Reception of the Doctrine of Justification among German Lutheran Pietists
By Eric Swensson
Introduction
This paper investigates how German Lutheran Pietists received Martin Luther's teaching on justification and why they believed the reformation of a doctrine should lead to the reformation of life. It examines Johann Arndt's True Christianity, Philipp Jakob Spener's Pia Desideria, and two brief works of August Hermann Francke, Scriptural and Basic Introduction to True Christianity and On Christian Perfection, all of which are representative of their understanding of justification and were widely used by the churchly Pietists. The term 'reception' in the title alludes to the thesis and also to the methodology of the paper. The thesis is that the keen interest of the Pietists in the work of the Holy Spirit in Luther and in the ordo salutis in the Confessions resulted in an understanding that just as a correct understanding of justification was vital to the Reformation of the Church, a correct understanding of how rebirth was related to justification was of vital interst to the Church becasue the Reformation was incomplete until it led to the reformation of life in its members. The incredible missinal growth that Lutherans experienced under the leadership of Spener and Francke was a direct result of this emphasis on reformed lives through rebirth.
Lutheran Pietists warned against opus operatum, so while they practiced infant baptism and believed in baptismal regeneration, they thought virtually all adults would have lost this through rebellion, therefore they needed conversion and regeneration. Based on Martin Luther's Preface to Romans, the Pietists taught that through 'true faith,' the Holy Spirit effects change in us; hence, our eternal security is in being 'reborn from God.' The implementation of Pietist emphases gave birth to a movement; hence, the appropriate methodology is to give investigation of praxis priority over theology. Therefore, attention is given to what they did. An examination of the Pietist critique of the Lutheranism of their day, urging a more biblical faith, rejecting opus operatum, and the necessity of being born again, raises questions today concerning possible applications for their theology, especially their pneumatology.
Could it be that one of the reasons the Evangelical Lutheran Church is in decline in the West is that it preaches the need for grace but fails to proclaim that the Holy Spirit gives power to transform? Essentially, we are asking if there was something distinctive and valid in Lutheran Pietism about the relationship between a justifying faith and the works that the Spirit accomplishes in the lives of the believer, and was this, as they believed, a completion of the reformation understood to have been commenced by Martin Luther.
This paper proceeds in three phases. First, it examines the faith that inspired the reform and eventual renewal of a church enabling it to aid revivals when they broke out in an unexpected manner. It does so by tracing the development of the Pietist emphases from Arndt, to Spener, to Francke, a theological study of their writings, that is, what they said, and, a historical look at what happened under their influence, what they did. The main body of the second section on practice is devoted to two case studies, the University of Halle under Francke, and the Silesian Revival and how it was aided by the Halle Pietists. The third section is devoted to an analysis of the research from a contemporary Lutheran perspective in the categories of regeneration, Spirit and Word, Faith and Works, Eschatology and Ecclesiology and Trinitarian Theology.
The practice of Pietism is experiential, idealistic, biblical, and oppositional. Churchly Pietism practiced what it preached, for example, it taught a good deal about prayer, centered its praxis in devotional groups, collegia pietatis, taught about and prayed in the "hope for better days," but they also worked to help bring it in. Pietism emphasized the role of prayer for an experiential relationship with God, and its spread can be traced as a movement of prayer. Besides the streams in Holy Scripture, Pietists drank from many "mystical" brooks, including Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed spiritual authors. Spener-Francke Pietism was an ecumenical movement which led to the creation or strengthening of organizations which still exist. Pietism was always in tension with the establishment yet creating bridges between like-minded believers in different traditions under different rulers whether they be princes or bishops. As piety is itself an emphasis on the participation of the person's whole life with the life of God, Pietism is a participation of the lives of all like-minded believers across denominations and communions. Each pietist collegium was a communion in the Holy Spirit and among the participants. Pietism and related movements such as revivalism were and always will be, controversial. Holding Scripture above both Luther and the Confessions, with the understanding that is what all the theologians involved taught themselves, but the Confessions, and even Blessed Martin, had in practice become almost idolatrous for Lutheran Orthodoxy, Pietism accomplished reform of Church, government, education, and culture, and facilitated the creation of new forms, i.e., ecclesiolae in ecclesia, and new institutions, especially schools, hospitals and homes for widows and orphans, and important missionary organizations. For example, August Hermann Francke (1663-1727) corresponded with about 5,000 people, and he kept in constant contact with between 300 and 400 ecclesiastical leaders.
Though Pietism was the most significant movement within the Church since the time of the Reformation, and it has had a lasting influence on Lutheranism, continues to influence Lutheran churches throughout the world, as well as the entire evangelical movement, it is misunderstood and underappreciated in the United States. Jonathan Edwards saw God's hand at work in a world wide revival, "Most especially in Germany, through the endeavours of an eminent divine there, Augustus Hermann Frank, professor of divinity at Halle in Saxony," yet German Lutheran Pietism is an underappreciated model in Academy and Church. It must be admitted that it carries within itself the seeds of its chief distraction, moralism, as does its cousin Puritanism, indeed all holiness, charismatic and pentecostal movements, but this hardly accounts for the neglect of its theological insights. Since the implementation of Pietism's pneumatological emphases were so far reaching, this paper might ask, "In an age when liberation theologies are in favor, could Pietism be understood as a liberation movement? After all, it was born in a struggle and existed as such, and its detractors said it put practice above theology. Though it was embraced and nurtured by many members of the nobility, Pietism was essentially a freedom movement of the people, giving laity, women in particular, a voice they had not had, hence, it should be evaluated with a similar methodology as liberation theologies.
Not having space for a substantive review of the historical context, the principal point to be stated is that Pietism was a result of the intellectual battleground behind the writing of the Formula of Concord that came before a long and treacherous war which had religious conflict as one of its causes. Not only would mercenaries switch sides for better pay, sometimes Lutherans would ally with Catholic to fight Reformed, hence the total effect of the Thirty Years War's trauma besides having a profound devastation of family and institutions, was to create a landscape of moral bankruptcy. Johann Arndt, either best seen as Father of Pietism, or the founder of the Arndtian Piety Movement, wrote True Christianity as an appeal to the heart of a church whose clergy's efforts were aimed at the head. Spener built upon this, and Francke expanded on Spener's organizational genius. A glance at the ordo salutis is the place to first look for a clue how this movement spread.
Luther himself never gave an ordo as Arndt, Spener, and Franke did, but it needs to be understood that this is not a sign of deviation from his teaching, rather an offshoot of the same plant. The ordo salutis was common to both Orthodoxy and Pietism (as was the rebirth motif). The roots of ordo salutis lie in the seed bed of Aristotelian scholasticism entrenched in Lutheran orthodoxy. The ordo became typical of Lutheran systematic theology, which can be discerned as early as the Augsburg Confession, and seen in its evolved state in the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord. The following, from a list of the "errors of the Schwenckfelders," shows that these signatories in 1577 used the language of conversion, repentance, faith, and new obedience.
2. That the ministry of the church, the Word proclaimed and heard, is not a means whereby God the Holy Spirit teaches men the saving knowledge of Christ, conversion, repentance, and faith or works new obedience in them.
5. That a Christian who is truly born again through the Spirit of God is able to keep and fulfill the law of God perfectly in this life.[24]
Clearly, point 2 assumes that conversion, repentance, and new obedience are normative, within its major point which is to condemn any understanding that this happens outside the proclamation of the Word.
