Pietism
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Pietism (/ˈpaɪ.ɪtɪzəm/), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life.[1][2]
Although the movement is aligned with Lutheranism, it has had a tremendous impact on Protestantism worldwide, particularly in North America and Europe. Pietism originated in modern Germany in the late 17th century with the work of Philipp Spener, a Lutheran theologian whose emphasis on personal transformation through spiritual rebirth and renewal, individual devotion, and piety laid the foundations for the movement. Although Spener did not directly advocate the quietistic, legalistic, and semi-separatist practices of Pietism, they were more or less involved in the positions he assumed or the practices which he encouraged.
Pietism spread from Germany to Switzerland, the rest of German-speaking Europe, and to Scandinavia and the Baltics, where it was heavily influential, leaving a permanent mark on the region's dominant Lutheranism, with figures like
In the middle of the 19th century,
Whereas Pietistic Lutherans stayed within the Lutheran tradition, adherents of a related movement known as Radical Pietism believed in separating from the established Lutheran Churches.[8] Some of the theological tenets of Pietism also influenced other traditions of Protestantism, inspiring the Anglican priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist movement and Alexander Mack to begin the Anabaptist Schwarzenau Brethren movement.
Pietism (in lower case spelling)[9] is also used to refer to an "emphasis on devotional experience and practices", or an "affectation of devotion",[10][9] "pious sentiment, especially of an exaggerated or affected nature",[11] not necessarily connected with Lutheranism or even Christianity.
Beliefs
Pietistic Lutherans meet together in
By country
Germany
Pietism did not die out in the 18th century, but was alive and active in the American Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenverein des Westens (German Evangelical Church Society of the West, based in
The 19th century saw 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.[15]
In
Pietistic Lutheranism entered
History
Forerunners
As the 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 the
Founding
The direct originator of the movement was
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, began with religious meetings at Spener's house (collegia pietatis) where he repeated his sermons, expounded passages of the New Testament, and induced those present to join in conversation on religious questions. In 1675, Spener published his Pia desideria or Earnest Desire for a Reform of the True Evangelical Church, the title giving rise to the term "Pietists". This was originally a pejorative term given to the adherents of the movement by its enemies as a form of ridicule, like that of "Methodists" somewhat later in England.
In Pia desideria, Spener 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 ("little 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. While large numbers of
Early leaders
In 1686 Spener accepted an appointment to the court-chaplaincy at
Spener died in 1705, but the movement, guided by Francke and fertilized from Halle, spread through the whole of Middle and North Germany. Among its greatest achievements, apart from the philanthropic institutions founded at Halle, were the revival of the
Spener stressed the necessity of a new birth and separation of Christians from the world (see
Establishment reaction
Authorities within state-endorsed Churches were suspicious of pietist doctrine which they often viewed as a social danger, as it "seemed either to generate an excess of evangelical fervor and so disturb the public tranquility or to promote a mysticism so nebulous as to obscure the imperatives of morality. A movement which cultivated religious feeling almost as an end itself". While some pietists (such as Francis Magny) held that "mysticism and the moral law went together", for others (like his pupil Françoise-Louise de la Tour) "pietist mysticism did less to reinforce the moral law than to take its place… the principle of 'guidance by inner light' was often a signal to follow the most intense of her inner sentiments… the supremacy of feeling over reason".[18] Religious authorities could bring pressure on pietists, such as when they brought some of Magny's followers before the local consistory to answer questions about their unorthodox views[19] or when they banished Magny from Vevey for heterodoxy in 1713.[18] Likewise, pietism challenged the orthodoxy via new media and formats: Periodical journals gained importance versus the former pasquills and single thesis, traditional disputation was replaced by competitive debating, which tried to gain new knowledge instead of defending orthodox scholarship.[20]
Hymnody
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 took the church in an altogether different direction. Yet some 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.[citation needed]
It likewise gave a new emphasis to 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
Pietism is considered the major influence that led to the creation of the "
In the middle of the 19th century,
In 1900, the
Pietistic Lutheran denominations
Pietistic Lutheranism influenced existing Lutheran denominations such as the
Cross-denominational influence
Radical Pietism
Radical Pietism are those
Influence on the Methodists
As with
Influence on religion in America
Pietism had an influence on religion in America, as many German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania, New York, and other areas. Its influence can be traced in certain sectors of Evangelicalism. Balmer says that:
Evangelicalism itself, I believe, is a quintessentially North American phenomenon, deriving as it did from the confluence of Pietism,
Puritanism. Evangelicalism picked up the peculiar characteristics from each strain – warmhearted spirituality from the Pietists (for instance), doctrinal precisionism from the Presbyterians, and individualistic introspection from the Puritans – even as the North American context itself has profoundly shaped the various manifestations of evangelicalism: fundamentalism, neo-evangelicalism, the holiness movement, Pentecostalism, the charismatic movement, and various forms of African-American and Hispanic evangelicalism.[30]
Influence on science
The
Impact on party voting in United States and Great Britain
In the United States, Richard L. McCormick says, "In the nineteenth century voters whose religious heritage was pietistic or evangelical were prone to support the Whigs and, later, the Republicans." Paul Kleppner generalizes, "the more pietistic the group's outlook the more intensely Republican its partisan affiliation."
In England in the late 19th and early 20th century, the Nonconformist Protestant denominations, such as the Methodists, Baptists and Congregationalists, formed the base of the Liberal Party.[36] David Hempton states, "The Liberal Party was the main beneficiary of Methodist political loyalties."[37]
See also
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- Amana Colonies
- Adolf Köberle
- Catholic Charismatic Renewal
- Church of the Brethren
- Erik Pontoppidan
- Evangelical Covenant Church
- Evangelical Free Church of America
- Friedrich Christoph Oetinger
- Friedrich Hölderlin
- Johann Georg Rapp
- Hans Adolph Brorson
- Harmony Society
- Henric Schartau
- Immanuel Kant
- Knightly Piety
- Johann Albrecht Bengel
- Johann Konrad Dippel
- Johannes Kelpius
- Mission Covenant Church of Sweden
- Templers (religious believers)
- Theologia Germanica
- Wesleyanism
References
- ^ Backman, Milton Vaughn (1976). Christian Churches of America: Origins and Beliefs. Brigham Young University Press. p. 75.
Pietistic Lutheranism was a form of belief and practice which emphasized experience in the Christian life and championed the importance of Christian action and growth in holiness.
- ^ "Pietism". Encyclopædia Britannica.
It emphasized personal faith and sanctity against the main Lutheran church's perceived stress on doctrine and theology over Christian living.
- ^ ISBN 9780873511551.
- ^ ISBN 9780745686660.
- ^ ISBN 9781451407778.
- ^ ISBN 9780873512336.
- ^ M, Eide, Øyvind (1929–1979). "Tumsa, Gudina". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Retrieved 2022-03-20.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ISBN 9781451472288.
- ^ a b "Pietism". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
- ^ "Definition of pietism". Merriam Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
- ^ "pietism". Lexico. Archived from the original on September 10, 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
- ^ Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
- ISBN 9781587684982.
- ^ A discussion of some of the earlier pietist influence in the Evangelical and Reformed 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 Carl Viehe under Pietism, Illinois Trails, Washington County.
- ^ Scherer, James A. (1993). "The Triumph of Confessionalism in Nineteenth-Century German Lutheran Missions" (PDF). Missio Apostolica. 2: 71–78. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 12, 2006. 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.
- ^ a b Petersen, Wilhelm W. (2011). "Warm Winds From the South: The Spread of Pietism to Scandinavian Lutherans" (PDF). Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
- ^ ISBN 9780227680001.
- ^ Jean-Jacques: The Early Life and Work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712–1754. University of Chicago Press.
- ^ Leo Damrosch (2005). Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius. Mariner Books.
- ^ Gierl, Martin (1997). Pietismus und Aufklärung: theologische Polemik und die Kommunikationsreform der Wissenschaft am Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts [Pietism and enlightenment, theological polemic and the reform of science communication end of the 17. century] (in German). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
- ISBN 9781442250710.
- ^ ISBN 9781442271593.
- ISBN 978-0-14-190432-0.
- ISBN 9780802813657.
- ISBN 9781421408804.
- ^ Smith, James Ward; Jamison, Albert Leland (1969). Religion in American life. Princeton University Press.
- ISBN 9781606081334.
- ISBN 9781441201225.
- ISBN 9781598842043.
- ISBN 9780664224097.
- ^ Sztompka, 2003
- ^ Cohen, 1990
- ISBN 978-0-19-536434-7.
- ^ McCormick, p 48
- ^ Paul Kleppner, The Third Electoral System 1853-1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures (University of North Carolina Press, 1979).
- ISBN 9780174350620.
- ISBN 9780521479257.
- See: "Six Principles of Pietism", based on Philip Jacob Spener's six proposals http://www.miamifirstbrethren.org/about-us
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 593–594.
Further reading
- Brown, Dale: Understanding Pietism, rev. ed. Nappanee, IN: Evangel Publishing House, 1996.
- Brunner, Daniel L. Halle Pietists in England: Anthony William Boehm and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Pietismus 29. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1993.
- Gehrz, Christopher and Mark Pattie III. The Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2017.
- Olson, Roger E., Christian T. Collins Winn. Reclaiming Pietism: Retrieving an Evangelical Tradition (Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2015). xiii + 190 pp. online review
- Shantz, Douglas H. An Introduction to German Pietism: Protestant Renewal at the Dawn of Modern Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.
- Stoeffler, F. Ernest. The Rise of Evangelical Pietism. Studies in the History of Religion 9. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1965.
- Stoeffler, F. Ernest. German Pietism During the Eighteenth Century. Studies in the History of Religion 24. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1973.
- Stoeffler, F. Ernest. ed.: Continental Pietism and Early American Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1976.
- Winn, Christian T. et al. eds. The Pietist Impulse in Christianity. Pickwick, 2012.
- Yoder, Peter James. Pietism and the Sacraments: The Life and Theology of August Hermann Francke. University Park: PSU Press, 2021.
Older works
- Joachim Feller, Sonnet. In: Luctuosa desideria Quibus […] Martinum Bornium prosequebantur Quidam Patroni, Praeceptores atque Amici. Lipsiae [1689], pp. [2]–[3]. (Facsimile in: Reinhard Breymayer (Ed.): Luctuosa desideria. Tübingen 2008, pp. 24–25.) Here for the first time the newly detected source. – Less exactly cf. Martin Brecht: Geschichte des Pietismus, vol. I, p. 4.
- Johann Georg Walch, Historische und theologische Einleitung in die Religionsstreitigkeiten der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche (1730);
- Friedrich August Tholuck, Geschichte des Pietismus und des ersten Stadiums der Aufklärung (1865);
- Heinrich Schmid, Die Geschichte des Pietismus (1863);
- Max Goebel, Geschichte des christlichen Lebens in der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Kirche (3 vols., 1849–1860).
The subject is dealt with at length in
- Isaak August Dorner's and W Gass's Histories of Protestant theology.
Other works are:
- Heinrich Heppe, Geschichte des Pietismus und der Mystik in der reformierten Kirche (1879), which is sympathetic;
- Albrecht Ritschl, Geschichte des Pietismus (5 vols., 1880–1886), which is hostile; and
- Eugen Sachsse, Ursprung und Wesen des Pietismus (1884).
See also
- Friedrich Wilhelm Franz Nippold's article in Theol. Stud. und Kritiken (1882), pp. 347?392;
- Hans von Schubert, Outlines of Church History, ch. xv. (Eng. trans., 1907); and
- Carl Mirbt's article, "Pietismus," in Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopädie für prot. Theologie u. Kirche, end of vol. xv.
The most extensive and current edition on Pietism is the four-volume edition in German, covering the entire movement in Europe and North America
- Geschichte des Pietismus (GdP)
Im Auftrag der Historischen Kommission zur Erforschung des Pietismus herausgegeben von Martin Brecht, Klaus Deppermann, Ulrich Gäbler und Hartmut Lehmann
(English: On behalf of the Historical Commission for the Study of pietism edited by Martin Brecht, Klaus Deppermann, Ulrich Gaebler and Hartmut Lehmann)- Band 1: Der Pietismus vom siebzehnten bis zum frühen achtzehnten Jahrhundert. In Zusammenarbeit mit Johannes van den Berg, Klaus Deppermann, Johannes Friedrich Gerhard Goeters und Hans Schneider hg. von Martin Brecht. Goettingen 1993. / 584 p.
- Band 2: Der Pietismus im achtzehnten Jahrhundert. In Zusammenarbeit mit Friedhelm Ackva, Johannes van den Berg, Rudolf Dellsperger, Johann Friedrich Gerhard Goeters, Manfred Jakubowski-Tiessen, Pentii Laasonen, Dietrich Meyer, Ingun Montgomery, Christian Peters, A. Gregg Roeber, Hans Schneider, Patrick Streiff und Horst Weigelt hg. von Martin Brecht und Klaus Deppermann. Goettingen 1995. / 826 p.
- Band 3: Der Pietismus im neunzehnten und zwanzigsten Jahrhundert. In Zusammenarbeit mit Gustav Adolf Benrath, Eberhard Busch, Pavel Filipi, Arnd Götzelmann, Pentii Laasonen, Hartmut Lehmann, Mark A. Noll, Jörg Ohlemacher, Karl Rennstich und Horst Weigelt unter Mitwirkung von Martin Sallmann hg. von Ulrich Gäbler. Goettingen 2000. / 607 p.
- Band 4: Glaubenswelt und Lebenswelten des Pietismus. In Zusammenarbeit mit Ruth Albrecht, Martin Brecht, Christian Bunners, Ulrich Gäbler, Andreas Gestrich, Horst Gundlach, Jan Harasimovicz, Manfred Jakubowski-Tiessen, Peter Kriedtke, Martin Kruse, Werner Koch, Markus Matthias, Thomas Müller Bahlke, Gerhard Schäfer (†), Hans-Jürgen Schrader, Walter Sparn, Udo Sträter, Rudolf von Thadden, Richard Trellner, Johannes Wallmann und Hermann Wellenreuther hg. von Hartmut Lehmann. Goettingen 2004. / 709 p.
External links
- New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. IX: Pietism
- After Three Centuries – The Legacy of Pietism by E.C. Fredrich
- Literary Landmarks of Pietism by Martin O. Westerhaus
- Pietism's World Mission Enterprise by Ernst H. Wendland
- Old Apostolic Lutheran Church of America
- The Evangelical Pietist Church of Chatfield