Pietism gave modern Christianity a few of its defining characteristics, akin to calling one’s devotional life a “personal relationship with Jesus.”
So how did something that began within the fifteenth century go on to affect many of the western church today?
What Are the Defining Features of Pietism?
Pietism developed in Germany within the 1600s through Philipp Jakob Spener. While some scholars debate whether he would have called himself a pietist, Spener’s book Pia Desideria (“Pious Desire”) gave the movement its name and laid out its defining characteristics.
Pietist scholar Ernest Stoeffler defined the movement as “trust in God as revealed in Christ, based upon the testimony of Scripture, authenticated in personal religious experience, and productive of an affective identification with Christ which is clearly felt.”
The “personal experience” element was revolutionary for its time. Spener desired to help the church avoid what he saw as hair-splitting doctrinal differences over law and style. Instead, he proposed a latest paradigm for preachers, inventing something we discover normal today.
We see the brand new paradigm on this quote from Pia Desideria:
“Our whole Christian faith consists within the inner man and the brand new man. Faith and good works are the fruits of this latest life. Preaching should set forth the mercies of God in order that faith and the inner man could also be strengthened an increasing number of. [The preacher] should work in such a way that he will not be satisfied with the outward man and outward virtues. Rather, we must lay the inspiration properly in people’s hearts.”
This emphasis on the inner life was a pendulum swing against the Lutheran mainstream, a serious departure from Martin Luther’s view that the Law and Gospel needs to be the Christian life’s focus.
What Motivated the Pietists’ Teaching?
Pietism was certainly one of Protestantism’s first movements that attempted to remove the excellence between the top and the guts. Pietism’s founders believed that this distinction was causing debates plaguing the Lutheran church. They desired unity among the many Protestant scholars.
Another motivator was to see the world evangelized. Many conservative Lutherans thought the good commission had been fulfilled through the apostles’ time, so sending missionaries was unnecessary. Spener and others rejected this concept and advocated for evangelizing the whole world.
How Did Pietism Become Popular?
Pietism initially impacted Germany but went on to have a worldwide impact through Nicholas Von Zinzendorf, who founded the fashionable missions movement 100 years before William Carey. Zinzendorf emphasized a private relationship with God that overflowed right into a passion to share him with others.
Zinzendorf’s passion began when he sheltered Moravian exiles at his estate in Herrnhut. While they were there, the Holy Spirit got here upon them, and a revival occurred. Zinzendorf was ready to depart the whole lot to share Jesus with those that had never heard of him. He traveled so far as the West Indies and met notable individuals like Benjamin Franklin during his travels in America.
Zinzendorf and the Moravians also influenced John Wesley, father of Methodism. Upon hearing a sermon by Moravians in London, Wesley decided to live his life emphasizing holiness. Pietist ideas flowed into Wesley’s followers, and the Methodists became certainly one of early American Christianity’s dominant forces.
John’s brother, Charles Wesley, further spread Pietist ideas through his hymns and songs. His music was already revolutionary since it was latest music—establishment churches preferred to sing songs written centuries earlier or the Psalms themselves. The Pietist ideas in his lyrics brought much more changes and proceed influencing churches today.
What Made Pietism a Revolutionary Change?
The Pietists were certainly one of the primary Christian groups to concentrate on reading the Bible for themselves— traditional Lutherans focused more on devotional life as a company exercise. Pietism’s approach helped create the fashionable church practice we call personal Bible study.
Pietists also emphasized equipping laypeople for ministry, which gave rise to a different modern church feature: the small group bible study. The realization that the Bible could and needs to be studied outside the Church and the family was revolutionary for that day. This became a defining feature of American Christianity, largely through the Methodists’ emphasis on raising individuals who could understand and apply the text to themselves.
Pietism’s emphasis on revival also helped shape our modern church. Zinzendort and the Moravian exiles praying together led to certainly one of the best revivals in church history and over 100 years of continual prayer. This desire for revival affected the whole Pietist movement, and the fashionable church still feels its impulse today.
Pietism’s emphasis on small group Bible study, revival, and private devotion still ripples into American Christianity today. This small group of Lutherans within the 1600s impacted us in positive and negative ways, giving rise to the church as we understand it today.
