This document discusses Pietism, a 17th century Protestant Christian movement that emphasized living a life of personal devotion to God over formal religious observances. It arose in response to the dry formalism of Lutheran orthodoxy. Key figures like Philip Spener and August Francke promoted small group Bible study, social ministry, and a focus on conversion and sanctification. Pietism influenced later leaders like John Wesley and the Methodist movement. The Moravians under Nicholas von Zinzendorf also emphasized heartfelt faith and fellowship. Both Pietism and the Moravians promoted a hands-on, experiential form of Christianity.

1. Christianity in Shoes

2. Devotional Text
James 1:22-24 (1599 Geneva Bible)
 And be ye doers of the word, and not
hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
 For if any hear the word, and do it not,
he is like unto a man, that beholdeth his
natural face in a glass.
 For when he hath considered himself, he
goeth his way, and forgetteth
immediately what manner of one he was.

3. Pietism
 Introduction - Pietism
• Essentially a German movement
• Result of Thirty Year War – many had lost
everything; their families and their
possessions.
 Desperately wanted support and hope.
 Dry formalism and dogmatic
argumentation held sway.
 Sermons more concerned with crushing an
absent controversialist than spiritually
feeding the worshippers.

4. Pietism
Keynote of Pietism
• Orthodox Lutheranism taught salvation
was essentially an objective and external
thing, a trust in a legal security, a
forensic decision of God.
 Too often that belief had fostered “a
spiritual indolence,” a trust in a lifelong
security because of one’s baptism.
 Satisfied with what God had done for us.

5. Pietism
• Rather than experiencing the presence
of God, people were constantly
reminded of the wishes of the prince.
• Out of this spiritual drought Pietism was
born.

6. Pietism
 Pietists wanted to discover what God
wants to do in us.
 Religion is for the whole person and the
whole life.

7. Pietism
 Theology of Pietism
• Main difference between Pietism and
Reformation was a matter of emphasis
rather than of dogma.
 Reformation: placed doctrine at center
of Christian life.
 Pietism: placed Christian life at center of
doctrine.

8. Pietism
Important Pietists
• J. Arndt – forerunner of Pietism.
• True Christianity.
• Emphasized “effects of faith.”
• Knowledge without experience is
meaningless or perhaps even harmful.

9. Pietism
 Pietist Spirituality
• Scripture – had to be eaten individually
• Small Groups – groups of people who had freely
chosen to seek the help of others for spirituality
• Concept of Conversion – clearly identifiable;
decision to accept God’s grace manifested
immediately in a new way of life.
• Social Involvement – clear social and
missionary vision; became a major factor in
social progress and evangelism.
• Irenic Spirit – shunned confessional
intolerance.

10. Pietism
 Philip Spener – “father of Pietism.”
 Created collegia pietatis, assemblies of people
seeking practical piety and gathered for prayer
and discussion.
 Some withdrew from public worship –
Lutheran clergy violently opposed.
 1675, Pia Desideria, Pietism Manifesto.
 Necessity of personal study of Scripture and
duty of laymen to exercise spiritual
priesthood.
 Urged seminary professors to give spiritual
dimension to education

11. Pietism
 “Doing the Word”
- never be satisfied with mere knowledge of
Scripture; put it into practice.
 Violent opposition
-driven out of Dresden 1689 and found
refuge at Berlin;
 Devoted time to publishing

12. Pietism
August Francke
 Creator of a Pietist educational system
 Dramatic conversion experience, 1687,
Luneburg
 Discovered God as a Father and overwhelmed
by intense joy
 Experience marked his theology
 Attention given to what is involved in
conversion, the struggles, the break-through of
faith
 Gospel like a good seed that comes to life when
it falls into human hearts and regenerates the
person from within.

13. Pietism
Legacy of Pietism (proposals from
Spener):
 Urged restraint and charity in religious
controversies.
 Reform in the education of ministers
along with a need for training in piety
and devotion
 Renewal of “the spiritual priesthood,”
the priesthood of all believers.
 ministers to preach edifying sermons—
understandable by the people

14. Pietism
 More extensive use of the Word of
God—The Bible must be the chief
means for reforming something.”
 Appeal for the reality of Christian
practice; argued that Christianity is
more than simple knowledge.
 The peitists impacted later
individuals such as John Wesley.

15. Wesley and the Methodists
 Members of the club met together for
prayer and Bible study.
 They also:
 Visited the sick in the local town
 Did charity work
 Visited prisoners in the local prison
 They were known for doing more than is
“necessary” in order to help others.

16. Wesley and the Methodists
 John Wesley prepared for ministry in the
Church of England at Christ Church,
Oxford.
 While on a two year break back in his
home town his brother, Charles, began a
club to promote Christian holiness.
 Upon his return John became one of the
leading members of this “Holy Club.”

17. Wesley and the Methodists
 Sometime around 1724 Wesley read the
works of some Calvinists and Lutherans
and concluded that they emphasized
faith so much that they hid the other
commandments.
 In 1725 he began to read the works of
pietists like Thomas a Kempis, Jeremy
Taylor, William Law and William
Beveridge.

