extract from Scherer's 1968 Ph.D. thesis, "Mission and Unity in Lutheranism". Scherer was Professor of World Mission and Church History at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago until his retirement.

[1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Claimed}}{{Started}}
 {{methodism}}
-'''Pietism''' was a movement, in the [[Lutheran Church]], lasting from the late-[[17th century]] to the mid-[[18th Century]]. It proved to be very influential throughout [[Protestantism]] and [[Anabaptism]], inspiring not only [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] priest [[John Wesley]] to begin the [[Methodism|Methodist movement]], but also Alexander Mack to begin the [[Brethren]] movement.  The Pietist movement combined the Lutheran emphasis on Biblical doctrine with the [[Calvinism|Reformed]], and especially [[Puritan]], emphasis on individual piety, a vigorous Christian life and human responsibility.
+'''Pietism''' was a movement within [[Lutheranism]], lasting from the late-17th century] to the mid-18th century. It proved to be very influential throughout [[Protestantism]] and [[Anabaptist|Anabaptism]], inspiring not only [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] priest [[John Wesley]] to begin the [[Methodism|Methodist movement]], but also [[Alexander Mack]] to begin the [[Brethren]] movement. The Pietist movement combined the Lutheran emphasis on Biblical doctrine with the [[Calvinism|Reformed]], and especially [[Puritan]], emphasis on individual [[piety]], and a vigorous [[Christianity|Christian]] life.
 ==Forerunners==
-As forerunners of the Pietists in the strict sense, not a few earnest and powerful voices had been heard bewailing the shortcomings of the Church and advocating a revival of practical and devout Christianity. Amongst them were [[Christian mysticism|Christian mystic]] [[Jakob Boehme]] (Behmen); [[Johann Arndt]], whose work on ''True Christianity'' became widely known and appreciated; [[Heinrich Müller]], who described the font, the pulpit, the confessional and the altar as the four dumb idols of the Lutheran Church; the theologian, [[Johann Valentin Andrea]], the court chaplain of the landgrave of Hesse; [[Schuppius]], who sought to restore to the Bible its place in the pulpit; and [[Theophilus Grossgebauer]] (d. 1661) of Rostock, who from his pulpit and by his writings raised "the alarm cry of a watchman in Sion."
+As forerunners of the Pietists in the strict sense, certain voices had been heard bewailing the shortcomings of the Church and advocating a revival of practical and devout Christianity. Amongst them were [[Christian mysticism|Christian mystic]] [[Jakob Boehme]] (Behmen); [[Johann Arndt]], whose work, ''True Christianity'', became widely known and appreciated; Heinrich Müller, who described the [[baptismal font|font]], the [[pulpit]], the [[confession|confessional]] and the [[altar]] as "the four dumb idols of the Lutheran Church"; theologian [[Johann Valentin Andrea]], court chaplain of the landgrave of Hesse; [[Schuppius]], who sought to restore to the Bible its place in the pulpit; and [[Theophilus Grossgebauer]] (d. 1661) of Rostock, who from his pulpit and by his writings raised what he called "the alarm cry of a watchman in [[Zion|Sion]]."
-==The name, ''Pietism''==
+Pietism did not die out in the 18th Century but was alive and active in the Evangelische Kirchenverein des Westen (later German Evangelical Church and still later the Evangelical and Reformed Church) The church president from 1901 to 1914 was Dr. Jakob Pister and a pietist. A discussion of some of the earlier pietist influence in the E and R church can be found in Dunn et.al, "A History of the Evangelical and Reformed Church" Christian Education Press, Philadelphia, 1962. Further commentary can be found by Rev. Dr. Carl Viehe under Pietism, Illinois Trails, Washington County. Some vestiges of Pietism were still present in 1957 at the time of the formation of the United Church of Christ.
