The Rise And Fall Of American Lutheran Pietism

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:

A foremost historian of religion chronicles the arrival of Christianity in the New World, tracing the turning points in the development of the immigrant church which have led to today's distinctly American faith.

From intellectual inquiry to spiritual practice to social reform, Pietism has exerted an enormous influence on various forms of Christianity and on Western culture more generally. However, this contribution remains largely unacknowledged or misunderstood in Anglo-American contexts because negative stereotypes--some undeserved, others deserved--tend to cast Pietism as a quietistic and sectarian form of religion interested in a narrow set of individualistic and spiritual concerns. In this volume, scholars from a variety of disciplines offer a corrective to this misunderstanding, highlighting the profound theological, cultural, and spiritual contribution of Pietism and what they term the "pietist impulse." The essays in this volume demonstrate that Pietism was a movement of great depth and originality that was not merely concerned with the "pious soul and its God." Rather, Pietists were from the beginning concerned with 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. In addition, the essays collected here fruitfully raise the question of the ongoing relevance of Pietism and the "pietist impulse" for contemporary problems and questions across disciplines and in the church at large.

Pietism can be understood either as a specific German theological tradition emanating from late seventeenth-century reformers as Spener and Francke or as a wider range of practical piety characterising early modern movements as Protestant Puritanism and Methodism as well as Catholic Jansenism. Trying an inclusive definition, an international network programme was set up, resulting in a first conference in the Netherlands in 2004, which addressed the question whether Pietism was to be seen as a consequence of or a reaction to confessionalisation in the Reformation era. A similar approach was chosen for a second conference, held in the Swedish university town of Umeå on November 17-18, 2005. Should Pietism be perceived as a promoter of or a reaction against modernity? Are revivals and awakenings to be seen as inherent components of Pietism? Or should they rather be viewed as new sociological phenomena integrated into Pietism on a later stage? Which components of pious theology and practice were applied and what function did they serve in clerical and civil discourse? Either way, how do revivals relate to Pietism, and how do they relate to Enlightenment? This volume presents the proceedings of an inspiring conference, taking a further step in the ‘globalisation’ of Pietism studies, as is demonstrated here in particular by the power of research in the Nordic area. Above all, this collection of papers helps to understand Pietism and revivalism as attempts to resist the breakthrough of secularizing tendencies in the modern world. While doing so, they themselves at the same time were modern in building up a counteroffensive of rechristianization, using all contemporary means of communication and organization in the public sphere, adapting their own traditions to new political and cultural contexts, and creating constructions of the religious past.

The book investigates processes and strategies of remembering the so-called Georgia Salzburger exiles, German-speaking immigrants in the 18th century British colony of Georgia. The longitudinal study explores the construction of Georgia Salzburger memory in what is today Austria, Germany and the United States from the 18th to the 21st century. The focus is set on processes of memoria throughout three centuries at the intersections between the creation of German-American, Lutheran, U.S.-American and `Southern' identity, memories of migration, nativism and Whiteness. Christine Marie Koch is a scholar of American studies and transatlantic history. Her research focuses on memory studies, Whiteness, and interdisciplinary approaches.

In The Lost Soul of American Protestantism, D. G. Hart examines the historical origins of the idea that faith must be socially useful in order to be valuable. Through specific episodes in Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Reformed history, Hart presents a neglected form of Protestantism—confessionalism—as an alternative to prevailing religious theory. He explains that, unlike evangelical and mainline Protestants who emphasize faith's role in solving social and personal problems, confessional Protestants locate Christianity's significance in the creeds, ministry, and rituals of the church. Although critics have accused confessionalism of encouraging social apathy, Hart deftly argues that this form of Protestantism has much to contribute to current discussions on the role of religion in American public life, since confessionalism refuses to confuse the well-being of the nation with that of the church. The history of confessional Protestantism suggests that contrary to the legacy of revivalism, faith may be most vital and influential when less directly relevant to everyday problems, whether personal or social. Clear and engaging, D. G. Hart's groundbreaking study is essential reading for everyone exploring the intersection of religion and daily life.