German Pietism

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German Pietism
CHURCH HISTORY IILesson 18

• The World begins to feel a Warmth from the Fire
  of God, which thus flames in the heart of
  Germany, beginning to extend into many Regions
  the whole world will ere long be sensible of it.
  Cotton Mather

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Agenda

• Identity and Definitions
• Historical Overview
• Lessons we can learn

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• Identity and Definitions

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Who were the Pietists?

• German
• ministers and laymen
• who rose up in protest
• against the deadness and emptiness
• of 17th century
• Lutheran Orthodoxy
• to embrace a more
• vital,
• experiential,
• personal
• and morally earnest
• Christianity.

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German Puritans?

• Not really.
• Similar to Puritanism in emphasis on
• moral earnestness and experiential religion, but
• more quietistic,
• more mystical,
• more missions-minded,
• less Calvinistic,
• less theologically precise and
• less interested in the polity and
• ceremonies of the state church.

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Whats in a name?

• Pietist from Latin pietas, Greek eusebeia
• Probably taken from the title of Speners book,
  Pia Desideria, or perhaps from the name of his
  societies collegia pietatis.
• Given by Orthodox opponents as a term of mockery
• Pietists generally did not use the term of
  themselves out of humility

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Modern Attitudes

• Pietism is still generally associated with
  anti-intellectualism, hyper-individualism, and
  holy-group separatism untouched by the
  Reformation, it lived off the Eroticism of
  medieval mysticism and the Pharisaic
  irresponsibility of medieval monasticism.
  Albert Ritschl
• Better with the Church in hell than with
  pietists, of higher or lower type in a heaven
  which does not exist. Karl Barth
• A pietist is a man who studies the word of God
  and, taking it for his rule of faith and conduct,
  leads an exemplary life. a 1st gen. pietist

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Where are they today?

• Not a denomination, but a spiritual reform
  movement
• Gave birth to new denominations
• Moravians
• Church of the Brethren
• Significantly shaped future ones
• Wesleyan / Methodist
• Had a lasting reforming impact on existing ones
• Lutherans
• Mennonites

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Are you a Pietist?

• No! Pietism properly refers to Lutherans from
  the late 17th to mid 18th centuries sympathetic
  to the ideas of Spener and Francke.
• Yes! Pietism in a broader sense can also refer to
  any tradition that emphasizes personal religious
  experience and calls itself evangelical.

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Pietistic Movements
Were not looking for a model church, but
streaks of divine life and revival wherever we
can find it, interwoven as it will always be with
many flaws no matter where we look. God has
not seen fit to pour the full, unmixed glory of
true Christianity into any one vessel, but has
allowed different aspects of true Christianity to
be grasped, emphasized and worked out in a
variety of ways by different groups over the
course of church history. We are Christians
first, Protestant second and Reformed third. With
varying degrees of healthy criticism and measured
carefulness, we can and should draw encouragement
and help from all over the Christian spectrum
wherever Christ has been loved, the fruits of
Christian graces increased, the Bible and prayer
held in high esteem, and a missionary zeal
present for there, surely the Holy Spirit has
been at work in that part of Gods vineyard, and
who are we to despise it?
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(No Transcript)
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• Historical
• Overview

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Historical Overview
1670 1680 1690 1700 1710 1720
1730 1740 1750 1760

1. Dead Orthodoxy (1580-1700)
2. Speners Reforms (1670-1705)
3. Francke U. of Halle (1687-1727)
4. Mack the Brethren (1708-1729)
5. Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760)

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Dead OrthodoxySlide 1/3

• Condition of Theology
• Luther held almost infallible
• Symbolic books (Augsburg Confession, Formula of
  Concord)
• Spiritual authority and power vested permanently
  in the churchs offices without regard to how a
  minister lives.
• Opus operatum view of sacraments
• Theology was thought too high for the common
  people
• Any talk of the Holy Spirit was treated as
  fanaticism

A de-Vaticanized Catholicism
The symbolical books are, not only in facts and
doctrines, but also in other matters, that Divine
truth which was delivered to the Church, and
which is in all points binding. - Univ. of
Wittenberg
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Dead OrthodoxySlide 2/3

• Condition of the Clergy
• Clergy were subservient to territorial princes
• Seminaries taught polemics and Aristotelian
  logic, to the utter neglect of biblical exegesis
• Much of the clergy was unconverted and morally
  bankrupt
• Sermons were dry polemics in the language of the
  academy

Most ministers have no understanding of true
Christianity and are worldly, carnal,
self-serving and arrogant. - Spener
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Dead OrthodoxySlide 3/3

• Condition of the Laity
• Rigid class distinctions
• Rampant drunkenness
• Morally licentious
• Widespread belief in witchcraft, astrology,
  alchemy
• Mandatory but inattentive church attendance

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Historical Overview
1670 1680 1690 1700 1710 1720
1730 1740 1750 1760

1. Dead Orthodoxy (1580-1700)
2. Speners Reforms (1670-1705)
3. Francke U. of Halle (1687-1727)
4. Mack the Brethren (1708-1729)
5. Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760)

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Speners ReformsSlide 1/5

• Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705)
• Shaping Influences
• Johann Arndt
• The Puritans (Bayly, Baxter)
• Univ. of Strasbourg
• Travel in Reformed areas
• Jean Labadie
• Pastor in Frankfort (1666-1686)
• Church reforms
• Extensive correspondence with the nobility
• Founding of Collegia Pietatis (1670)
• Pia Desideria (1675)
• Spiritual Priesthood (1677)
• Court Chaplain in Dresden (1686-1691)
• Adiaphoristic controversy
• Met August Hermann Francke

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Speners ReformsSlide 2/5

• Collegia Pietatis
• 1669 suggests lay meetings from the pulpit
• 1670-1682 Holds meetings in his home
• Met twice a week
• Men and women in separate groups
• Read and discussed the Bible with equal
  participation for all
• Sacraments were forbidden
• Sprung up all over Germany
• 1682-1684 Spener becomes disillusioned
• Groups had become a church within a church
• Groups became hyper-critical of the established
  church
• Groups become separationist, one emigrates to
  Pennsylvania
• Spener had to write in support of the unique role
  of ministers
• Eventually gave up on the whole idea

acted like a medicine which was more dangerous
than the disease it was supposed to cure. -
Spener
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Speners ReformsSlide 3/5

• Pia Desideria
• 1675 Spener is asked to write the preface for a
  new edition of Johann Arndts True Christianity
• A set of practical, concrete proposals for
  reforming the seminaries, churches and Christian
  homes to facilitate the development of an
  earnest, inner godliness.
• Soon published by itself as Pia Desideria, or
  Pious Wishes
• Ignited extensive discussion on his proposals
  throughout Germany
• Divided into three parts
• A Conspectus of Corrupt Conditions
• The Possibility of Better Conditions
• Proposals to Correct Conditions in the Church

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Speners ReformsSlide 4/5

• Pia Desideria
• Possibility of Better Conditions
• Rom. 11 conversion of Israel
• Rev. 18-19 fall of Papal Rome
• Biblical perfectionism
• we are not forbidden to seek perfection, but we
  are urged on toward it we are under obligation
  to achieve some degree of perfection.
• We do not understand the perfection which we
  demand of the church in such a way that not a
  single hypocrite is any longer to be found in it
  but that the church should be free of manifest
  offenses, that nobody who is afflicted with such
  failings should be allowed to remain in the
  church without fitting reproof and ultimately
  exclusion, and that the true members of the
  church should be richly filled with many fruits
  of their faith.

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Speners ReformsSlide 5/5
They must become accustomed not to lose sight of
any opportunity in which they can render their
neighbor a service of love, and yet while
performing it they must diligently search their
hearts to discover whether they are acting in
true love or out of other motives.

• Pia Desideria
• Proposals to Correct Conditions in the Church
• Recover the Spiritual Priesthood
• More extensive use of the Word
• Universal Bible ownership and daily reading
• Consecutive reading instead of lectionary
• Lay assemblies for mutual edification / Bible
  study
• Use of personal accountability partners
• Put a major pastoral emphasis on love
• Preach the indispensible necessity of love and
  the danger of self-love
• Be gracious toward those with whom we disagree
• Rethink the role of seminaries
• Teach the necessity of godliness and emulate it
  in the professors
• Include courses in pastoral theology and practice
  into curricula
• Have the students read also from the mystics,
  such as Tauler, Theologia Germanica and Arndt