-The name of ''Pietist'' was given to the adherents of the movement by its enemies as a term of ridicule, like that of "Methodists" somewhat later in [[England]]. The Lutheran Church had, in continuing [[Melanchthon]]'s attempt to construct the evangelical faith as a doctrinal system, by the 17th century become a creed-bound [[theology|theological]] and sacramentarian institution, which orthodox theologians like [[Johann Gerhard]] of [[Jena]] (d. 1637) ruled with almost the absolutism of the papacy. Christian faith had been dismissed from its seat in the heart, where [[Martin Luther|Luther]] had placed it, to the cold regions of the intellect. The [[dogma]]tic formularies of the Lutheran Church had usurped the position which Luther himself had assigned to the Bible alone, and as a consequence only they were studied and preached, while the Bible was neglected in the family, the study, the [[pulpit]] and the university. Instead of advocating the priesthood of all believers, the Lutheran pastors had made themselves a despotic hierarchy, while they neglected their practical pastoral work. In the [[Reformed Church]], on the other hand, the influence of [[John Calvin|Calvin]] had made less for doctrine than the practical formation of Christian life. The [[presbyterian]] constitution gave the people a share in church life which the Lutherans lacked, but it involved a dogmatic legalism which, the Lutherans believed, imperilled Christian freedom and fostered self-righteousness.
+==The name ''Pietism''==
+The name of ''Pietist'' was a pejorative term given to the adherents of the movement by its enemies as a term of ridicule, like that of "Methodists" somewhat later in [[England]]. The Lutheran Church continued [[Philipp Melanchthon]]'s attempt to construct an intellectual backbone for the Evangelical Lutheran faith. By the 17th century the denomination remained a confessional [[theology|theological]] and sacramental institution, influenced by [[Lutheran Orthodoxy|orthodox Lutheran]] theologians such as [[Johann Gerhard]] of [[Jena]] (d. 1637), and keeping with the [[liturgy|liturgical]] traditions of the [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]] of which it saw itself as a reformed variation.  In the [[Reformed Church]], on the other hand, the influence of [[John Calvin]] had not only influenced doctrine, but for a particular formation of Christian life. The [[presbyterianism|presbyterian]] constitution gave the people a share in church life which the Lutherans lacked, but it involved a dogmatic legalism which, the Lutherans believed, imperilled Christian freedom and fostered self-righteousness.
 ==History==
 ===Founding===
-The direct originator of the movement was [[Philipp Jakob Spener]]. Born at Rappoltsweiler, in [[Alsace]] on [[January 13]] [[1635]], trained by a devout godmother, who used books of devotion like Arndt's ''True Christianity'', accustomed to hear the sermons of a pastor who preached the Bible more than the Lutheran creeds, Spener was early convinced of the necessity of a moral and religious reformation of the German Church. He studied theology, with a view to the Christian ministry, at Strassburg, where the professors at the time (and especially Sebastian Schmidt) were more inclined to practical Christianity than to theological disputation. He afterwards spent a year in [[Geneva]], and was powerfully influenced by the strict moral life and rigid ecclesiastical discipline prevalent there, and also by the preaching and the piety of the [[Waldensian]] professor, Antoine Leger, and the converted [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] preacher, [[Jean de Labadie]].
+The direct originator of the movement was [[Philipp Jakob Spener]]. Born at Rappoltsweiler in [[Alsace]] on [[13 January]] [[1635]], trained by a devout godmother who used books of devotion like Arndt's ''True Christianity'', Spener was convinced of the necessity of a moral and religious reformation within German Lutheranism. He studied theology at [[Strasbourg]], where the professors at the time (and especially Sebastian Schmidt) were more inclined to "practical" Christianity than to theological disputation. He afterwards spent a year in [[Geneva]], and was powerfully influenced by the strict moral life and rigid ecclesiastical discipline prevalent there, and also by the preaching and the piety of the [[Waldensian]] professor Antoine Leger and the converted [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] preacher [[Jean de Labadie]].
