Radical Pietism are those Christian churches who decided to break with denominational Lutheranism in order to emphasize certain teachings regarding holy living. Radical Pietists contrast with Church Pietists, who chose to remain within their Lutheran denominational settings. Radical Pietists distinguish between true and false Christianity and hold that the latter is represented by established churches. They separated from established churches to form their own Christian denominations.[1]
Radical Pietism emphasizes the need for a "religion of the heart" instead of the head, and is characterized by ethical purity, inward devotion, charity, and asceticism. Leadership emphasized the sanctification of adherents instead of sacramentalism. The Pietistic movement developed in Germany, led by those who believed a deeper emotional experience was incompatible with what they saw as a preset adherence to form, no matter how genuine. They stressed a personal experience of salvation and a continuous openness to new spiritual illumination.[2]
Unlike Pietistic Lutherans, Radical Pietists believe in separation from the established Lutheran Churches.[8][9] They believe that Christians can live through direct empowerment of the Holy Ghost rather than relying on a complex hierarchy.[10] Churches in the tradition of Radical Pietism teach the necessity of the New Birth, in which one has a personal conversion experience to Christ.[2] Radical Pietists emphasize the importance of holy living and thus frequently practice fasting and prayer.[11] They also believe in non-resistance and thus "forbid Christians to shed blood."[12]
With regard to baptism, many Radical Pietists, such as the Schwarzenau Brethren, hold to the teaching of trine (triple) baptism: "that the original and apostolic form of baptism was to immerse the candidate forward into the water three times (once in the name of the Father, once in the name of the Son, and once in the name of the Spirit)."[13] Radical Pietists, such as the Schwarzenau Brethren and the River Brethren, also practice the lovefeast, which includes footwashing and the holy kiss, as well as closed communion.[13] The Radical Pietistic communities do not believe in the swearing of oaths. They resolve problems in the community at the congregational level under church councils presided by elders, rather than in civil courts.[13] Members who sin openly are visited by the elders and encouraged to repent of their transgressions.[13]
Converge, formerly known as the Baptist General Conference, emerged as a result of Radical Pietism spreading in Sweden.[3] The denomination emerged among Radical Pietists who separated from state churches and emphasizes the doctrines of "believer's baptism, a believer's church, free access to read and study Scripture, the importance of prayer and other spiritual disciplines, and a lifestyle that exhibited separation from sin."[14]
The Community of True Inspiration, today based in the Amana Colonies, are known for their reliance upon Werkzeuge who are men and women inspired by the Holy Spirit.[18] The Inspirationists' temporal affairs continue to prosper due to their "balanced combination of agriculture, tourism, and the manufacture of Amana refrigerators."[18] Adherents belonging to the Community of True Inspiration practice their Radical Pietistic faith relatively unchanged for hundreds of years.[19]
International Federation of Free Evangelical Churches
The Old Order River Brethren are an Anabaptist group in the Radical Pietistic tradition who are distinguished by their practice of plain dress and abstaining from what they see as worldly entertainment, such as the television set.[24] The Old Order River Brethren separated from other streams of the River Brethren (the Brethren in Christ and the United Zion Church) to herald the doctrines of nonresistance and nonconformity to the world; it is the most conservative in the River Brethren tradition.[25] The River Brethren hold experience meetings, in which "members [are seen] testifying of God's work in their lives in bringing them to salvation and daily living."[25] When a member has a conversion experience, he or she begins taking part in the experience meeting and then requests baptism.[25]
United Zion Church
The United Zion Church is a Radical Pietist denomination in the Anabaptist, specifically River Brethren, tradition.[25] It separated from the mainstem of the River Brethren due to its allowance of meetinghouses, rather than worshipping in homes.[26][25]
A common trait among some radical Pietists is that they formed communities where they sought to revive the original Christian living of the Acts of the Apostles. Other Radical Pietists "preferred a largely solitary life of prayer, living in modest cottages or even more primitive dwellings in the hills outside of the town."[13]
Jean de Labadie (1610–1674) founded a communitarian group in Europe which was known, after its founder, as the Labadists. Johannes Kelpius (1673–1708) led a communitarian group who came to America from Germany in 1694. Conrad Beissel (1691–1768), founder of another early pietistic communitarian group, the Ephrata Cloister, was also particularly affected by Radical Pietism's emphasis on personal experience and separation from false Christianity. The Harmony Society (1785–1906), founded by George Rapp, was another German-American religious group influenced by Radical Pietism. Other groups include the Zoarite Separatists (1817–1898), and the Amana Colonies (1855-today).