"While we should indicate to unbelievers and
heretics that we take no pleasure in their
unbelief or false belief or practice and
propagation of these, but rather are vigorously
opposed to them, yet in other things which
pertain to human life we should demonstrate that
we consider these people to be our neighbors
regard them as our brothers according to the
right of common creation and the divine love that
is extended to all."
"Students of theology ought to lay this
foundation, that during their early years of
study they realize that they must die unto the
world and live as individuals who are to become
examples to the flock."
"The divine means of Word and sacrament are
concerned with the inner man. Hence it is not
enough that we hear the Word with our outward
ear, but we must let it penetrate to our heart,
so that we may hear the Holy Spirit speak there,
that is, with vibrant emotion and comfort feel
the sealing of the Spirit and the power of the
Word."
Every Christian is bound not only to offer
himself and what he has, his prayer,
thanksgiving, good works, alms, etc, but also
industriously to study in the Word of the Lord,
with the grace that is given him to teach others,
especially those under his own root, to chastise,
exhort, convert, and edify them, to observe their
life, pray for all, and insofar as possible be
concerned about their salvation.
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Historical Overview
1670 1680 1690 1700 1710 1720
1730 1740 1750 1760

1. Dead Orthodoxy (1580-1700)
2. Speners Reforms (1670-1705)
3. Francke U. of Halle (1687-1727)
4. Mack the Brethren (1708-1729)
5. Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760)

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Francke U. of Halle (1687-1727) Slide 1/4
Our mission as professors is to make students
more learned and not more pious. -A seminary
professor at Leipzig

• August Hermann Francke (1663-1727)
• Promising Hebrew student
• 1684 Entered University of Leipzig
• 1686 Founded Collegium Philobiblicum for
  Masters
• 1687 Penitential struggle conversion
• 1690 Collegium banned, Francke driven out of
  Leipzig
• 1691 Invited by Spener to teach at the new
  University of Halle
• 1691-1727 - Lifes ministry at Halle
• Pastor of the town of Glaucha
• Chair of Biblical Languages Theology at Univ.
  of Halle
• Founder of many charities and institutions

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Francke U. of Halle (1687-1727) Slide 2/4

• Theological Distinctives
• Necessity of penitential struggle / dated
  conversion experience
• Strictness / severity of discipline
• Condemnation of theater, dance
• Highly restrictive of music in any form
• Scriptural Rules for Living
• Do not speak much
• Avoid trifling jests and anecdotes
• Avoid speaking of yourself
• Avoid unnecessary mirth
• Engage in no unprofitable use of time
• Do not read trifling, useless books
• Renewed Donatism
• Efficacy of Word and sacrament depends on the
  instrument (minister)
• Invisibility / non-institutionalism of the Church

I believe that the outward church of Christ,
including all its gifts and sacraments, because
of the breaking in and laying waste by Antichrist
right after the death of the apostles, went up
into heaven and lies concealed in the Spirit and
in truth. I am thus quite certain that for
fourteen hundred years now there has existed no
gathered church nor any sacrament the church is
today a purely spiritual thing.
God gives and works his light, kindness, Holy
Spirit, life, etc. only through similarly
illumined, kind, living, spiritual people. The
Holy Spirit will not grace anyone through the
Devil, but will rather work like through like.
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Francke U. of Halle (1687-1727) Slide 3/4

• Halle Foundation
• Began with an offering of 2.80 in a collection
  box, Easter 1695
• Founded a constellation of institutions

Free boarding school Classical school for paying children Real-school / vocational school Teachers clinic Orphanage Hospital Drug store Chemical laboratory Home for unmarried women Home for widows Homeless shelter Book-bindery Printing shop Bible Institute Laundry Farm Beer brewery
A splendid capital with which something of
importance can be founded I will begin a school
for the poor with it
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Francke U. of Halle (1687-1727) Slide 4/4

• International Influence
• Sent Bibles, tracts and hymnbooks to Swedish
  prisoners in Siberia
• Heavy influence in Scandinavia
• Danish-Halle Mission (1706-1845)
• King Friedrich IV of Denmark
• Ziegenbalg Plutschau to India, 1706
• Taught Tamil, Portuguese conferences with the
  Brahmans opened schools translated the Bible
  into Tamil wrote a Tamil dictionary established
  a seminary began custom of sending regular
  missionary reports
• Ziegenbalg left behind 355 converts
• 60 missionaries sent in the 18th century
• Produced internationally important church leaders
• Muhlenberg -gt Lutheranism in America
• Zinzendorf -gt Moravians world-wide

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Other Notable PietistsSlide 1/1

• Moderate Pietists
• John Albert Bengel
• Father of Textual Criticism
• Forerunner of German rationalism
• Johann Freylinghausen Gerhard Tersteegen
• Prolific hymn-writers
• Radical Pietists
• Gottfried Arnold
• Impartial History of the Church and of Heretics
• Eberhard Gruber
• Inspirationists ? Amana Colonies
• Friedrich Oetinger
• Nature mysticism

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Pietism in DeclineSlide 1/1

• Mid-Late 1700s Lutheran Pietism as an
  identifiable movement disintegrates
• Halle slides into harsh legalism
• Danish-Halle mission withers
• Radical pietism discredits the whole movement
• Rationalism begins to overtake the seminaries and
  puts an end to both Orthodoxy and Pietism at the
  same time.