-During a stay in [[Tübingen]] Spener read Grossgebauer's ''Alarm Cry'', and in [[1666]] he entered upon his first pastoral charge at [[Frankfurt]], profoundly impressed with a sense of the danger of the Christian life being sacrificed to zeal for rigid orthodoxy. Pietism, as a distinct movement in the German Church, was then originated by Spener by religious meetings at his house (''collegia pietatis'') at which he repeated his sermons, expounded passages of the [[New Testament]], and induced those present to join in conversation on religious questions that arose. They gave rise to the name "Pietists." In [[1675]] Spener published his ''Pia desideria'' or ''Earnest Desires for a Reform of the True Evangelical Church'' in this publication he made six proposals as the best means of restoring the life of the Church:
+During a stay in [[Tübingen]], Spener read Grossgebauer's ''Alarm Cry'', and in [[1666]] he entered upon his first pastoral charge at [[Frankfurt]] with a profound opinion that the Christian life within Evangelical Lutheranism was being sacrificed to zeal for rigid [[Lutheran orthodoxy]]. Pietism, as a distinct movement in the German Church, was then originated by Spener by religious meetings at his house (''collegia pietatis'') at which he repeated his sermons, expounded passages of the [[New Testament]], and induced those present to join in conversation on religious questions that arose.  In [[1675]] Spener published his ''Pia desideria'' or ''Earnest Desires for a Reform of the True Evangelical Church'', the title giving rise to the term "Pietists".  In this publication he made six proposals as the best means of restoring the life of the Church:
-#the earnest and thorough study of the Bible in private meetings, ''ecclesiolae in ecclesia'' (''"a church within the church"'').
+#the earnest and thorough study of the Bible in private meetings, ''ecclesiolae in ecclesia'' (''" churches within the church"'').
 #the Christian priesthood being universal, the laity should share in the spiritual government of the Church
 #a knowledge of Christianity must be attended by the practice of it as its indispensable sign and supplement
@@ Line 21: / Line 25: @@
 #a different style of preaching, namely, in the place of pleasing rhetoric, the implanting of Christianity in the inner or new man, the soul of which is faith, and its effects the fruits of life.
-This work produced a great impression throughout Germany, and although large numbers of the orthodox Lutheran theologians and pastors were deeply offended by Spener's book, its complaints and its demands were both too well justified to admit of their being point-blank denied. A large number of pastors at once practically adopted Spener's proposals.
+This work produced a great impression throughout Germany, and although large numbers of the [[Lutheran Orthodoxy|orthodox Lutheran]] theologians and pastors were deeply offended by Spener's book, its complaints and its demands were both too well justified to admit of their being point-blank denied. A large number of pastors immediately adopted Spener's proposals.
 ===Early leaders===
-In [[Paul Gerhardt]] the movement found a singer whose [[hymns]] are genuine folk poetry. In 1686 Spener accepted an appointment to the court-chaplaincy at [[Dresden]], which opened to him a wider though more difficult sphere of labour. In [[Leipzig]] a society of young theologians was formed under his influence for the learned study and devout application of the Bible. Three magistri belonging to that society, one of whom was [[August Hermann Francke]], subsequently the founder of the famous orphanage at [[Halle, Saxony-Anhalt|Halle]] (1695), commenced courses of expository lectures on the Scriptures of a practical and devotional character, and in the [[German language]], which were zealously frequented by both students and townsmen. The lectures aroused, however, the ill-will of the other theologians and pastors of Leipzig, and Francke and his friends left the city, and with the aid of [[Christian Thomasius]] and Spener founded the new [[University of Halle]]. The theological chairs in the new university were filled in complete conformity with Spener's proposals. The main difference between the new Pietistic school and the orthodox Lutherans arose from the conception of Christianity as chiefly consisting in a change of heart and consequent holiness of life, while the orthodox Lutherans of the time made it to consist mainly in correctness of doctrine.
+In 1686 Spener accepted an appointment to the court-chaplaincy at [[Dresden]], which opened to him a wider though more difficult sphere of labor. In [[Leipzig]] a society of young theologians was formed under his influence for the learned study and devout application of the Bible. Three magistrates belonging to that society, one of whom was [[August Hermann Francke]], subsequently the founder of the famous orphanage at [[Halle, Saxony-Anhalt|Halle]] (1695), commenced courses of expository lectures on the Scriptures of a practical and devotional character, and in the [[German language]], which were zealously frequented by both students and townsmen. The lectures aroused, however, the ill-will of the other theologians and pastors of Leipzig, and Francke and his friends left the city, and with the aid of [[Christian Thomasius]] and Spener founded the new [[University of Halle]]. The theological chairs in the new university were filled in complete conformity with Spener's proposals. The main difference between the new Pietistic Lutheran school and the orthodox Lutherans arose from the Pietists' conception of Christianity as chiefly consisting in a change of heart and consequent holiness of life. Orthodox Lutherans rejected this viewpoint as a gross simplification, stressing the need for the church and for sound theological underpinnings.
