ROUGHLY EDITED COPY CH3-004 PROFESSOR LAWRENCE REST PROFESSOR WILL SCHUMACHER Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 ***** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communications Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***** >> JOSHUA: Doctors, my name is Joshua. A couple of weeks ago, a visiting pastor to our congregation used the word Pietism in his sermon. I, of course, thought of piety, but beyond that, I'm sad to say I had no association to make with the concept of Pietism. It sounded like he was describing a movement in the church. Is this correct? What was Pietism? How did it develop historically? Who were the main leaders of this movement, and what did they believe? Has Pietism had a lasting impact on Christianity? I'm especially interested to know what the impact was on Lutherans since that seemed to be what the pastor was alluding to. >> SPEAKER: Hi, Joshua. You know you're right. Your pastor was alluding to a specific movement in the history of the church that emerged during the 1600's but has continued to influence the church, even down to the present. Pietism, as a movement, is something we should distinguish from piety. Piety, as a Christian, means us living under the law of Christ that has been delivered by God through the scriptures. And we as the people of God, seeking to fulfill his will in our own lives at he empowers us to do. This is a good thing, and each of us seeks to live out God's commandments in our lives knowing that even while we're still sinners, his grace covers all of our sins. Pietism is a movement. Pietism emerged, as I said, during the 1600's and affected all of Western European Christianity. It had a special impact on Lutheranism we'll talk about in just a minute. But initially, what was Pietism all about? Well, there are a number of ways to define the movement that was Pietism. But to put it in the most acceptable terms, the most easily graspable terms, here is what I think it was about. As the 30 Years' War broke out in 1618 and concluding in 1648, this was a war of religion, a war of confession as we've already heard. As the war played out, people became increasingly distraught that theology, doctrine, confession would lead to such horrific experiences in Western Europe, specifically in Germany. And they began to say that if this is what doctrine leads to, if this is what confession results in, perhaps we should find a different location for what we emphasize as the heart of Christianity. So a first characteristic of Pietism is simply that: namely, downplaying doctrine. That's not to say that they denied doctrine, but they downplayed it to the point of saying, let's emphasize those things that are fundamental, those things that the scripture clearly teaches, those things that the scripture says are necessary for one to be a Christian. Other points are important, certainly, but they should not come at the expense of that which is fundamental. So doctrine, doctrinal purity, doctrinal clarification and definition, these sorts of things took a second row seat, if you will, in the movement that was Pietism. To a more positive point on the part of the Pietists and their program, they said let us emphasize those things that are common to all Christians: namely, the Christian life. In this respect, they said, it is important that we recognize that we are saved by grace through faith, but it is equally important that we live a life worthy of the one who has suffered, died, and risen for us. In other words, while they affirmed the Reformation doctrine of justification by grace through faith, they believed that the doctrine of sanctification, or the holy life resulting from justification, had been downplayed, or in some places, even ignored. So the Pietists began to place great stress on that particular point. As this movement played itself out, the latter point began to be emphasized all the more. That is to say, sanctification came more and more to the forefront. And the question of who was truly a Christian and who was simply a Christian in name increasingly came to the forefront. At this point it might be helpful to talk about how that particularly happened. And to do that, we need to talk about some of the leaders of the movement specifically as they functioned within the Lutheran Church. It goes without saying that Pietism in Western Christianity affected all the main branches of the church, the Reformed tradition, Roman Catholicism, and the Lutheran church as well. However, what we want to talk about here specifically is how this movement affected the Lutheran church. Even in the late 1500's, the late 16th century, Lutheranism already had critics who were saying too much emphasis is being placed on doctrine, but not enough emphasis on the Christian life. A Lutheran pastor and theologian by the name of Johann Arndt raised this criticism in a book that he called, a series of books, that he called " True Christianity. " And in these books, he laid the theological foundation for the movement that later was called Pietism. He died in the early 1600's, but the points that he made stressing that it was not simply enough to talk about justification by grace through faith alone but that sanctification, true repentance, was as necessary a component of true Christianity came to the forefront. With his death at the opening of the 30 Years' War, much of his program, his theological perspective, was, shall we say, driven underground for a period of time. But once the 30 Years' War ended in 1648, then his perspective returned. And it returned especially through the work of a Lutheran pastor by the name of Philipp Jakob Spener. Spener�s dates 1635 to 1705. Spener himself is usually called the father of Pietism. In the year 1675, he published an edition of Johann Arndt�s sermons to which he appended a brief introduction, and in this little introduction, he outlined his pious hopes, his pious desires, for the future of the church. The book later on was published as a stand-alone book. And in the volume he outlined what he saw was the problem facing the church. He asked the question whether the church could actually be reformed, and then he offered a program for that reform. In the first section of the book, he was extremely critical of the church as it existed. He criticized the laity. He criticized the nobility. And he especially criticized the pastors of the church at that particular time saying the Lutheran Church had largely become indifferent saying that if I know doctrine, then I must be saved and everything is well with my life. Spener said, no, we need to emphasize the responsibility of each Christian to live out the Christian life. And he stressed that more and more. In answering the question whether the church could be reformed, he said, yes, obviously with the Spirit�s help. And then he offered the program for carrying this out. Among the many proposals that he offered were things such as these: There should be a greater emphasis on Bible study on the part of Christians, not just pastors preaching, but all Christians gathering together