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Historical Overview
1670 1680 1690 1700 1710 1720
1730 1740 1750 1760

1. Dead Orthodoxy (1580-1700)
2. Speners Reforms (1670-1705)
3. Francke U. of Halle (1687-1727)
4. Mack the Brethren (1708-1729)
5. Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760)

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Mack the Brethren (1708-1729)Slide 1/4

• Ernst Christoph Hochmann (1670-1721)
• Vocal in biting criticism of the Lutheran Church
• 1693 - Expelled from Halle
• 1697 - Radicalized by contact with Gottfried
  Arnold
• 1700-1711 Wonders around Germany for 12 years
  railing against the Church often whipped and
  imprisoned
• 1702 - Writes confession of faith in Castle
  Detmold
• Believers baptism by trine immersion
• Love feast / feet washing / holy kiss
• Pacifism
• Perfectionism
• Universalism
• Took refuge in Schwarzenau where he befriended
  Alexander Mack

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Mack the Brethren (1708-1729)Slide 2/4

• Alexander Mack (1679-1735)
• Heavily influenced by Gottfried Arnolds History
  and Hochmanns theological and ecclesiastical
  ideas
• Concluded that separation was necessary in order
  to practice biblical church discipline
• Schwarzenau, 1708 Baptizes seven followers in
  the river Eder by Trine immersion
• Founds the Church of the Brethren
• Also called German Baptists, New Baptists or
  Dunkers
• No creeds but the Bible
• No traditions but what Jesus and the apostles did
• Love feasts, foot washing, trine immersion
• For a short time also practiced community of
  goods and celibacy
• Establishes four centers Schwarzenau,
  Marienborn, Epstein and Creyfelt

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Mack the Brethren (1708-1729)Slide 3/4

• Emmigration to America
• 1715 Marienborn and Epstein congregations
  driven by persecution to Creyfelt
• Marriage scandal at Creyfelt
• 1719 Peter Becker leads group to Germantown,
  PA.
• Creyfelt church disintegrates
• 1729 Schwarzenau group emmigrates to
  Germantown, PA and Mack assumes leadership in
  America
• In several waves, 100 of Brethren left Europe
  for America

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Mack the Brethren (1708-1729)Slide 4/4

• The Brethren in America
• Settlements in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
• Johann Conrad Beissel
• Leader of the Conestoga area church
• Withdrew from Brethren as not pure enough
• Rebaptized his congregation once again
• Adopted a 7th day Sabbath observance
• Formed the famous Ephrata celibate community
• Splits in the 19th and 20th centuries over
  opposition to
• Musical instruments
• Sunday schools
• Foreign missions
• Revivalism
• Telephones
• Automobiles

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Historical Overview
1670 1680 1690 1700 1710 1720
1730 1740 1750 1760

1. Dead Orthodoxy (1580-1700)
2. Speners Reforms (1670-1705)
3. Francke U. of Halle (1687-1727)
4. Mack the Brethren (1708-1729)
5. Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760)

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Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760) Slide 1/4

• Count Nicholas Lewis von
• Zinzendorf (1700-1760) Childhood
• Aristocratic family
• Raised by his godly grandmother Catherine von
  Gersdorf in a castle
• Spener was his godfather in baptism
• Began seeking God at 4 years old
• Heart ablaze by age 6
• Spent hours in prayer daily
• Soldiers incident
• Preached sermons to his friends
• Cast love letters to Jesus out of his castle
  window

If it were possible that there should be another
God than Christ, I would rather be damned with
Christ than happy with another. I have but
one passion tis He, tis only He.
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Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760) Slide 1/4

• Zinzendorf Education
• Sent to the classical school in Halle under
  Francke at age 10
• Bullied for being too religious
• At age 14, founded the Sacred Order of the
  Mustard Seed
• Love all men
• Be true to Christ
• Bring the gospel to the heathen
• Founded six more societies while in his teens
• Sent to Wittenberg to be made more worldly
• Held prayer meetings, Bible study meeting
• All night prayer vigils
• Founded more societies
• Chosen by the faculty as mediator between
  Wittenberg and Halle
• Tour of Europe
• Profoundly impacted by sight of painting of
  Christ in a Dusseldorf gallery
• Testing at uncles house
• Marriage
• Purchased Berthelsdorf from grandmother

