|
Pietism, German PIETISMUS, an influential
religious reform movement that began in German Lutheranism
in the 17th century. Emphasizing personal faith in protest against
secularization in the church, Pietism soon spread and later expanded its
emphases to include social and educational concerns.
Throughout Christian history, pietistic movements have arisen in revolt
whenever religion has become divorced from experience. By the beginning of the
17th century, Lutheranism had hardened into a scholastic system useful for
contending with Roman Catholic and Reformed opponents but not for spiritual
nourishment. Out of the devastation wrought upon Germany by the Thirty Years'
War there appeared some notable signs of renewal. Interest was awakened in
devotional literature and the pious mystical tradition. Influences of English
Puritanism reached the European continent through the translation of works by
Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, and others. Religious exiles in the Netherlands,
among them William Ames, generated a distinctive brand of Dutch Pietism that
soon spread into Germany as part of the reform movement that had already begun
to take shape in German Lutheran circles as "Reform Orthodoxy." The
"pectoral heart theology" of these orthodox Lutherans found its
highest expression and widest audience in the writings of Johann
Arndt (1555-1621). Lutheran hymnody of the period also contributed
significantly to the atmosphere of spiritual renewal.
The various streams of the renewal movement converged in the life and work of
Philipp Jakob Spener
(1635-1705). Upon assuming an administrative pastorate in Frankfurt am Main,
Spener became distressed by the degenerate life of the city and organized the
first collegia pietatis
("assembly of piety"), in which lay Christians met regularly for
devotional reading and spiritual exchange. The practice quickly became
characteristic of the movement, and those who attended the conventicles acquired
the name Pietists.
In his most famous work, Pia Desideria
(1675; Pious
Desires), Spener assessed contemporary orthodoxy's weaknesses and advanced
proposals for reform. His proposals were: (1) greater private and public use of
the scriptures, (2) greater assumption by the laity of their priestly
responsibilities as believers, (3) the importance of bearing the practical
fruits of a living faith, (4) ministerial training that emphasized piety and
learning rather than disputation, and (5) preaching with the aim of edification.
The collegia pietatis was the ideal instrument for such reforms.
From Spener, the leadership of German Pietism eventually passed to August
Hermann Francke (1663-1727) of the University of Halle. Francke's
capable leadership made Halle
a thriving institutional centre of Pietism. Among the illustrious figures sent
out from Halle was Henry Melchior Muhlenberg
(see Muhlenberg family ), the
organizer of colonial American Lutheranism.
Another Halle alumnus, Nikolaus Ludwig, Count von
Zinzendorf (1700-60), founded the Moravian
church (q.v.) among Pietist-influenced Moravian refugees on
his estate in Saxony. In contrast to the Halle Pietists' demand for penitential
remorse, Zinzendorf's followers preached belief in Christ's atonement as the
only requisite for salvation. It is perhaps through the efforts of Zinzendorf
that Pietism exerted its greatest direct influence outside Germany. (see also Moravian
church)
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism,
received his salutary inspiration among the Moravians and incorporated important
pietistic elements, such as the emphasis on saving grace, into his fledgling
evangelical movement. Other denominations felt the influence of Pietism on
pastoral theology, mission activity, and modes of worship. The zenith of Pietism
had been reached by the mid-18th century, but the movement continued to exist
and still survives, both explicitly in parts of Germany and in the Moravian
church elsewhere and implicitly in evangelical Protestantism at large. The
religious revival movements of the 19th and 20th centuries were connected
directly or indirectly with Pietism, which in its turn received stimulation from
them.
|
