Pietism was a movement within
Lutheranism that began in the late 17th
century, reached its zenith in the
mid-18th century, and declined through
the 19th century, and had almost
vanished in America by the end of the
20th century. While declining as an
identifiable Lutheran group, some of its
theological tenets influenced
Protestantism and Anabaptism generally,
inspiring the Anglican priest John
Wesley to begin the Methodist movement
and Alexander Mack to begin the Brethren
movement. The Pietist movement combined
the Lutheranism of the time with the
Reformed emphasis on individual piety
and living a vigorous Christian life.
Though pietism shares an emphasis on
personal behavior with the Puritan
movement, and the two are often
confused, there are important
differences, particularly in the concept
of the role of religion in government.
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 Christian mystic
Jakob Böhme; 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"; the
theologian Johann Valentin Andrea, court
chaplain of the Landgrave of Hesse;
Schuppius, who sought to restore the
Bible to its place in the pulpit; and
Theophilus Grossgebauer of Rostock, who
from his pulpit and by his writings
raised what he called "the alarm cry of
a watchman in Sion".
= Founding=
The direct originator of the movement
was Philipp Jakob Spener. Born at
Rappoltsweiler in Alsace, now in France,
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 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, began
with religious meetings at Spener's
house 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
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 orthodox Lutheran theologians and
pastors were deeply offended by Spener's
book, many other 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, 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, however,
aroused 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 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 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 stressed the necessity of a new
birth and separation of Christians from
the world,. Many Pietists maintained
that the new birth always had be
preceded by agonies of repentance, and
that only a regenerated theologian could
teach theology. The whole school shunned
all common worldly amusements, such as
dancing, the theatre, and public games.
Some believe this led to a new form of
justification by works. Its ecclesiolae
in ecclesia also weakened the power and
meaning of church organization. These
Pietistic attitudes caused a
counter-movement at the beginning of the
18th century; one leader was Valentin
Ernst Löscher, superintendent at
Dresden.
= Establishment reaction=
Authorities within state-endorsed
religions 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 held that "mysticism and
the moral law went together", for others
"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". 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 or when they banished Pastor Magny
from Vevey for heterodoxy in 1713.
= 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, 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. 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
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 judgment. Bonhoeffer denounced
the basic aim of Pietism, to produce a
"desired piety" in a person, as
unbiblical.
Pietism is considered the major
influence that led to the creation of
the "Evangelical Church of the Union" in
Prussia in 1817. The King of Prussia
ordered the Lutheran and Reformed
churches in Prussia to unite; they took
the name "Evangelical" 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. The unification
of the two branches of German
Protestantism sparked the Schism of the
Old Lutherans. Many Lutherans, called
Old Lutherans formed free churches or
immigrated to the United States and
Australia, where they formed bodies that
would later become the Lutheran
Church–Missouri Synod and the Lutheran
Church of Australia, respectively.
Pietism was a major influence on John
Wesley and others who began the
Methodist movement in 18th century Great
Britain. John Wesley was influenced
significantly by Moravians and Pietists
connected to Francke and Halle Pietism.
The fruit of these Pietist influences
can be seen in the modern American
Methodists and members of the Holiness
movement.
Pietism did not die out in the 18th
century, but was alive and active in the
Evangelischer Kirchenverein des Westens
The church president from 1901 to 1914
was a pietist named Dr. Jakob Pister.
Some vestiges of Pietism were still
present in 1957 at the time of the
formation of the United Church of
Christ.
However, 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.
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 probably
influenced by remains of Spener's
Pietism in Westphalia, on the Rhine, in
Württemberg, 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.
Pietism also had a strong influence on
contemporary artistic culture in
Germany; though unread today, the
Pietist Johann Georg Hamann held a
strong influence in his day. Pietist
belief in the power of individual
meditation on the divine – a direct,
individual approach to the ultimate
spiritual reality of God – was probably
partly responsible for the uniquely
metaphysical, idealistic nature of
German Romantic philosophy.
International influence
Pietism had an influence on American
religion, as many German immigrants
settled in Pennsylvania, New York and
other areas. Its influence can be traced
in Evangelicalism. Balmer says that:
Evangelicalism itself, I believe, is
quintessentially North American
phenomenon, deriving as it did from the
confluence of Pietism, Presbyterianism,
and the vestiges of Puritanism.
Evangelicalism picked up the peculiar
characteristics from each strain –
warmhearted spirituality from the
Pietists, 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.
Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg was a member of
the Lutheran clergy and the first
Pietist missionary to India.
See also
References
"Pietism". Catholic Encyclopedia. New
York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
This article incorporates text from a
publication now in the public domain:
Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. Encyclopædia
Britannica. Cambridge University Press. 
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.
Olson, Roger E., Christian T. Collins
Winn. Reclaiming Pietism: Retrieving an
Evangelical Tradition. 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
= Older works=
Joachim Feller, Sonnet. In: Luctuosa
desideria Quibus […] Martinum Bornium
prosequebantur Quidam Patroni,
Praeceptores atque Amici. Lipsiae
[1689], pp. [2]–[3].: 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;
Friedrich August Tholuck, Geschichte des
Pietismus und des ersten Stadiums der
Aufklärung;
Heinrich Schmid, Die Geschichte des
Pietismus;
Max Goebel, Geschichte des christlichen
Lebens in der Rheinisch-Westfälischen
Kirche.
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, which is sympathetic;
Albrecht Ritschl, Geschichte des
Pietismus, which is hostile; and
Eugen Sachsse, Ursprung und Wesen des
Pietismus.
See also
Friedrich Wilhelm Franz Nippold's
article in Theol. Stud. und Kritiken,
pp. 347?392;
Hans von Schubert, Outlines of Church
History, ch. xv.; 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
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
The Evangelical Pietist Church of
Chatfield
