The time has come for Pietism to revitalize Christianity in America. Historian Christopher Gehrz and pastor Mark Pattie argue that the spirit of Pietism, with its emphasis on our walk with Jesus and its vibrant hope for a better future, holds great promise for the church today. Modeled after Philipp Spener's Pia Desideria, this concise and winsome volume introduces Pietism to a new generation.
Pietism is a reform movement originating among German Lutherans in the 17th century. It focused on personal faith, reacting against Lutheran Church's emphasis on doctrine and theology over Christian living. The movement quickly expanded, exerting anenormous influence on various forms of Christianity, and became concerned with social and educational matters. Indeed, Piestists showed a strong interest in issues of social and ecclesial reform, the nature of history and historical inquiry, the shape and purpose of theology and theological education, the missional task of the church, and social justice and political engagement. Though, the movement remained largely misunderstood, especially in Anglo-American contexts: negative stereotypes depicted Pietism as a quietist and sectarian form of religion, merely concerned with the 'pious soul and its God'. The main proposal of the editors of this volume is to correct this misunderstanding: assembling a deep collection of essays written by scholars from a variety of fields, this work demonstrates that Piestism was a movement characterized by great depth and originality. Besides, they show the vitality and impulse of Pietism today and emphasize the ongoing relevance of the movement for contemporary problems and questions.
An up-to-date portrait of a defining moment in the Christian story—its beginnings, worldview, and cultural significance. Winner of the Dale W. Brown Book Award of the Young Center for Anabaptists and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College An Introduction to German Pietism provides a scholarly investigation of a movement that changed the history of Protestantism. The Pietists can be credited with inspiring both Evangelicalism and modern individualism. Taking into account new discoveries in the field, Douglas H. Shantz focuses on features of Pietism that made it religiously and culturally significant. He discusses the social and religious roots of Pietism in earlier German Radicalism and situates Pietist beginnings in three cities: Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Halle. Shantz also examines the cultural worlds of the Pietists, including Pietism and gender, Pietists as readers and translators of the Bible, and Pietists as missionaries to the far reaches of the world. He not only considers Pietism's role in shaping modern western religion and culture but also reflects on the relevance of the Pietist religious paradigm of today. The first survey of German Pietism in English in forty years, An Introduction to German Pietism provides a narrative interpretation of the movement as a whole. The book's accessible tone and concise portrayal of an extensive and complex subject make it ideal for courses on early modern Christianity and German history. The book includes appendices with translations of German primary sources and discussion questions.
In 1968, the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) churches merged to form The United Methodist Church. More than forty years later, many United Methodists know very little about the history, doctrine, and polity of the EUB. To be sure, there are vestiges of the EUB, most notably the Confession of Faith, in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, but there is much more to be profitably explored. For example, the EUB represents a strand of German Pietism that developed an emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church that, with the exception of Wesley, Fletcher and the early Methodists, was unparalleled in the history of Protestantism. This book makes accessible to clergy and laity alike the considerable riches of the EUB tradition with a view toward the renewal of United Methodism today.
Winner, 2011 Dale Brown Book Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College Holmes County, Ohio, is home to the largest and most diverse Amish community in the world. Yet, surprisingly, it remains relatively unknown compared to its famous cousin in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Charles E. Hurst and David L. McConnell conducted seven years of fieldwork, including interviews with over 200 residents, to understand the dynamism that drives social change and schism within the settlement, where Amish enterprises and nonfarming employment have prospered. The authors contend that the Holmes County Amish are experiencing an unprecedented and complex process of change as their increasing entanglement with the non-Amish market causes them to rethink their religious convictions, family practices, educational choices, occupational shifts, and health care options. The authors challenge the popular image of the Amish as a homogeneous, static, insulated society, showing how the Amish balance tensions between individual needs and community values. They find that self-made millionaires work alongside struggling dairy farmers; successful female entrepreneurs live next door to stay-at-home mothers; and teenagers both embrace and reject the coming-of-age ritual, rumspringa. An Amish Paradox captures the complexity and creativity of the Holmes County Amish, dispelling the image of the Amish as a vestige of a bygone era and showing how they reinterpret tradition as modernity encroaches on their distinct way of life.
Pietism, with is origins in late 16th- and early 17th-century German Lutheranism, emphasized conversion, union with Christ, and importance of Scripture. This volume is the most comprehensive collection of Pietist writings available in English.
One of the longest-lived communal societies in North America, the Hutterites have developed multifaceted communitarian perspectives on everything from conflict resolution and decision-making practices to standards of living and care for the elderly. This compellingly written book offers a glimpse into the complex and varied lives of the nearly 500 North American Hutterite communities. North American Hutterites today number around 50,000 and have common roots with and beliefs akin to the Amish and other Old Order Christians. This historical analysis and anthropological investigation draws on existing research, primary sources, and over 25 years of the authors' interaction with Hutterite communities to recount the group's physical and spiritual journey from its 16th-century founding in Eastern Europe and its near disappearance in Transylvania in the 1760s to its late 19th-century transplantation to North America and into the modern era. It explains how the Hutterites found creative ways to manage social and economic changes over more than five centuries while holding to the principles and cultural values embedded in their faith. Religious scholars, anthropologists, and historians of America and the Anabaptist faiths will find this objective-yet-appreciative account of the Hutterites' distinct North American culture to be a valuable and fascinating study both of the religion and of a viable alternative to modern-day capitalism.
Søren Kierkegaard wrote that Pietism is 'the one and only consequence of Christianity', yet his relation to Pietism has been largely neglected in the secondary literature. Kierkegaard, Pietism and Holiness fills this scholarly gap and, in doing so, provides the first full-length study of Kierkegaard's relation to the Pietist movement. First accounting for Pietism's role in Kierkegaard's social, ecclesial, and intellectual background, Barnett goes on to demonstrate Pietism's impact on Kierkegaard's published authorship, principally regarding the relationship between Christian holiness and secular culture.
Weaver-Zercher blends academic analysis with her own experiences of researching, reading, and talking with others about Amish fiction in order to explore the phenomenon, with particular attention to the hypermodernity and hypersexuality that are fueling the appeal of the genre for evangelical Christian readers.