Once Orthodoxy established a system such as an order of salvation, the seed of Pietism was sown, as faith became a concept which could be intellectualized. Orthodoxy's emphasis on the objective and devaluation on the subjective created a false dichotomy. Faith came to mean an intellectual acceptance of doctrine, which became the objective of preaching. This led to the neglect of practical theology and moral edification, which combined with other factors such as compulsory attendance of Sunday services, led to the need for a fresh movement. This is the background of the three Pietist theologians listed in the methodology.
Johann Arndt
Johann Arndt (1555-1621) served as a Lutheran pastor, became a superintendent, had sermons published in a postil and wrote other devotional works, but he is known chiefly for the devotional True Christianity, which was received enthusiastically by many, as well as being condemned by a few Orthodox theologians. Its influence went beyond the Pietists, for whom it is seminal in its emphasis on the power of God to transform the believer in regeneration and the importance of regeneration in sanctification; therefore, True Christianity is a fitting place to begin this study.
True Christianity, begins with the story of our creation in the image of God. Arndt, like most Pietists, is repetitive, especially so for modern taste, therefore his emphasis on the centrality of the imago dei motif is easy to recognize. As humankind was created not only in but also with the image of God, the mind along with its will, understanding, and spirit were in conformity with the Holy Trinity and the divine qualities. The image of God gave Adam union with God, and when Adam rebelled, the image and union were lost, and his descendants' only hope for it to be regained is through rebirth. Being reborn is being justified and sanctified through faith by the Holy Spirit.
The new birth is a work of God the Holy Spirit, by which a man is made a child of grace and blessedness from a child of wrath and damnation, and from a sinner a righteous man through faith, word and sacrament by which our heart, thoughts, mind, understanding, will and affections are made holy, renewed, and enlightened as a new creature in and according to Jesus Christ. The new birth contains two chief aspects in itself: justification and sanctification.
Humanity needs salvation because Adam did not protect the image of God in humility and obedience, failing to be content with having the image he wanted to be the "highest good." Image and union are regained through a rebirth wrought through the Word. "The Word of God is the seed of new birth." Citing John, rebirth is through the "power and activity of the Holy Spirit, first through the Holy Spirit (Jn 3:4), secondly through faith, in the third place through holy baptism (Jn 3:5).
Out of Adam came the highest evil, unbelief, and rebellion, but out of the Second Adam, Christ, humanity can inherit the highest good through faith. In a Trinitarian understanding, Arndt kept the Incarnation in tension with the activity of the Holy Spirit, for example, that for the salvation of Adam's descendents to be possible, Christ had to become human and be "sanctified with the Holy Spirit beyond measure." The new birth gives new life in the Spirit, the reborn have the fruits of the Spirit, are empowered to be conformed to Christ by following Christ's example of humble suffering, their "example, mirror and rule of life." This new life is 'true Christianity,' which subsists in denying self, breaking self will, resignation (surrender), rejecting worldly glory, considering human wisdom and power as nothing, practicing "inner repentance and mortification of the faith are the true cross that we are daily to bear."
Fortunately for our research, Arndt wrote in his "Foreword to the Christian reader" that justification "is sufficiently discussed in chapters 5, 19, 34 and 41 of this book, and the first three chapters of Book II."A survey of the chapters which Arndt cites as exemplary of his teaching on justification shows a different approach than one finds in contemporary Protestant preaching and systematic theology. Not only are the terms 'forensic justification' and 'imputation' rare, justification is treated as a discrete chapter only once in the 61 chapters of Books I and II. When Arndt wrote on justification, he preferred to use its cognate term, righteousness, and usually concerning the granting of righteous for renewal. The themes of the four chapters in Book I concerning justification are actually faith, humility, grace, and the reestablishment of the image of God in the believer. Since Arndt stated that these are the chapters which "sufficiently" discuss justification, he clearly understands justification as one step among others of the journey toward God which begins with God's action toward humanity in Christ. Justification is union with God which comes with the forgiveness received through sincere repentance wrought by true faith and the consequent rebirth, shown in sanctification, holiness and righteousness, all leading to union with God and eternal life.
Chapter 5 addresses what true faith consists of, chiefly a deep assent and trust in God's grace which is brought about by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. By grace through faith, sins are forgiven not by any human merit but Christ's merit. Forgiveness of sins is righteousness. Even if human faith is weak, sins are covered by grace for Christ's sake. Faith is assent and the believer's heart is given over to God completely and is united to God. Arndt is not deviating from Martin Luther or his as much as expanding on a motif less important to him, union with God. We see below how justification does not stop with a declaration of forgiveness.
By this deep trust and heartfelt assent, man gives his heart completely and utterly to God, rests in God alone, gives himself over to God, clings to God alone, unites himself with God, is a participant of all that which is God and Christ, becomes one spirit with God, receives from him new power, new life, new consolation, peace and joy, rest of soul, righteousness and holiness, and also, from God through faith, man is newborn. Where new faith is, there is Christ with all his righteousness, holiness, redemption, merit, grace, forgiveness of sins, childhood of God, inheritance of eternal life.
One can know their justification with confidence and complete certainty, parrhisia and plerophoria, citing Eph 3:12; Phil 1:20; 1 Jn 2:28; 3:21 and 1 Thess 1:5, 2:2. Justification is part of a new life in which victory over sin, death and the devil will be experienced as a reality.
Everything that is born of God is truly no shadowy work, but a true life work. God will not bring forth a dead fruit, a lifeless and powerless work, but a living, new man must be born from the living God. Our faith is the victory that conquers the world. That which man is to conquer must be a mighty power. If faith is to be victorious over the world, it must be a living, victorious, active, working, divine power; indeed Christ must do everything through faith.
Righteousness comes with the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit. Faith performs two actions to renew the believer: places Christ in the believer and secondly, initiates the process of sanctification.
The true sanctifying faith renews the whole man, purifies the heart, unites with God, makes the heart free from earthly things, hungers and thirst after righteousness, works love, gives peace, joy, patience, consolation in all suffering, conquers the world, makes children heirs of God and of all heavenly eternal goods.
Chapter 41 considers the significance of repentance to root out the image of Satan in him," and illustrates the place of justification in the order of salvation: original sin, free will, repentance, faith, justification, prayer, the new life, and obedience. God's image once shown forth in the soul, but since the fall "original unrighteousness," the image of Satan, holds body and soul captive, but "a mighty person who is Lord over sin and death" can effect a change in human nature, renew it, and make it righteous. There remains a spark of free will in the soul, but it has influence for external works only, which Arndt calls the law of nature, such as marital love without which we would not be able to exist. However, as Luther would say, in spiritual matters "he has no spark of spiritual light," completely unprepared for that which the human was created, "full, divine, spiritual life." The remedy is to "by the Spirit of God you must fight and strive with the old Adam, the image of Satan in you." Therefore, pray, weep, wail, seek, knock, and the Holy Spirit will be given you."
While Arndt departs from Luther in his emphasis on regeneration and personal experience, both of these themes are found in Luther. What was unique is the emphasis placed on new birth and sanctification for a real change of heart and the transformation that could bring for those who would truly yearn for it. Secondly, the need for that transformation to be lived out in holiness. The possibility for transformation was Arndt's contribution. Whereas Spener wished to reform the Lutheran Church and Franke wanted to reach the world, there is no evidence that Arndt intended to begin a movement. Arndt did not stress the implications of his insights beyond the individual; hence, Arndt is seen as a forerunner of Pietism by some historians and not a Pietist per se, because pietism was a movement.