But if it has positively and negatively affected us, what are some negative influences we should always find out about?
What Are Some Criticisms of Pietism?
Pietism faced many criticisms, particularly from the Lutheran church it emerged from.
Pietism’s emphasis on the inner life differed from Luther’s discussion of law and style. Luther fought tooth and nail to regain the emphasis upon justification and would have recoiled at this emphasis.
Because Pietism emphasized emotions, Lutherans accused the primary Pietists of swinging the pendulum too far, putting all of the emphasis on emotions and none on doctrine.
Some fearful that Pietism’s experientialism and individualism led to not caring in regards to the larger church or church history. There were a couple of occasions when radical Pietists left society to found their very own communities.
Seventeenth-century Lutherans fearful that Pietists (to make use of Luther’s terminology) were “theologians of glory” who thought they might perfect themselves. That is, believing their spiritual growth rested in themselves reasonably than in God giving the expansion. Luther emphasized being a theologian of the cross who sees God’s self-revelation and weakness and seeks to make peace with their weakness in light of who God is. In the method, they trust that God will give them growth.
Because Pietism emphasized personal Bible study over corporate teaching, some fearful that Pietist hermeneutic results in narcigesis, not exegesis. Exegesis asks what the text is attempting to teach people. Narcigesis only asks how the text makes the reader feel.
Others fearful that Pietism’s emphasis on personal faith affects society in other messy ways. For example, if devotion time replaces family worship, it could devalue the family. Taken too far, individualist Christianity could lead on to societal breakdown.
Another criticism of Pietism is that spitting the top and heart caused the Enlightenment and the Romantic movement. Both movements separated the intellect and faith, with various consequences for Christianity—akin to making theology more about history (what has come) than science (how things work).
Some of those criticisms don’t arise well.
The criticism about individualism and experientialism is more a critique of quietism, a movement that Madame Guyon founded in France through the seventeenth century. This movement emphasized internal faith on the expense of practicing faith every day. For probably the most part, Pietists didn’t change into so individualistic they cut themselves off from the remaining of the church—in any case, they kickstarted the Protestant missions movement.
While the inner life matters loads in Pietism, and a few went to this point that they created their very own little groups, most Pietists balanced heartfelt emotion with the creeds and councils. Only a couple of put a lot emphasis on personal experience that they neglected anything.
Others raise issues that Christians should pay attention to today.
What Can We Learn from When Pietism Went Wrong?
While many things in Pietism were helpful, a few of its excesses leave us with vital lessons about what to avoid.
The law vs. grace debate is complicated but shouldn’t be completely avoided. Justification and sanctification must be held concurrently.
Christians should be careful for narcigesis. Sometimes, we put a lot emphasis on reading the Bible to make us feel a certain way that we forget to think about what it says.
Christians must also remember what got here before their time (the creeds and councils). Some Pietists did emphasize personal experience a lot that they neglected the whole lot else. It’s vital to recollect Christianity has a history.
The same point applies to family worship—some Christians concentrate on only their personal relationship with Jesus and avoid engaging with their families or a neighborhood church. Being part of a bigger faith community matters.
What Can Christians Apply From Pietism?
Like any spiritual movement, Pietism left us with things we will practice today—so long as we consider the context.
Pietism desired holiness and private devotion—-both good things in a healthy context. We should seek consistent spiritual practices that value the top and the guts. When we do this, we discover true piety.
When Pietism took unhealthy directions, it separated the top from the guts an excessive amount of. Faith has emotions, but it surely will not be all about emotions. Reason has its place, too. Our human efforts will at all times learn to 1 side of the pendulum or the opposite. We need God’s help to search out the balance—which we discover once we rely on and ask the Holy Spirit for help.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/gorodenkoff
Ben Reichert works with college students in New Zealand. He graduated from Iowa State in 2019 with degrees in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, and agronomy. He is captivated with church history, theology, and having people walk with Jesus. When not working or writing you could find him running or climbing in the attractive New Zealand Bush.
This article is a component of our Christian Terms catalog, exploring words and phrases of Christian theology and history. Here are a few of our hottest articles covering Christian terms to assist your journey of data and faith:
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