17th and 18th-century German movement in the Lutheran Church stressing personal piety and devotion
exaggerated or affected piety and religious zeal
A renewal movement within European Protestantism in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Pietists emphasized religious experience, personal commitment, and an intentionally Christian way of living at a time when Protestant Orthodoxy was defined by assent to correct doctrine and participation in the institutions and rituals of the Church.
A movement in the Lutheran Church in Germany during the latter 17th century, advocating a revival of the devotional ideal
The seventeenth-century reaction within Lutheranism against what it considered the cold, abstract, argumentative nature of Lutheran orthodoxy. Pietism stressed "the religion of the heart," an experiential, warm, affectional, and often sentimental, view of the Faith. Pietism later spread to the Reformed churches and it was a hallmark of Wesleyanism. Though the early pietists were not against orthodoxy as such, their sentimental and man-centered view of Christianity laid the groundwork for nineteenth-century Protestant liberalism. More generally, pietism today refers to a sentimental, privatized Christianity, which sees the Faith almost exclusively in terms of an individualized, emotional experience. Pietism denies the claims of the Word of God on all areas of life and society.
A mystical group formed under the influence of Spener, later developed by Count von Zinzendorf and the Moravians, emphasizing the Christian life in its inner experiential dimension. The subjective predominates over the objective or the institutional.
the name for the Protestant revival that began in Germany; it stressed enthusiasm, the priesthood of all believers, and the practical power of Christian rebirth in everyday affairs. (p. 681)
a movement that began among German Lutherans in the late 17th century as a reaction to a perceived spiritual deadness in the state church. Pietism tends to emphasize sanctification rather than justification, deeds rather than creeds, and subjective, human, religious experience rather than the objective truths of God's Word.
Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late-17th century to the mid-18th century. It proved to be very influential throughout Protestantism and Anabaptism, inspiring not only Anglican priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist movement, but also Alexander Mack to begin the Brethren movement. The Pietist movement combined the Lutheran emphasis on Biblical doctrine with the Reformed, and especially Puritan, emphasis on individual piety, and a vigorous Christian life.