Philipp Jakob Spener
Additional background is necessary for Spener and Francke because much can be learned about the Pietist movement through the events in their lives. Nurtured by devout parents in upper Alsace with connections to the noble house of at Rappoltsweiler, young Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705) was mentored by his devoutly religious godmother, Agatha von Rappoltstein (d. 1648) and her chaplain, Joachim Stoll (1615-78), who became his catechist. From his extensive writing equal in volume to Luther's Works, we know he read his father's copy of True Christianity, a book he read the most after the Bible, and also acknowledged the influence by German translations of English devotional writers Lewis Bayly, Daniel Dyke and Emmanuel Sonthomb, especially Bayly's Practice of Piety, Dyke's Know Thyself and True Repentance, and Sonthomb's Golden Jewel. Spener thanked Stoll for revealing these works deeper meanings and "the first spark of true Christianity" as well as a life-long practice of focusing on Holy Scripture when preaching.
Spener began his university education some thirty miles from his home at Strasburg in 1651, a Lutheran school whose faculty had a life-long influence shown in ongoing correspondence and reference to them in his writings, chiefly Johann Schmidt (1594-1658), Johann Konrad Dannhauer (1603-1666) and Sebastian Schmidt (1617-96). Johann Schmidt influenced Spener as one who combined a strict Orthodoxy with deep piety, stressed the importance of teaching the catechism, and taught the necessity of the preacher to prepare by prayerful meditation and make the sermon more accessible to the congregation by being less doctrinaire and removing quotes of church fathers in Latin. Spener saw that a learned preacher with a reputation for combining word and deed who strove to make the common people understand the gospel could draw large numbers and have a great influence. From Dannhauer, Spener received a foundation for Luther's thought which he built upon later while writing a projected commentary which was never published. Spener encountered many ideas for Lutheran Church reform in Dannhauer's lectures as well. Sebastian Schmidt gave Spener the new historical-critical tools for studying biblical texts. Spener's studies at Strasbourg ended in 1659 and he began his further studies at Basel and Geneva. At Geneva, he heard sermons by Jean Labadie, former Jesuit and secular priest who decided to become a French Reformed minister after reading Calvin's Institutes. Labadie impressed the young Spener enough that he translated a pamphlet into German. When Labadie formed groups that were separatist in nature in the Low Countries, Spener distanced himself from his writings besides the ones written earlier in Geneva
In 1667, Spener accepted his first call as an assistant at the cathedral in Strasburg. and continued to pursue his interest in heraldry (which led to many contacts which later proved very useful for the Pietist movement) but when he was offered an important post at Frankfurt. There he implemented the emphases of the Arndtian Piety Movement; Johann Schmidt's model of combining piety and Orthodoxy, accessible preaching and additional catechetical work; Dannhauer's example of rigorous Luther scholarship; Sebastian Schmidt's biblical exegesis; and Labadie's use of small groups. Spener had the opportunity to have his works published in Frankfurt. An imperial free city with many merchants and a diverse population including numerous Huguenot refugees, it had an annual fair featuring book publishers which drew people from all over. Spener first wrote Pia Desideria as a forward to an edition of Arndt's postils which was rushed into print in time for the 1675 fair.
Pia Desideria contains Spener's articulation of the doctrine of justification as well as the implications this doctrine should have on church and life. As a call for church reform it gives insights into many aspects of Spener's ecclesiology. It also gives insights into his pneumatology.
Though Pia Desideria is brief, the tone is collegial, and the content is non-academic, it is illustrative of a thinker who has historical breadth and theological depth and shows an appreciation of the work of the Holy Spirit in practical theology. Written in three parts, the first explains the need for reform in three classes of people, civil authority, clergy and the people. Part II is Spener's chiliastic vision, a hope for a better future for the all through a reformed church, and Part III is his six-point plan for reform.
In Part I, Defects of Clergy, Spener explains that clergy who have not been born again are actually unable to set an example by their conduct for their parishioners because they have not yet received the fruits of faith, and what they take to be faith "is by no means that true faith which is awakened through the Word of God, by the illumination, witness and sealing of the Holy Spirit." Unregenerate clergy are able by reason to understand the letter of Scripture and even to obtain enough knowledge and skill to preach it to others, but they themselves "are altogether unacquainted with the true, heavenly light and the life of faith." They are able to preach the Word, but they are not able to teach how to be saved since they do not know how, and they suspect any teachers of holy living as "secret papists, Weigelians or Quakers." The unregenerate clergy's "taste for reason" makes the "simplicity of Christ and his teaching appear to be tasteless," their use of reason "puffs up," which leaving them without a faith awakened by the Word, therefore their preaching contains "subtleties unknown to Scripture," which "leaves man in his love of self." and such unconverted clergy with "the desire for a great reputation, which leads to the introduction of needless things into the Church while neglecting the one thing necessary, "edifying hearers who are seeking salvation." Spener adds wryly, "They can hardly be kept from taking to market what gives them the most pleasure," and suggests the simplicity of the proclamation of Paul, "not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power," as a solution, implying that Paul received his understanding from the Holy Spirit and so should they. Pia Desideria contains explicit statements throughout of the necessity of the Holy Spirit, not in the way of orthodoxy as moving theological chess pieces but rather as one who is grounded in biblical theology and a working, experiential understanding.
Spener stated there is need for the Spirit to discern Scripture, which the Holy Spirit guided him in writing his proposals, and he trusted that the power given by the Spirit guaranteed the success of his proposal. He showed his breadth of historical knowledge quoting Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Eusebius in Part II, where he made a significant statement which gave those who embraced Spener's proposal 'hope for a better future.' The basis for his whole approach is, "It is the same Holy Spirit who is bestowed on us by God who once effected all things in the early Christians, and he is neither less able nor less active today to accomplish the work of sanctification in us." It shows that Spener hoped for more than reform, that he also had an idea of a restoration of the apostolic Church through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Pneumatology is central to each step of Spener's proposal from its conception to its implementation. The focus on the work of the Spirit places the emphasis on God rather than on human works, necessary for Spener to remain Evangelical, which is explained clearly in his understanding of justification.
Spener begins his address of the doctrine of justification referring readers to Paul Tarnov's 1624 address De novo evangelio which criticized a 'new gospel' in which Christians profess the orthodox doctrine of the Lutheran Confessions, attend services and take communion, but show by their actions that they do not follow the 'old' gospel of Jesus Christ. Examples of Spener's understanding of the relation of faith and works include, "We gladly acknowledge that we must be saved only and alone through faith," "works or godly life contribute neither much nor little to our salvation," and his desire to not "depart a finger's breath from this teaching, for we would rather give up our life and the whole world than yield the smallest part of it." This is followed by succinct paragraphs on other basic teachings of Lutheran theology, the doctrine of the Word, and the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. He said he takes more pleasure in Luther than any other author, but all this is preparation for what will be a new emphasis to many. He made this move as he argued that many who call themselves Evangelical are not. Similarly to Tarnov earlier, he says we can know by their actions that they do not have the gospel of Jesus Christ in their heart if they do not have a living faith. There are two types of faith, one is divine, a living, active, mighty, thing; the other is a human idea, of course, quoting Luther's Epistle to the Romans.
By their own powers [they] fashion an idea in their hearts which says, "I believe." This they hold for true faith. But it is a human imagination and idea that never reaches the depth of the heart, and so nothing comes of it and no betterment follows it. Faith, however, is a divine work in us. It changes us and makes us be born anew."