18. Wesley and the Methodists
 In 1735 he set sail for America to do
missions among the native Americans.
 He had an uncomfortable time as he
tried to carry out “high church” principles
with the expatriate population.
 He returned to England in 1737—
leaving under unfortunate
circumstances.

19. Wesley and the Methodists
 During his time in the US he was heavily
influenced by the Moravians and their
assurance of salvation.
 May 24, 1738 he attended Methodist band
meeting at Aldersgate St. London
 "In the evening I went very unwillingly to a
society in Aldersgate Street, where one was
reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the
Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he
was describing the change which God works in
the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart
strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ,
Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance
was given me that he had taken away my sins,
even mine and saved me from the law of sin and
death."

20. Wesley and the Methodists
Theology:
 Arminian soteriology
 God’s grace is free for all and free to all.
 He sees three categories of grace:
 Prevenient grace: grace which goes before
to wake up the will.
 Justifying grace: grace of forgiveness of sin.
 Sanctifying grace: grace to move the
believer into a closer walk with God—
evident by good works.

21. Wesley and the Methodists
 Due to original sin humans are incapable of
saving themselves.
 Salvation is by grace through faith alone.
 Genuine faith leads to inward and outward
holiness—the believer manifests the work
of the Spirit in her/his life.
 Justification and sanctification are distinct
works of God’s grace.
 Justification delivers from the guilt, but not
condition of sin.

22. Wesley and the Methodists
 Four essential propositions:
 all men need to be saved
 all men can be saved
 all men can know they are saved
 all men can be saved to the utmost

23. Wesley and the Methodists
Christian Perfection: Wesley’s Legacy
 For Wesley, Christian perfection, or entire
sanctification, is a possibility to all
believers.
 “Christian perfection … is achievable in this
present life because it has to do with the
affections. When, by the grace of God
infused into the soul through the Holy
Spirit, one’s love for God and others is
made pure and complete, their lifestyle
cannot help but increase in virtue, finding
expression in loving, selfless actions.
 Faith working outwardly through love was
one of Wesley’s favorite biblical themes
(Gal. 5:6).”

24. Wesley and the Methodists
 Christian perfection is not a ladder going
upwards, but a line going forward.
 This perfection is “perfecting perfection”
and not “perfected perfection.”
 There is always room for further growth.
 At the same time, the root of sin still
remains.
 Claiming perfection is a sign that one is
not perfect.

25. Wesley and the Methodists
 Even those who have experienced
Christian perfection can, and do still grow
in grace—dynamic not static.
 Christian perfection is maturity of
character—increasing love for God and
neighbor.
 The reformers, such as Luther and Calvin,
saw perfection as absolute performance.
 However, Wesley did see Christian
perfection as a state and a process.

26. Moravians
Nicholas von Zinzendorf – 1700-1760
 Called by a contemporary “the Prophet of the
Age.”
 Few people probably expressed better the
spiritual longings of his time; the shift in
emphasis from the mind to the heart and
from orthodoxy to love.
 Raised by very learned and pious
grandmother. “I had the happiness of
knowing the Savior by experience from my
youngest years”

27. Moravians
 I have carried a friendship with [Jesus] quite
in a childlike way, sometimes talking with
him for whole hours, as we talk with a friend
. . . . I have enjoyed this close personal
intercourse with Jesus for fifty years and I
feel the happiness of it more and more every
day I live.”
 Later when doubts assailed him, he reported,
“My heart clung to Jesus.”
 In 1721 he became one of the king’s
councilors at the court of Saxony at Dresden.

28. Moravians
Theology
 Herzensreligion - religion of the heart –
grounded on the personal experience of
fellowship with the Lamb.
 The Lamb – “in the necessity of the death of
Jesus and in the word ‘ransom’ there was a
special secret and a great depth that gave one
an insight into the whole teaching of
salvation.”
 Sacrifice of Jesus became the Moravians
central theological theme.

29. Moravians
 Invisible Church – taught a very
characteristic ecumenical ecclesiology because
he believed that when hearts are struck by the
reality of the love of the lamb, there begins a
universal religion, free from any theological
debate
 Visible Church – made up of many different
groups which are willed by God. Basically there
are as many religions as there are people.
 There are as many tropus, schools of wisdom,
each with its own jewels of truth, ritual or
order.

30. Moravians
 Zinzendorf looked at his Moravians not
as founders of a different denomination,
but as servant-movement, a pilgrim
congregation, willing to move where
needed, to go from home to home and
hold meetings for prayer.
 In 1741 Zinzendorf went to Pennsylvania
where no established religion existed to
help in the birth of a true congregation of
the Spirit.
 He envisioned free intercommunion and
exchange of ministers.

31. Moravians
Christian Fellowship
 Emphasized an intense sense of fellowship.
“I acknowledge no Christianity without
fellowship”
 Social classes were forgotten at Herrnhut.
 Fellowship is born spontaneously when
Christ dwells in people.
 Fellowship was fostered by the mutual
washing of feet before communion and
the kiss of peace.
 Moravians also possessed a strong
commitment to missions.