-Spener died in [[1705]]; but, the movement, guided by Francke, fertilized from Halle the whole of Middle and North Germany. Among its greatest achievements, apart from the philanthropic institutions founded at Halle, were the organization of the Moravian Church in 1727 by [[Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf|Count von Zinzendorf]], Spener's godson and a pupil in the Halle Orphanage, and the establishment of the great Protestant missions, Ziegenbalg and others being the pioneers of an enterprise which until this time Protestantism had strangely neglected.
+Spener died in [[1705]]; but, the movement, guided by Francke, fertilized from Halle the whole of Middle and North Germany. Among its greatest achievements, apart from the philanthropic institutions founded at Halle, were the revival in the Moravian Church in 1727 by [[Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf|Count von Zinzendorf]], Spener's godson and a pupil in the Halle School for Young Noblemen, and the establishment of Protestant missions.
-Pietism, of course, had its weaknesses. The very earnestness with which Spener had insisted on the necessity of a new birth, and on a separation of Christians from the world, led to exaggeration and fanaticism among followers less distinguished than himself for wisdom and moderation. Many Pietists soon maintained that the new birth must always be preceded by agonies of repentance, and that only a regenerated theologian could teach theology, while the whole school shunned all common worldly amusements, such as dancing, the theatre, and public games. There thus arose a new form of justification by works. Its ''ecclesiolae in ecclesia'' also weakened the power and meaning of church organization. Through these extravagances a reactionary movement arose at the beginning of the [[18th century]] one of the most distinguished leaders of which was Loeschel superintendent at Dresden.
+Spener's stress on the necessity of a new birth and on a separation of Christians from the world led to exaggeration and fanaticism among some followers.  Many Pietists soon maintained that the new birth must always be preceded by agonies of repentance, and that only a regenerated theologian could teach theology, while the whole school shunned all common worldly amusements, such as dancing, the theatre, and public games. Some would say that there thus arose a new form of justification by works.  Its ''ecclesiolae in ecclesia'' also weakened the power and meaning of church organization. Through these extravagances a reactionary movement arose at the beginning of the [[18th century]]; one leader was [[Valentin Ernst Löscher]], superintendent at Dresden.
 ===Later history===
-As a distinct movement Pietism had run its course before the middle of the 18th century; by its very individualism it had helped to prepare the way for another great movement, the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] (''Aufklärung''), which was now to lead the won into new paths. Yet Pietism could claim to have contributed largely to the revival of Biblical studies in Germany and to have made religion once more an affair of the heart and of life and not merely of the intellect. It likewise vindicated afresh the rights of the Christian laity in regard to their own beliefs and the work of the Church, against the assumptions and despotism of an arrogant clergy. "It was," says Rudolf Sohm, "the last great surge of the waves of the ecclesiastical movement begun by the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]; it was the completion and the final form of the Protestantism created by the Reformation. Then came a time when another intellectual power took possession of the minds of men." Pietism was a major influence on [[John Wesley]] and others who began the [[Methodism|Methodist movement]] in 18th century [[Great Britain]], and modern [[United Methodist Church|American Methodists]] and members of the [[Holiness movement]] continue to be influenced by Spener and the Moravian legacy. [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]] of the German [[Confessing Church]] framed the same characterization in less positive terms when he called pietism the last attempt to save Christianity as a [[religion]]. Given that for him religion was a negative term, more or less an opposite to [[revelation]], this constitutes a rather scathing judgement. Also Bonhoeffer, exactly because of his biblical and reformation-based background, denounced the basic aim of pietism, to produce a "desired piety" in man, as unbiblical.
-Some writers on the history of Pietism--e.g. Heppe and [[Albrecht Ritschl|Ritschl]]--have included under it nearly all religious tendencies amongst Protestants of the last three centuries in the direction of a more serious cultivation of personal piety than that prevalent in the various established churches. Ritschl, too, treats Pietism as a retrograde movement of Christian life towards [[Catholicism]]. Some historians also speak of a later or modern Pietism, characterizing thereby a party in the German Church which was probably at first influenced by some remains of Spener's Pietism in [[Westphalia]], on the [[Rhine]], in [[Württemberg]], and at [[Halle, Saxony-Anhalt|Halle]] and [[Berlin]].
+As a distinct movement, Pietism had its greatest strength by the middle of the 18th century;  its very individualism in fact helped to prepare the way for the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] (''Aufklärung''), which would take the church in an altogether different direction.  Yet some would claim that Pietism contributed largely to the revival of Biblical studies in Germany and to making religion once more an affair of the heart and of life and not merely of the intellect.  It likewise gave a new emphasis on the role of the laity in the church.  Rudolf Sohm claimed that "It was the last great surge of the waves of the ecclesiastical movement begun by the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]; it was the completion and the final form of the Protestantism created by the Reformation. Then came a time when another intellectual power took possession of the minds of men." [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]] of the German [[Confessing Church]] framed the same characterization in less positive terms when he called Pietism the last attempt to save Christianity as a religion:  Given that for him religion was a negative term, more or less an opposite to [[revelation]], this constitutes a rather scathing judgement.  Bonhoeffer denounced the basic aim of Pietism, to produce a "desired piety" in a person, as unbiblical.
+Pietism is considered the major influence that lead to the creation of the "[[Prussian Union (Evangelical Christian Church)|Evangelical Church of the Union]]" in [[Prussia]] in 1817.  Upset by the fact that he and his wife could not take communion at each other's church, the King of Prussia ordered the Lutheran and Reformed churches in Prussia to unite; they took the name "Evangelical", meaning simply "Protestant" in German, as a name both groups had previously identified with.  This union movement spread through many German lands in the 1800s.  Pietism, with its looser attitude toward confessional theology, had opened the churches to the possibility of uniting.  Lutherans who claimed to be more confessionally-strict dissented from the union movement; many immigrated to the American Midwest and formed the [[Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod]], and to [[Australia]] where they formed the [[Lutheran Church of Australia]].  (Many immigrants to American that agreed with the union movement formed German Evangelical congregations, later to be gathered as the [[Evangelical Synod of North America]], which is now a part of the [[United Church of Christ]].)
+Pietism was a major influence on [[John Wesley]] and others who began the [[Methodism|Methodist movement]] in 18th century [[Great Britain]], and modern [[United Methodist Church|American Methodists]] and members of the [[Holiness movement]] continue to be influenced by Spener and also the Moravian legacy.
+In the 19th century, there was a revival of confessional Lutheran doctrine, known as the [[Neo-Lutheranism|neo-Lutheran]] movement. This movement focused on a reassertion of the identity of Lutherans as a distinct group within the broader community of [[Christianity|Christians]], with a renewed focus on the [[Book of Concord|Lutheran Confessions]] as a key source of Lutheran doctrine. Associated with these changes was a renewed focus on traditional doctrine and liturgy, which paralleled the growth of [[Anglo-Catholicism]] in England<ref>{{cite journal | author=Scherer, James A. | title= The Triumph of Confessionalism in Nineteenth-Century German Lutheran Missions | journal=Missio Apostolica | year=1993 | volume=2 | pages= 71&ndash;78 | url=http://www.lsfmissiology.org/Essays/SchererTriumphofConfessionalism.pdf }} This is an extract from Scherer's 1968 Ph.D. thesis, "Mission and Unity in Lutheranism". Scherer was Professor of World Mission and Church History at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago until his retirement.</ref>.
+Some writers on the history of Pietism - e.g. Heppe and [[Albrecht Ritschl|Ritschl]] - have included under it nearly all religious tendencies amongst Protestants of the last three centuries in the direction of a more serious cultivation of personal piety than that prevalent in the various established churches. Ritschl, too, treats Pietism as a retrograde movement of Christian life towards Catholicism. Some historians also speak of a later or modern Pietism, characterizing thereby a party in the German Church which was probably at first influenced by some remains of Spener's Pietism in [[Westphalia]], on the [[Rhine]], in [[Württemberg]], and at Halle and [[Berlin]].