In Sweden, a group of radical pietists formed a community, the "Skevikare", on an island outside of Stockholm, where they lived much like the Ephrata people, for nearly a century.[33]Eric Jansson was another Swedish Radical Pietist who formed a separatist community, the utopian Bishop Hill Colony, after emigrating to Illinois.[34]
Radical Pietism's role in the emergence of modern religious communities has only begun to be adequately assessed, according to Hans Schneider, professor of church history at the University of Marburg, Germany.[35] However, this statement refers to the early era of Radical Pietism up to around 1715 while meanwhile the later era has been covered by numerous studies.
Endtime expectations, breakdown of social barriers
Two other common traits of radical Pietism were their strong endtime expectations, and their breakdown of social barriers. They were very influenced by prophecies gathered and published by John Amos Comenius and Gottfried Arnold. Events like comets and lunar eclipses were seen as signs of threatening divine judgements. In Pennsylvania, Johannes Kelpius even installed a telescope on the roof of his house, where he and his followers kept watch for heavenly signs proclaiming the return of Christ.
As for the social barriers, in Germany and Sweden the familiar pronounthou (du) was commonly used among the radical Pietists. They also strongly abandoned class designation and academic degrees. Some of the barriers between men and women were also broken down. Many[quantify] radical pietistic women became well known as writers and prophets, as well as leaders of Philadelphian communities.[36]
Karl Barth, who initially supported pietism, later critiqued radical pietism as creating a move towards unorthodoxy.[40]John Milbank, speaking from the perspective of radical orthodoxy sees his critiques as misguided, overlooking how they were able to critique modern philosophy from a theological perspective by questioning the legitimacy of philosophy as "autonomous reason", ultimately leading to the demise of Kantianism. This is then seen by Milbank as the impetus for the quick rise and failure of defenses of critical reason by Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. All this is seen as culminating in the especially radical pietism in Kierkegaard, especially in his critique of Hegel. Further, he sees the theological content of radical pietism as forcing post Kantian idealisms to remain somewhat theological and characterizing certain central elements of modern philosophy, including "the priority of existence over thought; the primacy of language; the 'ecstatic' character of time; the historicity of reason; the dialogical principle; the suspension of the ethical; and the ontological difference."[41]
^ abWoodbridge, John D.; III, Frank A. James (2013). Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context. Zondervan Academic. ISBN9780310515142.
^ abcdeShantz, Douglas H. (2013). An Introduction to German Pietism: Protestant Renewal at the Dawn of Modern Europe. JHU Press. ISBN9781421408804.
^ abRatliff, Walter R. (2010). Pilgrims on the Silk Road: A Muslim-Christian Encounter in Khiva. Walter Ratliff. ISBN9781606081334.
^ abcCarter, Craig A. (2007). Rethinking Christ and Culture: A Post-Christendom Perspective. Brazos Press. ISBN9781441201225.
^ abcMelton, J. Gordon; Baumann, Martin (2010). Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, 2nd Edition [6 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. ISBN9781598842043.
^Kuenning, Paul P. (1988). The Rise and Fall of American Lutheran Pietism: The Rejection of an Activist Heritage. Mercer University Press. ISBN9780865543065.
^Granquist, Mark Alan (2015). Lutherans in America: A New History. Augsburg Fortress Publishers. ISBN9781451472288.
^Cartwright, Michael G. (2010). Exploring Christian Mission Beyond Christendom: United Methodist Perspectives. University Press. p. 19. ISBN9781880938744.
^Carlson, William G.; Gehrz, Christopher; Winn, Christian T. Collins; Holst, Eric; Collins, Gehrz; Christopher, Carlson; William, G. (2012). The Pietist Impulse in Christianity. Casemate Publishers. ISBN9780227680001.
^ abcToews, John B. (1993). A Pilgrimage of Faith: The Mennonite Brethren Church in Russia and North America, 1860-1990. Kindred Productions. pp. 83–85. ISBN9780921788171.