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Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760) Slide 1/4

• Christian David
• Conversion from Catholicism
• Taken in by the Pietists
• Returned to Moravia preaching everywhere
• Stirred up hidden remnants of the old Bohemian
  Brethren (Hussites)
• Persecution drives Christian David to ask
  Zinzendorf for asylum at Berthelsdorf
• 1722 takes a dozen Hussites to Berthelsdorf and
  founds community of Herrnhut on a barren hilltop
  above the town

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Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760) Slide 1/4

• Herrnhut under Christian David (1722-1727)
• At first, the Herrnhutters are excited and joyful
• Successive immigrations makes Herrnhut a
  patchwork quilt of discontents of every stripe
• Division, envy, strife develops
• An fiery leader turns Herrnhut against Zinzendorf
  and the Berthelsdorf church
• Zinzendorf called the Beast
• Entire Protestant church is Babylon
• Herrnhut and Berthelsdorf preachers rail against
  each other
• Christian David rebuilds his house outside the
  Herrnhut compound

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Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760) Slide 1/4

• Zinzendorf Intervenes
• May 1727 - Zinzendorf steps in and lays down the
  law
• Theological disputes forbidden
• All who sincerely seek holiness and love Jesus
  are to be accepted
• Both communities repent and ask forgiveness
• August 1727 - Joint communion service
• Spiritual joy fills all who are present at once
• Herrnhutters covenant to forever be a group known
  for their love

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Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760) Slide 1/4

• Herrnhut under Zinzendorf (1727-1736)
• Government
• Discovered and implemented Unitas Fratrum ancient
  Order of Discipline
• 12 elders, 4 super-elders, 1 chief elder chosen
  by lot
• Everyone given an office / assigned duty
• A list of converted people was maintained others
  expelled
• Engagement allowed only in the presence of the
  elders and decided by lot

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Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760) Slide 1/4

• Herrnhut under Zinzendorf (1727-1736)
• Community
• Established a school
• All inhabitants divided into choirs by age,
  gender marital status that lived in common
  buildings
• School-age children taken from their parents and
  raised communally in a separate building
• Women wore simple dress with color-coded ribbons
• Strict schedule
• 16 hours work
• 5 hours sleep
• 3 hours for meals and worship meetings

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Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760) Slide 1/4

• Herrnhut under Zinzendorf (1727-1736)
• Worship
• Prayer song meetings three times daily
• Composed hymns impromptu during meetings
• Zinzendorf himself wrote 2,000 hymns
• Practiced foot washing, love feasts, kiss of
  peace and casting of lots
• Assigned prayer rotations for unceasing 24-hour
  prayer
• Continued unbroken for 100 years

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Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760) Slide 1/4

• Moravian Missions
• Zinzendorfs state visit to Copenhagen (1731)
• Two eskimos from the failed Danish Greenland
  missino
• Anthony the slave from the Caribbean
• 18 missionaries in first 25 years more than all
  other Protestants in 200 years
• Dober / Nitschmann to St. Thomas (1732)
• Stach / Boemish to Greenland
• Spangenberg to Georgia
• David Zeisberger to the American Indians (1734)
• Georg Schmidt to the Hottentots of S. Africa
• Others to mostly uncivilized peoples around the
  world
• Campaigned against slavery, cruelty built
  schools, translated the Bible, taught people to
  read, organized churches that emphasized holy
  living
• Forbidden to work where other Christian groups
  were working
• In the first 130 years

A missionary must be a man who felt within him
an irresistible call a man who loathed the lusts
of the world, who burned with love to Christ, who
was approved by all his Brethren, and whose face
shone with the light of a Divine joy.
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Zinzendorf the Moravians (1722-1760) Slide 1/4

• Later Years
• 1736-1750 Exile in Marienborn
• 1737 Zinzendorf consecrated as bishop
• Warrior Band
• 1743-1750 Sifting time
• 1750 Given authorized recognition by the
  government as Evangelical Moravian Unity of the
  Brethren
• Moravians in America
• 1740 Spangenberg founds Bethlehem, PA
• Worked extensively throughout the colonies
• Extensive Indian missions
• Established four major settlements, one in Salem,
  NC
• Do not grow much because of compound mentality
• Impact on Wesley and the Evangelical Awakening
• Today they have 825,000 members mostly in
  Germany, America and Tanzania and are still
  active in missionary work

The Moravian Motto "In essentials, unity in
nonessentials, liberty and in all things,
charity"