 The party was chiefly distinguished by its opposition to an independent scientific study of theology, its principal theological leader being Hengstenberg, and its chief literary organ the ''Evangelische Kirchenzeitung''.
+===Atheistic pietism===
+A term used in [[Sweden]] to describe a pietistic (moralistic) approach to life without religion. “We have denied the existence of [[God]] but kept the pietistic rules”. Atheistic pietism has been suggested to be one of the characteristics (traits) of the modern day Swedish national spirit. [http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietism]
+The term is first known to have been used by W.H. Mallock in 1879. [http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?result_number=4&search_scope=global&book_id=ccol0521662672_CCOL0521662672&query=atheistic+pietism&id=ccol0521662672_CCOL0521662672A008]
+==References==
+{{reflist}}
 ==Bibliography==
@@ Line 45: / Line 64: @@
 *[[M Goebel]], ''Geschichte des christlichen Lebens in der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Kirche'' (3 vols., 1849-1860).
-And the subject is dealt with at length in
+The subject is dealt with at length in
 *[[JA Dorner]]'s and W Gass's ''Histories of Protestant theology''.
 More recent are
-*[[Heppe]]'s ''Geschichte das Pietismus und der Mystik in der reformirten Kirche'' ([[1879]]), which is sympathetic;
+*[[Heppe]]'s ''Geschichte des Pietismus und der Mystik in der reformierten Kirche'' ([[1879]]), which is sympathetic;
 *[[A Ritschl]]'s ''Geschichte des Pietismus'' (5 vols., 1880-1886), which is hostile; and
 *[[C Sachsse]], ''Ursprung und Wesen des Pietismus'' ([[1884]]).
@@ Line 58: / Line 77: @@
 *[[Carl Mirbt]]'s article, "Pietismus," in Herzog-Hauck's ''Realencyklopädie für prot. Theologie u. Kirche'', end of vol. xv.
-{{1911}}
+==See also==
+* [[Gottfried Arnold]]
+* [[Johann Conrad Dippel]]
+* [[Johann Albrecht Bengel]]
+* [[Johann Jacob Rambach]]
+* [[Erik Pontoppidan]]
+* [[Hans Adolph Brorson]]
+* [[Hans Nielsen Hauge]]
+* [[Henric Schartau]]
+* [[Gerhard Tersteegen]]
+* [[Theologia Germanica]]
+* [[Johannes Kelpius]]
+* [[Radical Pietism]]
+* [[Lutheran Orthodoxy]]
+* [[Mission Covenant Church of Sweden]]
+* [[Moravians (religion)]]
+* [[Church of the Brethren]]
+* [[Laestadianism]]
+* [[Neo-Lutheranism]]
+* [[Evangelical Covenant Church]]
-[[Category:Lutheranism]]
+==External links==
-[[Category:Methodism]]
+*[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc09.html?term=Pietism New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. IX: Pietism]
-[[Category:Christian theology]]
+*[http://www.issuesetc.org/resource/archives/feuerhhn.htm "THE ROOTS AND FRUITS OF PIETISM"] by Ronald R. Feuerhahn, 1998
+*[http://www.wlsessays.net/authors/F/FredrichPietism/FredrichPietism.PDF After Three Centuries - The Legacy of Pietism by E.C. Fredrich]
+*[http://www.wlsessays.net/authors/W/WesterhausPietism/WesterhausPietism.PDF Literary Landmarks of Pietism by Martin O. Westerhaus]
+*[http://www.wlsessays.net/authors/W/WendlandPietism/WendlandPietism.PDF Pietism’s World Mission Enterprise by Ernst H. Wendland]
-See also: Brethren, Church of the Brethren
+[[Category: Philosophy and religion]]
+[[Category: Religion]]
-[[da:Pietisme]]
+{{Credit|146289143}}
-[[de:Pietismus]]
-[[fr:Piétisme]]
-[[nl:Piëtisme]]
-[[no:Pietisme]]
-[[pl:Pietyzm]]
-[[fi:Pietismi]]
-[[sv:Pietism]]
-[[pt:Pietismo]]
-{{credit|27256661}}
-[[category:History and biography]]
-[[category:Philosophy and religion]]