Pietism () is a movement within Lutheranism
that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine
with the Reformed emphasis on individual piety
and living a vigorous Christian life.
Although the movement initially was active
exclusively within Lutheranism, it 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
and the rest of German-speaking Europe, Scandinavia
and the Baltics (where it was heavily influential,
leaving a permanent mark on the region's dominant
Lutheranism, with figures like Hans Nielsen
Hauge in Norway, Peter Spaak and Carl Olof
Rosenius in Sweden, Katarina Asplund in Finland,
and Barbara von Krüdener in the Baltics),
and the rest of Europe.
It was further taken to North America, primarily
by German and Scandinavian immigrants.
There, it influenced Protestants of other
ethnic backgrounds, contributing to the 18th-century
foundation of evangelicalism, a vibrant movement
within Protestantism that today has some 300
million followers.
In the middle of the 19th century, Lars Levi
Laestadius spearheaded a Pietist revival in
Scandinavia that upheld what came to be known
as Laestadian Lutheran theology, which is
heralded today by the Laestadian Lutheran
Church as well as by several congregations
within other mainstream Lutheran Churches,
such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Finland.Although Pietism declined from its
zenith, some of its theological tenets influenced
Protestantism generally, inspiring the Anglican
priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist
movement and Alexander Mack to begin the Anabaptist
Brethren movement.
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.
== Beliefs ==
Pietistic Lutherans meet together in conventicles,
"apart from Divine Service in order to mutually
encourage piety".
They believe "that any true Christian could
point back in his or her life to an inner
struggle with sin that culminated in a crisis
and ultimately a decision to start a new,
Christ-centered life."
Pietistic Lutherans emphasize following "biblical
divine commands of believers to live a holy
life and to strive for holy living, or sanctification."
== 
By country ==
=== Germany ===
Pietism did not die out in the 18th century,
but was alive and active in the Evangelischer
Kirchenverein des Westens (later German Evangelical
Church and still later the Evangelical and
Reformed Church.)
The church president from 1901 to 1914 was
a pietist named Jakob Pister.
Some vestiges of Pietism were still present
in 1957 at the time of the formation of the
United Church of Christ.
In the 21st century Pietism is still alive
in groups inside the Evangelical Church in
Germany.
These groups are called Landeskirchliche Gemeinschaften
and emerged in the second half of the 19th
century in the so-called Gemeinschaftsbewegung.
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.
=== Scandinavia ===
In Denmark, Pietistic Lutheranism became popular
in 1703.
There, the faithful organized into conventicles
for that "met for prayer and Bible reading".Pietistic
Lutheranism entered Sweden in the 1600s after
the writings of Johann Arndt, Philipp Jakob
Spener, and August Hermann Francke became
popular.
Pietistic Lutheranism gained patronage under
Archbishop Erik Benzelius, who encouraged
the Pietistic Lutheran practices.Laestadian
Lutheranism, a form of Pietistic Lutheranism,
continues to flourish in Scandinavia, where
Church of Sweden priest Lars Levi Laestadius
spearheaded the revival in the 19th century.
== 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 Christian mystic Jakob
Böhme (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"; 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 (d.
1661) 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 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 (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, 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 lifeThis 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
(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, 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
(see Asceticism).
Many Pietists maintained that the new birth
always had to 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 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".
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 Magny from Vevey
for heterodoxy in 1713.
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.
=== 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.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.
(Many immigrants to America, who agreed with
the union movement, formed German Evangelical
Lutheran and Reformed congregations, later
combined into the Evangelical Synod of North
America, which is now a part of the United
Church of Christ.)
In the middle of the 19th century, Lars Levi
Laestadius spearheaded a Pietist revival in
Scandinavia that upheld what came to be known
as Laestadian Lutheran theology, which is
heralded today by the Laestadian Lutheran
Church as well as by several congregations
within mainstream Lutheran Churches, such
as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
and the Church of Sweden.
After encountering a Sami woman who experienced
a conversion, Laestadius had a similar experience
that "transformed his life and defined his
calling".
As such, Laestadius "spend the rest of his
lie advancing his idea of Lutheran pietism,
focusing his energies on marginalized groups
in the northernmost regions of the Nordic
countries".
Laestadius called on his followers to embrace
their Lutheran identity and as a result, Laestadian
Lutherans have remained a part of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Finland, the national Church
in that country, with some Laestadian Lutherans
being consecrated as bishops.
In the United States, Laestadian Lutheran
Churches were formed for Laestadian Pietists.
Laestadian Lutherans observe the Lutheran
sacraments, holding classical Lutheran theology
on infant baptism and the real presence of
Christ in the Eucharist, and also heavily
emphasize Confession.
Uniquely, Laestadian Lutherans "discourage
watching television, attending movies, dancing,
playing card games or games of change, and
drinking alcoholic beverages", as well as
avoiding birth control—Laestadian Lutheran
families usually have four to ten children.
Laestadian Lutherans gather in a central location
for weeks at a time for summer revival services
in which many young adults find their future
spouses.
== Influence on the Methodists ==
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 (e.g., Zinzendorf, Peter Boehler)
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.
== 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 to 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."
McCormick notes that the key link between
religious values and politics resulted from
the "urge of evangelicals and Pietists to
'reach out and purge the world of sin.'"
Pietistic denominations in the United States
included Northern Methodists, Northern Baptists,
Scandinavian Lutherans, Congregationalists,
Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, and some
smaller groups.
The great majority were based in the northern
states; some of these groups in the South
would rather support the Democrats.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.
David Hempton states, "The Liberal Party was
the main beneficiary of Methodist political
loyalties."
== 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 (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.
Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (10 July 1682 – 23
February 1719) was a member of the Lutheran
clergy and the first Pietist missionary to
India.
The Merton Thesis is an argument about the
nature of early experimental science proposed
by Robert K. Merton.
Similar to Max Weber's famous claim on the
link between Protestant ethic and the capitalist
economy, Merton argued for a similar positive
correlation between the rise of Protestant
Pietism and early experimental science.
The Merton Thesis has resulted in continuous
debates.
== See also ==
== References ==
See: "Six Principles of Pietism", based on
Philip Jacob Spener's six proposals http://www.miamifirstbrethren.org/advice.html
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913).
"Pietism".
Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).
"Pietism".
Encyclopædia Britannica.
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.
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 (2012)
=== 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