^Lewis, James R. (2002). The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions. Prometheus Books. p. 151. ISBN9781615927388.
^Melton, J. Gordon (1978). The Encyclopedia of American Religions. McGrath Publishing Company. p. 236.
^Cates, James A. (2014). Serving the Amish: A Cultural Guide for Professionals. JHU Press. ISBN9781421414959.
^ abcdeBronner, Simon J. (2015). Encyclopedia of American Folklife. Routledge. ISBN9781317471950.
^Kurian, George Thomas; Day, Sarah Claudine (2017). The Essential Handbook of Denominations and Ministries. Baker Books. ISBN9781493406401.
^Bowman, Carl F. (1995). Brethren Society: The Cultural Transformation of a "Peculiar People". JHU Press. ISBN9780801849053.
^Bronner, Simon J. (4 March 2015). Encyclopedia of American Folklife. Routledge. ISBN978-1-317-47194-3. Only a tiny minority within the Church of the Brethren continues some vestigates of plain dress, such as the prayer covering for women. The Old German Baptist Brethren and the Dunkard Brethren, however, have maintained standards of traditional plain dress.
^Stutzman, Paul Fike (2011). Recovering the Love Feast: Broadening Our Eucharistic Celebrations. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN9781608994564.
^ abcRatliff, Walter R. (2010). Pilgrims on the Silk Road: A Muslim-Christian Encounter in Khiva. Walter Ratliff. pp. 75–76. ISBN9781606081334.
^Pappé, Ilan (2015). Israel and South Africa: The Many Faces of Apartheid. Zed Books Ltd. ISBN9781783605927.
^Concordia Theological Monthly, Volume 39. 1968. p. 257.
^"Evangelicalism itself, I believe, is quintessentially North American phenomenon, deriving as it did from the confluence of Pietism, Presbyterianism, and the vestiges of Puritanism. Evangelicalism picked up the peculiar characteristics from each strain – warmhearted spirituality from the Pietists (for instance), doctrinal precisionism from the Presbyterians, and individualistic introspection from the Puritans – even as the North American context itself has profoundly shaped the various manifestations of evangelicalism: fundamentalism, neo-evangelicalism, the holiness movement, Pentecostalism, the charismatic movement, and various forms of African-American and Hispanic evangelicalism." Randall Balmer (2002). The Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. vii–viii.
^[1], published in Karl Barth & the Pietists: The Young Karl Barth's Critique of Pietism & Its Response, page 24-25.
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Ulf-Michael Schneider: Propheten der Goethezeit. Sprache, Literatur und Wirkung der Inspirierten (Palaestra 297). Göttingen 1995.
Barbara Hoffmann: Radikalpietismus um 1700. Der Streit um das Recht auf eine neue Gesellschaft. Frankfurt am Main 1996.
Andreas Deppermann: Johann Jakob Schütz und die Anfänge des Pietismus. Tübingen 2002.
Willi Temme: Krise der Leiblichkeit. Die Sozietät der Mutter Eva (Buttlarsche Rotte) und der radikale Pietismus um 1700 (Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Pietismus 35). Göttingen 1998.
Johannes Burkardt/Michael Knieriem: Die Gesellschaft der Kindheit-Jesu-Genossen auf Schloss Hayn. Aus dem Nachlass des von Fleischbein und Korrespondenzen von de Marsay, Prueschenk von Lindenhofen und Tersteegen 1734 bis 1742. Hannover 2002.
Eberhard Fritz: Radikaler Pietismus in Württemberg. Religiöse Ideale im Konflikt mit gesellschaftlichen Realitäten (Quellen und Forschungen zur württembergischen Kirchengeschichte 18). Epfendorf 2003.
Eberhard Fritz: Separatistinnen und Separatisten in Württemberg und in angrenzenden Territorien. Ein biographisches Verzeichnis (Südwestdeutsche Quellen zur Familienforschung Band 3). Stuttgart 2005.
Hans Schneider: Radical German Pietism. Translated by Gerald MacDonald. Lanham, MD 2007.
Douglas H. Shantz: Between Sardis and Philadelphia: the Life and World of Pietist Court Preacher Conrad Bröske. Leiden 2008.