The Impact of Pietism on Culture and Society in Germany

chapter 10 The Impact of Pietism on Culture and Society in Germany

Martin H. Jung

A hundred years ago, a German Protestant theologian, Horst Stephan, called Pietism a ‘motor of change in religion, culture and the general history of ideas’.1 In modern culture and theology Pietism is, however, still considered to be con- servative. The tradition goes back to Albrecht Ritschl, the famous Protestant scholar of the nineteenth century who wrote a three-volume history of the movement, and who regarded Pietism as a restoration of Catholic elements in Protestantism.2 Emphasizing the mystical and Quietist tendencies, and the desire for sanctification, Ritschl saw no positive impact of Pietism on culture and society. Influenced by liberal theology, Ritschl wanted Protestantism to be a progressive cultural force, and he was, therefore, rather critical towards the historical role of Pietism. In the twentieth century, similar viewpoints have been put forward by, for instance, Hartmut Lehmann. In his first major book on the theme, published in 1969, this well-known German specialist on the topic regarded southwestern German Pietism, in particular, as mainly conser- vative, being Quietist and inert.3 Many more names could be listed, and many pages could be filled with clichés about Pietism. It is of course true, that Pietism did not start with the goal of changing culture, politics, and academic work. It was a religious current or movement that was initiated to change piety, much more than theology, or culture, or society. In his famous book Pia desideria from 1675, the founder and first great propo- nent of the Pietist movement in Germany, the Lutheran minister Philip Jacob Spener (1635–1705), expressed – and demanded – a ‘heartfelt desire for a God- pleasing Reform of the true Evangelical Church, together with several simple Christian proposals looking toward this end’.4 Spener’s goal was to attain a lively faith, able to strengthen the spiritual life of the Christian people so miraculously that they would become an entirely different people. His starting point was to appeal to his fellow clergymen that ‘thought should be given to a

1 Stephan 1908. 2 Ritschl 1880–1886. 3 Lehmann 1969. 4 Spener 1964, p. 29.

212 Jung more extensive use of the Word of God among us’.5 To achieve this goal he had several practical proposals: to promote ‘diligent reading of the Holy Scriptures’, ‘to encourage people to read privately’, ‘to reintroduce the ancient and apos- tolic kind of church meetings’.6 Thus Pietism set out to change forms and con- tent of Christian piety – and so it did. However, it came to change theology, too, as well as to have great impact on culture and society. What was Horst Stephan thinking of in 1908 when characterising Pietism as a ‘motor of change’? According to Stephan, Pietism had stimulated the evolu- tion within church, theology, and culture in a twofold way, on the one hand by destroying things that had become too old and outmoded, and, on the other hand, by laying strong and sound foundations for new developments. In the field of theology, Stephan pointed to a number of phenomena brought about by the Pietist movement: a better understanding of Martin Luther, a knowl- edge of religious cognition as being established by experience, a refusal of Aristotle’s philosophy as fundamental to theology, a new awareness of the strong position of the Bible, a concentration on Jesus Christ, and finally, an attention on faith as a lively belief. Within the field of church or ecclesiastical affairs, Stephan underlined the very many characteristics of the Pietist movement that point in a direction away from traditional Lutheran churches in Germany, dominated by a strong alliance between state and church authori- ties, in which the Christian people did not have very much influence. Topics pointed out by Stephan here include Presbyterian and synodal church struc- tures, religious associations, separation of state and church, strengthening religious education in church and school, strengthening ethical and practical viewpoints in church life, the priesthood of all believers, the abolition of pri- vate confession, the preference of the Bible to the confessions of the church, the community idea, the opening towards other, and even strange forms of spirituality. While for Stephan things are clear in the fields of theology and church, it is more complicated in regard to culture. In a cultural respect, Stephan says, the Pietist movement only had dispositions and starting points, but was unable to produce something new with its own forces. Therefore it needed to go into connection with other cultural movements, especially with the moderate Enlightenment. Together, Pietism and Enlightenment achieved important results, first and foremost the establishment of freedom of conscience, the rise of lay institutions in the church, and the development of a new theology.

5 Ibid., p. 87. 6 Ibid., pp. 88–89.