to study God's word. He did this within the context of small groups what he called the collegia pietatis or the schools of piety. There believers would gather together with pastors to study God's word to consider the sermons they had heard in church and the like. Beyond that he emphasized the spiritual priesthood. He said that it was not enough simply to emphasize the work of pastors, but that every Christian should be responsible for their spiritual well-being, for proclaiming the word within the context in which they found themselves, and to carry out their vocation as a called child of God. When it came to the training of pastors he said far too much emphasis had been placed on polemic theology, theology that pointed out the errors of other churches. Rather, he said what we should emphasize are those points of convergence and agreement, rather than looking at those things that divide. Finally, he said it is a matter of utmost importance that we realize that the church itself has been given God's mission in the world and to carry this message about Jesus Christ out into the world. In this respect, he simply said we're carrying out the work of the Reformation. But he did have an interesting perspective on how the church functioned in the world and the manner in which things would progress. He said it is not enough that we simply restate the old truths. We must understand that the church is always reforming itself, always moving forward. In that respect, Spener specifically mentioned the fact that while he believed that Luther was a theological giant, still those who followed in Luther's wake had a broader scope, a longer perspective than Luther himself said. That is to say while Luther was a theological giant, still is a man, his field of vision was somewhat limited. However, a dwarf climbing on the shoulders of the giant could see farther than the giant. Obviously, Spener was one of those dwarves climbing on Luther's shoulders. At least that's how he saw himself. And his students saw themselves in a similar fashion. In the 1690�s, a new university was established in Germany, the University of Halle, H-A-L-L-E. And at Halle, the program that Spener had proposed was given institutional life. So Arndt provided the theological basis. Spener put it together into a program, and then August Herman Francke, put the, shall we say, flash on the skeleton and took Pietism into the world. Through the Halle institutions, universities, schools, museums, bookstores, hospitals, orphanages and other activities, Pietism as a movement began to permeate not only German Lutheranism but Western Christianity and beyond. And for our own purposes, it would have tremendous impact because this missionary thrust that Lutheran Pietism had would send the first Lutheran pastors to North America. We'll get back to that conversation somewhat later in the course. But for the time being, one more word on August Herman Francke. With Francke and then was later Pietists, you begin to see a movement away, shall we say, from the earlier churchly thrust of Spener. Spener�s concern was that Christians truly be Christians and what he wanted to see happen, as he mentioned in his little book "Pious Desires," was that more people would study the word of God. More people would attend the Lord's Supper. However, as the emphasis on the spiritual well-being of the individual came to dominate the Pietist perspective, more and more emphasis was placed on one's conversion. That is the question of who is truly a Christian and who is not. And Francke and others who followed in his wake began to say, we can actually identify who is truly a Christian and who is not. Two things are necessary. First, the necessity is for those who truly want to be considered Christians who have endured and experienced a very concrete conversion. That is to say, you can locate and place and in time the moment when you went from being not a Christian to being a Christian. If you couldn't locate that, if you couldn't name the place, then your Christianity was suspect. And the later Pietists demanded this of people. Secondly, they said the proof was in the pudding, if you will. That is to say you could talk about a conversion experience, but if you didn't live it out, if you couldn't quantify your Christian life, your sanctification, then you weren't really a Christian either. And so you can see the likely result of this kind of perspective. A stratification began to occur within the Lutheran Church as to those who were truly Christian and those who were not, those who had responded to the Holy Spirit and those who were merely Christians in name. Great tension resulted within the Lutheran Church on this point, and a division of perspectives occurred. From this point forward, Lutherans would often refer to themselves either as Pietists or Pietistic Lutherans or Orthodox Lutherans. And the ongoing conversation, many times outright controversy, would characterize the church well into the middle part of the 1700's. Now, in terms of assessing Pietism and the manner in which it continues to affect the church today, in many respects the proposals of a Philipp Spener were very good. The idea of emphasizing the spiritual priesthood, that every Christian, by virtue of their baptism, is God's priest certainly a positive thing and an appropriate thing. Luther taught that because the Bible teaches that. At the same time, his emphasis on the study of the scriptures extremely important and something that remains central to us today. but even within his collegia pietatis, we began to see the roots of this division within the church of those who were truly Christian and those who weren't. And one of the real dangers of Pietism was a movement toward *Phariseeism , if you will. That is to say, Pietists ran the danger and faced the temptation of saying, I thank you, God, that I am not like other men like that sinner over there. Nevertheless, the points of the program continue to be helpful to the present. Certainly, we want to continue to emphasize the necessity of keeping the Bible at the forefront, of emphasizing the spiritual priesthood. Nevertheless, Pietism as a movement began to open the doors to a couple of things one being doctrinal indifferentism, and in fact, most doctrines weren�t, in fact, all that important and at the same time for a stratification or an arrogance on the part of some as to the level of their Christianity as opposed to others. Both of those elements, the positive and negative, I think continue to affect the church today both to the good and at times to the bad. Joshua, as you and I well know, no one of us sinners is perfect in the Lord's eyes. We are simply called by him, gathered, enlightened, sanctified by his Holy Spirit, brought into his church purely by grace. And we pray that he will continue to be faithful to us, and we know he will, even as we struggle as his people in this world to be faithful to the calling that he has given us. ***** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communications Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *****