Rise Of Evangelical Pietism

Preliminary Material /F. Ernest Stoeffler -- Introduction /F. Ernest Stoeffler -- Pietism among the English Puritans /F. Ernest Stoeffler -- The Origin of Reformed Pietism on the European Continent /F. Ernest Stoeffler -- The Advent of Lutheran Pietism /F. Ernest Stoeffler -- Selective Bibliography /F. Ernest Stoeffler -- Index /F. Ernest Stoeffler.

The historical movement known as Pietism emphasized the response of faith and inward transformation as crucial aspects of conversion to Christ. Unfortunately, Pietism today is often equated with a “holier-than-thou” spiritual attitude, religious legalism, or withdrawal from involvement in society. In this book Roger Olson and Christian Collins Winn argue that classical, historical Pietism is an influential stream in evangelical Christianity and that it must be recovered as a resource for evangelical renewal. They challenge misconceptions of Pietism by describing the origins, development, and main themes of the historical movement and the spiritual-theological ethos stemming from it. The book also explores Pietism’s influence on contemporary Christian theologians and spiritual leaders such as Richard Foster and Stanley Grenz. Watch a 2015 interview with the authors of this book here:

This collection explores different approaches to contextualizing and conceptualizing the history of Pietism, particularly Pietistic groups who migrated from central Europe to the British colonies in North America during the long eighteenth century. Emerging in German speaking lands during the seventeenth century, Pietism was closely related to Puritanism, sharing similar evangelical and heterogeneous characteristics. Dissatisfied with the established Lutheran and Reformed Churches, Pietists sought to revivify Christianity through godly living, biblical devotion, millennialism and the establishment of new forms of religious association. As Pietism represents a diverse set of impulses rather than a centrally organized movement, there were inevitably fundamental differences amongst Pietist groups, and these differences - and conflicts - were carried with those that emigrated to the New World. The importance of Pietism in shaping Protestant society and culture in Europe and North America has long been recognized, but as a topic of scholarly inquiry, it has until now received little interdisciplinary attention. Offering essays by leading scholars from a range of fields, this volume provides an interdisciplinary overview of the subject. Beginning with discussions about the definition of Pietism, the collection next looks at the social, political and cultural dimensions of Pietism in German-speaking Europe. This is then followed by a section investigating the attempts by German Pietists to establish new, religiously-based communities in North America. The collection concludes with discussions on new directions in Pietist research. Together these essays help situate Pietism in the broader Atlantic context, making an important contribution to understanding religious life in Europe and colonial North America during the eighteenth century.

American has been shaped from a variety of rich traditions, many of which continue to influence her life and institutions. With this pluralistic emphasis in mind, F. Ernest Stoeffler has brought together these essays on Pietism, each written by a scholar with professional interest in the area treated. Without denying the importance of the Puritan heritage on early America, Stoeffler hopes to show that Pietism too made a crucial contribution to American religious life. Contrary to some twentieth-century misconceptions, Pietism was activistic, political, social, and educational in orientation. It penetrated mainline denominations like the Lutheran, Reformed, and Mennonite churches. It played an important role in the Brethren and Methodist traditions and in the formation of the Moravian Church. And radical Pietism flourished in a variety of Christian communist communities, like the one at Ephrata. Pietism contributed to religious practice by promoting evangelism, social action on behalf of the poor, and experiential base for religion, a biblical foundation for theology and ethics, the development of Protestant hymnody, ecumenical understanding, and democracy. This study is an important first step toward filling a serious gap in understanding America's religious history.

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.

Mark Noll has written a major indictment of American evangelicalism. Reading this book, one wonders if the evangelical movement has pandered so much to American culture and tried to be so popular only to lose not only it's mind but it's soul as well. For evangelical pastors and parishoners alike, this is a must read! --Robert Wuthnow.

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.