While the forensic justification of Paul is given honor, the biological metaphor of new birth and the new man is preferred over it. Luther was no stranger to rebirth language but used it much less than Paul's legal image. Spener understood the need to point out that when Luther wrote about salvation, he meant ?true' salvation. The Preface to Romans proves the basis in Luther for Pietists that there is a real change in the believer effected through the power of the Holy Spirit. The move from emphasizing regeneration rather than justification is the move that allows a shirt from faith versus works, to a rationale for faith does works.
Against the Lutherans who argue that baptism is a once-for-all action, Spener taught that it is true that you can only be baptized once, but baptism needs to be seen as God making a covenant, grace from his side and faith and a good conscience on the human side, and for the covenant to last "it must remain in constant use throughout your whole life." Baptism is more than wiping the ledger; it is God's power to regenerate. "Nor do I know how to praise Baptism and its power enough," and, "I believe that it is the real ?washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit' (Titus 3:5), "as Luther says in the Catechism, 'it effects forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil and grants (not merely promises) 'eternal salvation.'" Spener believed that baptism gave infants regeneration, but this was lost except in rare cases, hence it was necessary to receive regeneration through conversion. Both Spener and Arndt point out that opus operatum was a dangerous error, leads many to damnation because they think that all Christianity requires of them is to be baptized, go to worship services, listen to sermons, confess sins, receive absolution, sing a few hymns and take the wine and wafer "no matter how their hearts are disposed." What is necessary is to be born again, receiving "a capacity for the Holy Spirit and hence for true faith." In essence, the Holy Spirit empowers the believer to truly believe, and Spener emphasized Luther's warning in the Preface to Romans that belief may not exist because there are two kinds of faith, one that is based on reason and is no more than an opinion but the one necessary is divine.
The danger of opus operatum is if one thinks all they need is the intellectual understanding of faith, one will not yearn for a living, operative faith. This is the essence of Spener's diagnosis of his culture: so few have faith because Christianity is not internalized because of the denial of the validity and importance of the experiential. Luther taught the need of a living faith, but he also warned against ?enthusiasm,' and the latter combined with scholastic orthodoxy gave the impression the faith Luther spoke of was intellectual, but can there be any question what kind of faith Luther meant in his commentary on Galatians in reference to the resurrection of Christ, "To the extent that you believe this, to that extent you have it."[74]
Rather than emphasizing a legal drama ending with the accused going free, justification was taught as a step in a process which lead to a reformed way of life if one had true faith. Many clergy and theologians took exception at the division between the two categories. Spener pointed out this division in the writings of Luther, the Confessions, and Scripture in Pia Desideria, and asked his colleagues if it was not time to apply these principles. Spener wrote that the conditions of their day, unbelief and the immoral behavior that resulted from it, demanded a cure of the evils. His proposals were principally a turn toward Scripture, a turn away from doctrinal argumentation in the pulpit toward Scripture-centered proclamation augmented with weekly gatherings to study the Bible.
Of Spener's interpretation of Luther, W. R. Ward said,
Luther was no Orthodox collection of proof texts, but a practitioner of living faith and formation. Thus, Spener's doctrine of justification was Lutheran but not quite Luther's; and his systematic development of Luther's hints on the priesthood of all believers was something not found in Luther or Lutheran orthodoxy. He did not create a theological school, but created the basis on which the next generation of Pietists could do so."
Spener's emphasis on justification can be summed up as "justifying faith," as part of the process of regeneration leading to more emphasis on how the born-again life is lived. Justification did not lose its importance as a foundation of an evangelical doctrine, but besides a greater emphasis placed upon regeneration, justification tends to fall into the background being part of an order of salvation begun by Word and Spirit in which one is called, led into conversion through a deep remorse and repentance, followed by justification by grace through faith with the heart, mind, will and intellect being illuminated, being converted in a way that one is reborn, a new creature with a new mind, new will and a new way of life. Spener's theological contribution to the piety movement is that the believer's Christ-likeness becomes the characterization of the Christian life, not one's need for grace. How he and his followers lived it out is examined below.
August Herman Francke
A younger colleague of Spener, it has been said that as Luther had his Melanchthon, Spener had his Francke, but this is hardly fair. Francke stands in no one's shadow. Underappreciated by Lutherans for decades, perhaps puzzled by one of their theologians having a datable conversion, or perhaps because his writings sound moralistic to contemporary ears, still it is passing strange that the one Lutheran who did the most to advance education, missions, renewal and revival, a man who even influenced kings, and the only book-length biography in English since 1867, God's Glory, Neighbor's Good, was written by a Methodist scholar.
In 1689, Francke had several weeks to prepare a sermon on John 20:31, and wrote in his Autobiography, "With this particular text I had the opportunity to discuss true living faith, and how this faith was distinguished from a mere human and imaginary foolish faith." Francke began to question if he had within himself that which he would want to urge in the sermon. He struggled for weeks, finally fell to his knees and asked God to come and take care of the matter "As quick as turning over one's hand," God accomplished this, giving Francke an overpowering experience of peace and overwhelming stream of joy.
It is simple to appreciate the significance of Luther's words in his Preface to Romans on Francke's frame of mind before conversion, "Faith is not the human notion and dream that some people call faith, a human figment and idea that never reaches the depths of the heart [but] a divine work in us which changes us and makes us to be born anew of God,"[78] and Spener's use of Luther in Pia Desideria, "What they take to be faith is by no means that true faith which is awakened through the Word of God, by the illumination, witness and sealing of the Holy Spirit, but is a human fancy." Spener himself taught that conversion and regeneration by the Holy Spirit was necessary but never spoke of his own conversion, and wrote in 1690, "It is enough for me to feel the wind blowing powerfully even though the first blast was not observed by me." Spener takes pains to point out that one cannot copy another's conversion experience, or discern the state of theirs in comparison to writing, "I consider the description of the conversion of one or another person according to all the particulars to be useful, but the misuse of the same can also be harmful." Francke went to stay with Spener after his conversion, and in a letter to a colleague, Spener called Francke a totus pietatis. Considering the influence Franck was to have, one wonders if there was any significance to a scholar experiencing the new birth which he had studied and for which he yearned.
Sometime in the first decade of the eighteenth century Francke wrote Scriptural and Basic Introduction to True Christianity, a ten-page work consisting of twelve points which gives in brief how he understood the work of the Holy Spirit in justification. It begins in a way which makes few friends in Lutheran circles today, "Not everyone who calls himself a Christian is a Christian." Why? One is made a Christian if one is being influenced by Christ; "believes in his name from the heart, imitates him, and is gifted and anointed to that end with his Spirit, and to follow him faithfully and steadfastly" for one's entire life. It is paramount to know one's sin, and by this, not just the "coarse sins" such as promiscuity, drunkenness, theft, "which even the heathen can avoid," but more importantly, the sin of unbelief. One must ask God to test the heart and reveal where wisdom, righteousness, and holiness are lacking. God then shows that one is utterly unable to do good, and is actually inclined to wickedness. The failure to rely on God is the root of all sin, inner and outward.
Following the section on repentance, Francke treats justification. One must not remain stuck in remorse but rather flee to the cross in faith, humility and confidence that through the blood one may gain grace, forgiveness and eternal, reconciliation, justification and eternal redemption. As Francke quotes, "We are justified without merit," from Romans 3:24-25, it is certain that he is setting forth his teaching on justification. Far from a strictly legal transaction, Francke's portrays justification as grounded in the blood of Jesus, attained by grace, but not through intellectual faith but a God-derived faith attained in a process begun in call or election, aided greatly by God granting the power to search one's soul, and the grace to see the need for redemption, to root out unbelief, and the grace to claim the blood. It is necessary that the believer be assured that this is the case.
"Now if the repentant sinner looks to Jesus in faith and avails himself of his holy merit, God grants him grace and, for Christ's sake the forgiveness of his sins and makes him righteous ? let the faithful not cease with petitions, pleas, seeking, knocking, until through the gracious working of the Holy Spirit he experiences such in his heart and is assured."
Franke teaches to let the believer "to give God all the glory," because it was the hidden, divine power of God "manifested through the Word, kindles faith" and one should "humbly plead" for the grace to know that "his faith not consist of human opinion" but rather "God's power" and that the believer does indeed have true salvation and possess a "true, living faith." Peace and "assurances and fruit of his grace" immediately follow justification. God "will pour out the blessed stream of love in abundance in his heart through the Holy Spirit," and the believer finds "he has received a quite different ?mind' and has become a 'new creature' and no longer fixed on worldly things, looks toward heavenly things. Franke gives practical examples of the new life that the new person would find himself or herself in, for example, in one engaged in idle gossip he or she would experience "great unrest in the heart."
Francke used similar language as Luther's description of faith in the Preface to Romans, "And such a new mind and will is alive, powerful and active in him." Sections 8-12 describe the new life, described as a struggle in which one must keep fixed on God who will restore if stumbling occurs. New life is marked by a desire to daily attending to God's Word, going to worship "diligently out of sincere love of the truth" desiring fellowship with other Christians, giving God praise and thanks, "the Lord's Supper is dear to him," and "strengthened through untiring prayer," and "constant watchfulness over his heart" one "carries out his professional vocation joyfully and cheerfully to the glory of God and his neighbor's good." Francke stressed that justification and the ability to live the Christian life is activated by the power of the Holy Spirit each step of the way solely by grace, which is shown in his repeated admonishments to be humble and explanations how this all works through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In no way may he think he would or could contribute anything through himself and his own natural powers to make himself better, more pious, and holier in his subsequent walk, but rather here also he must give the glory to his Savior alone and know in faith that 'righteousness' as well as 'sanctification' is worked in him through God alone, in whom and through whose grace and Spirit the entire divine work of sanctification must be begun and continued through the end.
Francke taught that justification is part of the process which includes sanctification, and that this is an ongoing process to be marked "in fear and trembling."
On Christian Perfection was written in 1690, the year Francke was ordained. It begins, "We are justified only by faith in the Lord Jesus without merit or addition of work," and, "The justified person becomes completely and totally perfect." How is justification part of a process which includes sanctification, yet it grants perfection? Francke writes, "He who does not have this perfection cannot become holy." One may well begin to wonder if Francke just has a novel definition of justification, but what we have here gives us insight into a basic misunderstanding of how Pietists 'rightly divided' justification and sanctification, and why they moved beyond the dilemma between the Roman Catholic position and Luther.
"Perfection is nothing other than faith in the Lord Jesus and is not in us or ours but in Christ for whose sake we are considered perfect before God and thus his perfection is ours by ascription." The key is in the three little words, "is not ours." Ours by ascription means it is applied to us. Justification is not a possession, but an influence, as seen in the next point, while a justified person can be assured of "his blessedness," that is, his forgiveness of sins, reconciliation and the resulting state of peace of mind, it is not a satiated peace but one in which "he immediately discovers the weakness of flesh." Original sin has not been eradicated, still spawns "all kinds of doubts and evil thoughts, at times evil inclinations of the will," and habit is not eradicated either. So how is one perfect? "Such remaining disorderly patterns and activities, however, are not reckoned to the justified man." It should be clear that the basis for this paradox is found in Scripture, Romans 8:1, as well as Luther and the Confessions, "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." To this Francke adds the Pietist emphasis of the new birth, "If the newborn Christian acknowledges such sins of the flesh, he strives with all earnestness against the evil which arises." Francke shows this comfort in paradox throughout his teaching After explaining why the new Christian still strives, and that this is not done through human ability but "the power of Jesus Christ which is made sanctification for him," this happens day by day, typified as growth from new born, child, youth "then finally a man," yet "he is never completely perfect but he can grow and increase in good works as long as he lives." On Christian Perfection has other examples of dialectic: "we are perfect and we are not perfect," perfect in Christ, yet not perfect in the sense that we still need to grow, shun evil, and continue to appropriate God's power in sanctification. Francke shows that he knew this dialectic is easily misunderstood and gave a warning to "distinguish well" between the article on justification and sanctification "otherwise he will be increasingly become entangled in controversy." Again, "a justified man has no sin" because Christ's perfection is ours by ascription. Sin clings to the believer but it is not reckoned to him for Christ's sake.
A common criticism of Pietism is 'other-worldliness,' but there is little basis for this in Francke. His message gave a theological basis for an active witness to the faith. This implications of the difference in the emphasis between Orthodoxy and Pietism, brings us to the remainder of the paper, an analysis of the implications of the teaching on justification by Arndt, Spener, and Franke for Pietism as a movement.
To discern the relationship between justifying faith and the works of holiness that the Spirit intends to accomplish, it is best to ask what did Pietism do?
· Johann Arndt wrote a book which did indeed affect the piety of pastors, theologians, nobles, and the laity. The timing of the book had much to do with its popularity as it gave people means to understand the suffering to be endured during the Thirty Years War and its aftermath. Arndt was "substantially taken on board by Lutheran Orthodoxy and used to modify its inheritance from Melanchthon."
· The Duke of Saxe-Gotha, Ernst the Pious, was an important early figure in Pietism and an example of someone whose faith spurred him on to make some notable changes to the betterment of his subjects, and in 1636 asked Strasbourg theologians to give a comprehensive plan for reform. They, like future Strasbourg student Spener would forty years later, found fault at all levels of society, diagnosed it as a spiritual malady, the lack of an internalized Christianity, and called for reform of education and theological study, preaching for repentance, catechesis, and house-to-house visitation. Ernst the Pious decreed, for the first time, that each church in his lands had a copy of the Bible. He reformed education and inaugurated social welfare programs including provision for widows and orphans. He strengthened the judiciary and decreed laws to improve moral conditions.
· Spener was the leader of Lutheran Pietism for thirty years, and under him the church experienced reform. Of primary importance was the establishment of a new ecclesiastical structure, the small group, through which this reform was accomplished. It is an astonishing thing that the inauguration Bible Study classes for adults and confirmation for youth were threatening, but this were new and challenging at the time. Of course, these were not the Bible Studies of present day, accountability of behavior was practiced, similar to the early Methodist class meetings, of which they were the forerunner. Pietism spread from town to town without a program or plan except for the formation of pietatis collegia, the reform of theological education, and the news that laity had a ministry, too. Morality changed in Germany, nobility "looked beyond the pleasures of the court," and the practical dimensions of Christianity and moral reform spread within commoners also. Gone was the chaos and immorality that marked not only post-war days, but the days preceding it which spurred Arndt to write True Christianity. Eventually, Spener's influence with the court of Brandenburg-Prussia and the highest levels of Church led to or surpassed many of the changes Spener envisioned in 1675.
· Under Franke, what did not occur? At Leipzig in 1686, one year after earning a master's degree in philosophy and becoming a Privatdocent, a lecturer without faculty status, Francke, who paid his tuition by tutoring in Hebrew, along with Paul Anton (1661-1730), obtained approval from Johann Carpzov (1638-1699) to initiate a Collegium philobiblicum. In the beginning, to Spener's disappointment on a visit with Leipzig faculty in 1687, this group met for "scientific" study of Scripture. The character of the group was to change after Francke experienced conversion. Returning to university at Leipzig after a month's visit with Spener in Berlin, Francke, always talented at languages and now with an even lower appreciation of Aristotle, led enthusiastic classes of 300 students who attended to the neglect of the professors' courses, sold their books of philosophy and some even burned their notes. When townspeople began to attend and then form their own collegia, as Ward wrote, "They were undone by their success." The majority of Leipzig faculty, along with that of Wittenberg, had opposed his mentor Spener since discovering that Pia Desideria led to opposition to the status quo, had enough. A faculty commission examined Franke and Anton, who were then expelled for attacking the Leipzig curriculum and involving townspeople in classes. Francke took a pastorate in Erfurt, and was dismissed from there shortly, but Spener came to his rescue and Berlin appointed Francke as professor of Hebrew at the University of Halle, and help the king accomplish his aim of turning the school into a new center of Lutheranism in Prussia. Francke accepted a call as well to the church at Glaucha, the "red-light district" outside the walls of Halle. The congregation needed rebuilding, and the indigent population had great needs, morally, educationally, physically. Both calls shaped Francke and his approach to attempt to reach the whole world through the whole person for Christ.
Recalling our methodology, Francke's years at Halle should be regarded as a case study as a Pietist pastor and educator. One day a week Francke received people in the parsonage to give out bread. He began as well to solicit funds from his visitors who were better off, placing a box for offerings in his living room. Realizing that he was only feeding many of the poor physically, Francke surprised everyone one day asking questions from the catechism before handing out the bread. This became a regular practice, teaching for half and hour before distribution of bread. He also began to give money to parents of poor children for school books, but learning that often the books went missing, he rented a building and began a school using students from Halle as teachers. He began an orphanage in one rented building and then another, as money came in. In a way that became a pattern for things to come, as he discerned the Lord blessing a work, Francke would often continue it by delegating to an aide, and pursue another venture. In this case, he decided to build a new building. The best example of how faith-prayer became Francke's modus operand of life is the example of the construction of the great orphanage.
We have a quote from Francke during the time of construction which illustrated his method of administering an expanding faith ministry. On a day when he was to pay the construction workers and did not have any funds, he reports,
"Contemplating the clear heavens my heart was strengthened in faith (which I ascribe not to my powers, but purely to the grace of God, so that I thought to myself, "How glorious it is when one has nothing and can rely on nothing, but knows the living God who has created heaven and earth and puts his trust in him alone." At the end of that day, the paymaster came and asked, "Is anything coming?" The answer was no. Francke writes, "Hardly had I spoken a word when a student reported that he had brought thirty talers he would not name. I went back into the other room and asked how much was needed for the payment of the builders. He said, ?Thirty talers. I said, "Here they are,' and asked if he needed more? He said, ?No,' which then strengthened us both much in faith in that we recognized so evidently the wonderful hand of God."
By the year 1714, Francke's orphanage had over 2,000 resident students and 100 teachers. It was the largest building in Germany. Halle and its missions became a city in itself with hospital, residences for widows and elderly, laboratory for medicines, print shop for religious literature and Scripture, schools for the children of nobility, middle class and the poor, continuing education for the burghers who never received a real education, twenty-six schools in all. All of these became model institutions, effective on a scale hitherto unknown. For example, the Canstein Bible Society, the worlds' oldest, named after Pietist noble and lay theologian, Baron Carl Hildebrand von Canstein (1667-1719), printed 100,000 German Bibles and 80,000 New Testaments between 1712 and 1719. In comparison, Wittenberg, the former center of publishing, printed a combined 200,000 New Testament and Bibles between 1522 and 1626. By its centenary in 1812, the Canstein Bible Society had printed 2,000,000 Bibles and 1,000,000 New Testaments.
In the area of missions, which was unknown since the Reformation Francke instilled a sense of mission, an urgency for the coming kingdom in virtually all the students, and sent out some 60 men into foreign mission, and another 220 through his student, Nikolaus Ludwig Graf, count von Zinzendorf (1700-1760). Another student, Anton Wilhelm Boehm, became chaplain to Queen Anne's consort, and as presiding minister of the chapel of St. James built relationships with English divines for the Pietist cause. The world's first Protestants commissioned for the conversion of indigenous people, Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Pluetschau, were students at Halle when King Frederick IV of Denmark, whose chaplain was a Halle man, arranged for them to be ordained and sent to Tranquebar.
Francke was a forerunner in the use of media as well as Protestant missions. He began the first international newspaper for Germans, Hallesche Correspondenz, which was actually another first, a missions journal distributing accounts from the mission field to an interested public across Europe. This was followed by a biblical journal, Observationes biblicae, in which Francke published results of his efforts to make Luther's Bible more accurate, taking advantage of new manuscripts and advances in scholarship. Both of these raised income as well as providing publicity and means to solicit donations from afar. It must be emphasized that while much of the funding came from the German nobility and the king of Prussia, Francke engaged in raising money very creatively, he even traded in goods such as Hungarian wines and Russian furs, but these were all areas in which Halle aided emerging Protestant churches, missions or schools. Most of all, it must be understood that Francke did it throughout and thoroughly as a faith mission. Plans were made and work begun before the necessary finances were secured. It is not to be supposed that Francke accomplished all this through a knack for organization, rather it was the Pietists belief that "It is the same Holy Spirit who is bestowed on us by God who once effected all things in the early Christians, and he is neither less able nor less active today to accomplish the work of sanctification in us."
Halle under A. H. Francke became a center for church renewal and missionary activity, but in intriguing ways, ready when doors were opened, similar to Brother Andrews's smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtains, which in those days was Catholic Hapsburg. Space permits only for the story of the revival begun by children in Silesia.
Silesia, a province east of Saxony, Bohemia and Moravia, an area currently at the border of the Czech Republic and Poland, was a Protestant land before the Peace of Westphalia. It was given over to the Hapsburgs, and only three churches were permitted for the Protestants, the so-called 'grace churches,' whose only other option for Word and sacraments was to travel to the churches on their western border. Collegia Pietatis, devised by Spener to augment devotional life in Germany, became the mainstay of Silesian Protestantism, enabling them to resist forcible catholicization by Jesuits. In an unexpected event, the brief campaign of 1701 which met little resistance, Charles XII of Sweden was able to negotiate the return of 120 churches to the Protestants in Silesia and the construction of six new grace churches on Hapsburg lands. During the occupation, Swedish Pietist soldiers introduced "camp meetings" and to the astonishment of all, when the troops moved on, children held their own, gathering for hymn-singing and prayer for a revival to accompany the return of the Protestant churches and schools. It spread across the country, and began to be called "the uprising of the children." Halle carried the news of this throughout Europe. Caspar Neumann's account being translated into English and distributed in pamphlet form,
country fellows and soldiers, looking on [the children's] devotion, were powerfully affected and moved, even to shed tears ? many aged and drown people have been reclaimed; so that they resort no more to places of drinking & of vain diversion: shewing since that time several signs of a sincere reformation ? that the children of a whole country should rise, and shew their disobedience therein, that they will pray in spite of all opposition.
No one could have predicted the events to come. While Francke, like Spener, had been primarily working for reform of the church, this was revival of a nation. Buschprediger, field preaching, broke out, was put down by Hapsburg authority, and reemerged elsewhere. The movement was brought into the church under Neumann's leadership, beginning with the catechization of the children. The movement spread, and when the grace church at Teschen opened, it had 40,000 members, helped along by a considerable Protestant remnant in the surrounding hills, but also, Francke had been deeply concerned about Czech and Polish Protestants and had placed an ?operative' in Hungary, ostensibly a wine merchant but functioning also as an emissary for Halle and Prussia. Before a church building was erected, a house was built with cellars for the wine trade, a book shop, and store room on the ground floor, accommodations for three preachers on the second, and a seminary for nobles on the third. Halle used commerce, propaganda, and education to replant a church. The congregation, called the Jesus church, met in what was for a long time a large barn-like structure that would seat about 5,000 though 2,000-3,000 more would cram in.
The key figure, Johann Adam Steinmetz (1689-1762), of Lower Silesia, trained in his youth on True Christianity, studied at Leipzig where agonized between a career in academics or preaching, decided for academics but was press-ganged as a preacher after giving a preaching on Pentecost in his hometown, Brieg. He became a very accomplished revivalist and set up class-meetings and prayer-meetings. When the call committee, two nobles, came to inspect Steinmetz for Teschen, he was assured of getting the call when their innkeeper complained bitterly that he had no business since the new preacher came. Steinmetz became the German speaking pastor, a Halle student was secured who could preach and catechize in Czech, as was another for Polish. On Sundays, confessions in German would begin at 6 AM, with preaching, communion, and more confessions simultaneously or in succession all day. Great crowds would sing hymns until time for services in their tongue. The preachers had to work in rotation also, dividing their time one week in town leading prayer meetings and performing pastoral work, the next week traveling out to the sick another riding out to support the other preachers. Revival spread to other towns.
This is an example of how the ?hope for better times' of the Pietists led to mission. Out of Teschen, Bibles, devotionals and field preachers were smuggled into Bohemia and Moravia. Francke's model of depending on the Lord for everything made his operation flexible, adapting to changing needs, supporting church reform and frontier revival in many lands.
Luther
The emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit is the main theological contribution of the Pietists to Lutheranism. As the new birth was of first importance to Pietists, and it was part and parcel of the power to live a holy life, analysis of possible contributions should begin with "being born again from above" by the power of the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus. It should not be understood as an innovation or deviation since it was present in Luther. Tillich wrote that Spener "showed all the elements of Pietism were present in the early Luther."
At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, "In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ?He who through faith is righteous shall live.'" There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." Here I felt that I was altogether born again. [108]
This leads to an odd question, "Did Luther have a faith crisis that led to being born again?" His was perhaps the longest, most painful, and well-documented conversion of all time. It would be impossible to tell Luther's story and leave out his years of spiritual torment, but in a ?forest for the trees' phenomena, his followers failed to appreciate the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in being born-again. The blame for this could be laid on their re-enchantment by Aristotle, but it is most likely due to Luther himself. Though the above shows he experienced it, and he clearly taught that this is what God does, for example, "Faith, however, is a divine work in us which changes us and makes us to be born anew of God,"[109] Luther never emphasized the necessity of it in the believer's life. Furthermore, a faith-crisis is unnecessary if Luther's emphasis can be understood "faith as trust" as we will see below in Carter Lindberg's analysis. Luther and his followers took an emotional experience and built an intellectual system around it, numbing it thoroughly.
If one were to look at another figure that experienced the same phenomenon, one who influenced Luther greatly in his understanding of the effect of faith, if we look at Augustine, we see another well-known rebirth experience. "Take and read, take and read," came within a crisis. Augustine relates his struggles in Confessions, "I turned upon Alypius. My looks betrayed the commotion of my mind as I exclaimed: "What is the matter with us? What is the meaning of this story? These mean have none of our education yet they stand up and storm the gates of heaven."
Do not Augustine and his experience tell us that one does not receive faith through reason alone? In words describing a faith crisis even more famous than Luther's, Augustine continues, "I now found myself driven by the torment in my breast to take refuge in the garden ? I probed the hidden depths of my soul and wrung its secrets from it." This is what Arndt, Spener and Francke called "true repentance." He heard a child sing, ?Take and read," hurried to the open copy of Paul's Epistles, and his eyes fell on the passage, "Not in reveling or drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in quarrels and rivalries. Rather arm yourself with the Lord Jesus, spend no more thought on nature and nature's appetites." Augustine does not use the words "born again," but clearly typifies this as a conversion, writing, "For in an instant, as I came to the end of the sentence, it was as though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled." This is the same experience that Francke relates in his autobiography, "My doubt vanished as quickly as one turns one's hand; I was assured in my heart ? I was immediately overwhelmed with a stream of joy."
One would search in vain to find anything substantive written on the application of this important aspect of faith coming out of the church wide offices of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America or being taught in its seminaries. Possible reasons include the need to be pragmatic, relevant, or the predominance of a culture of therapy. To teach grace as power as well as pardon is Reformation theology, but one rarely heard today. Yet, Lutherans have proof in the history of the Pietists that if grace for conversion is taught along with grace for forgiveness, new movements can occur in which the people of God rise up and transform their culture. Francke experienced the new birth that Spener and Arndt taught, that Luther and Augustine experienced, and he taught Spirit-empowerment to great effect. Considering the significance of the reformation of doctrine for the reformation of life and the relationship between a justifying faith and the works that the Spirit accomplishes in the lives of the believer, knowing how Francke achieved great things, not due to his natural abilities to work hard or organize well, rather the practice of faith ministry, a re-evaluation of current emphases is suggested here. If contemporary Lutherans practiced what Francke and the Pietists preached, pietatis praxis, how might lives be transformed?
An emphasis on rebirth is not a deviation from Luther or an innovation at all. The doctrine's origin is Jesus' message to Nicodemus. Perhaps it should be said that the main contribution of the Pietists to Lutheranism is a commitment to Biblical Christianity.
According to Carter Lindberg, the Pietists shifted emphasis from the Word of God to the work of the Holy Spirit, which is different from Luther for whom "the Word and the Spirit were indivisibly with one another. The Spirit is bound to the Word; the Word contains the Spirit." Lindberg sees Pietism's use of modifiers such as "true" and "living" springing from a need for a verifiable faith versus faith as trust in God's promises, with the latter being the authentic Luther. Pietists, of course, received their concept of ?living faith' from Scripture and Luther's Preface to Romans, and preferred the more dynamic definition. For Lindberg this is a critical loss of a central tenant, simul iustus et peccator. Pietists much preferred a dynamic understanding, the idea of growth toward perfection, to an image so passive it seems static, and remained Lutheran by believing total perfection was only in Christ. Luther did indeed see the Spirit bound to the Word, which is, of course, not equality, or perichoresis, but servitude, and one that is not historically possible. If the canon of Scripture was not settled until as late as Athanasius' Festal Epistle in 367, and the Spirit had been poured out at Pentecost, how could Spirit be bound to the Word? This is an example of a positive deviation from Luther by the Pietists.
Pietists expected the Spirit to use the Word to teach, to open the believer up to deeper level of meaning, or a specific testimony, but the Spirit also "confirms" meanings or testimonies in us individually. Spener began a sermon on the new birth, "The heavenly Father will permit us to learn the truth not only out of his Word and whatever he testifies to us through it, but let it become confirmed in us through our own experience through Jesus Christ, who makes all things new." Here he speaks of Christ's person but the meaning is the Spirit of Christ.
Did Pietism depart from Luther's understanding of the relation of faith to works, as Lindberg says, regarding them as verification of faith, whereas Luther is not concerned for such "goal-determined references." While Luther said works are signs of faith, his central concern is that justification cannot be determined by sanctification. However, as noted above in "On Christian Perfection," Francke wrote, "We are justified only by faith in the Lord Jesus without merit or addition of work." Franke taught our justification was in Christ, not in ourselves, it was something ascribed to us, not based on anything we do.
Of Christological importance, and in regard to the Mannermaa school, Stein writes that Luther combined justification with regeneration, but gave the greater emphases on justification, noted Luther's statement in the Preface to Romans that faith is something that God effects in us, It changes us and we are reborn from God. According to Althaus, Luther's understanding of justification included both forgiveness of sin and new life from God. Tillich admitted that the weak spot of Luther's doctrine of justification by faith is that he did not also include Paul's doctrine of the Holy Spirit, of being ?in Christ,' and of the new person."
Where Pietist do most diverge on a core teaching of Luther is simul iustus et peccator, perhaps the hardest teaching for non-Lutherans to grasp hence perhaps one that is ?negotiable.' Simul iustus perhaps lends itself to an idea that is still alive in Lutheran thinking, which is "un-Lutheran" to believe in the transformation of an individual. Carter Lindberg is perhaps representative of contemporary "Lutheran Orthodoxy," seen in his choice of two quotes for the dedication of his research which gives an insight into the mind of orthodoxy.
Let us thank God, therefore, that we have been delivered from this monster of uncertainty and that now we can believe for a certainty that the Holy Spirit is crying and issuing a sigh too deep for words in our hearts. And this is our foundation: The Gospel commands us to look, not at our own good deeds or perfection but at God himself as He promises, and at Christ himself, the Mediator ? And this is the reason why our theology is certain; it snatches us away from ourselves, so that we do not depend on our own strength, conscience, experience, person, or works but depend on that which is outside ourselves, that is, on the promise and truth of God, which cannot deceive.
Lindberg is able to give several positive "continuities" between Pietism and Luther, emphasizing biblical theology, "Theology of the Cross," "grace alone," faith as a "living, busy, active mighty thing" and the rejection of "opus operatum." However, Lindberg insists that Pietism's "displacement" of justification by the rebirth motif is a shift away from the all important move of God toward humanity placing an emphasis instead on the move of the sinner toward God. This is, of course, "the playing of the trump card," the dreaded "works-righteousness." Lindberg writes, "Indeed, we may argue that here we have not merely a modification of Luther's central position but rather a reversal of it?a person is thrown back upon himself and his experience of faith for his certainty of salvation." If Lindberg is right, this is, in my opinion, a rather wide diversion. If we regard this statement in light of Tillich's judgment that Luther did not include Paul's doctrine of the Holy Spirit, perhaps Luther really did lack a full biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and perhaps this is another "good divergence." Do we have an answer for one of our initial questions, if there was something distinctive and valid in Lutheran Pietism about the relationship between a justifying faith and the works that the Spirit accomplishes in the lives of the believer, and was this, as they believed, a completion of the reformation understood to be commenced by Martin Luther? The Pietists do diverge from Luther on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. It's validity does not lie in it being in synch with Luther or the Confessions, rather its validity is in the Scripture. The Reformation was only commenced by Luther. It needed a pneumatological corrective and the Lutheran Pietists found it. Perhaps failing to appreciate this is why Lutheranism has such a problem with faith and works.
?Hope for better times' was grounded solely upon God's promises. Schmidt saw in Spener a Luther-like understanding of how God gives the Church a goal and the power to reach it. "It is grounded in the Holy Spirit." Lindberg is not able to understand the realized eschatology of the pietists and charismatics on account of his denial of the significance of an experienced presence and power of God, which is the chief eschatological sign for experiential Christians. Practicing the presence of God and interpreting it as the inbreaking of the Kingdom, empowered Pietist eschatology and ecclesiology. Spener believed that God had preserved the church through the Thirty Years War for a reason and that "eschatological hope must become a present reality; the kingdom, which will only become completely realized only in the future, must begin to penetrate present history through the renewal of the church, evangelistic endeavors, and various philanthropic and social missions."
When it comes to practices that pietatis praxis gave the church, it needs to be said that they began Bible Study and Bible Institutes. It was the former, pietatis collegia, that really was a major new form for ecclesiology. Intentional Small Groups, something promoted by all churches today, were unknown. Here Spener built upon the concept of the laity as a spiritual priesthood which he found in Luther's unrealized idea of the house church which is found in the Preface to the German Mass of 1526 that of the house church. Spener taught that each Christian had the duty to offer his or her all, to pray, give thanks, do good works, give alms, study the Word, and if they have been given the gift "with the grace given him" to teach, edify, observe, admonish, exhort, convert, pray for all and to be concerned for the salvation of all.
Trinitarian Theology
As noted in the discussion of Arndt's True Christianity, both Arndt and Luther were biblical and Trinitarian in approach, and shared much with Eastern Orthodox theologians, chiefly that of seeing faith bringing the believer into participation in the life of the Triune God, though Luther and Arndt's theological anthropology was decidedly more pessimistic than that of the Eastern Church. Justification is understood as participation in the life of God and spoken of in a way reminiscent of both ancient Eastern Orthodoxy as well as contemporary Spirit Christology is evident. Seen in the above, "By this deep trust ? is a participant of all that which is God and Christ, becomes one spirit with God, receives from him new power, new life." Another example of this recurring theme is, "Through this power of God we are once more drawn into God, inclined toward God, transplanted and set in God ?" but we see that unlike the eastern Orthodox, Arndt sees sin not as a tarnishing of God's image in man but a cursed reality, "taken out of Adam and as a cursed vine placed in Christ the blessed and living vine (Jn 15:4)." Salvation is a gift of the Father which is brought about by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, and is a perichoretic reality. The believer's entwinement to Christ comes from faith, a gift made possible by Christ, but the gift includes the actual presence of Christ in the believer and the engrafting of the believer to Christ.
More research is needed into a pneumatology for Evangelical Lutheran churches which places a higher priority on its being biblical than to closely follow Luther or the Confessions, both of which were reacting to a particular context, necessary at the time, but inadequate if it is to continue to be a worldwide movement. The only Evangelical Lutheran Churches that are growing are in Africa and Asia, areas with a more charismatic understanding. In light of this paper's findings on the pneumatology of Pietists such as Arndt, Spener, and Franke, as well as questions raised by other current Luther research such as the Mannermaa School, the ?Theology of the Heart' of Bengt Hoffman, and the Lutheran Charismatic movement, there is an emerging understanding of the importance of an experiential understanding of Luther. A biblical, pneumatological reformation of Lutheranism is needed. Perhaps emphasis needs to shift from a question which cannot be answered "What did Luther really think?" to "What should Luther have said?" If Pietists implemented a critique of the theology and ecclesiology of Luther and Lutheranism that accomplished a reformation of culture through a reformed Church, perhaps the Pietists after all understood where God was trying to get Luther to go.
Pietism has not died out, though, like the Lutheran Charismatic Movement, it became more leaven than loaf, exerting such a wide influence that its practices became mainstream. It will probably live on most strongly through congregations around the world whose members will be completely unaware of the names of Francke, Spener and Arndt, though scholars like Karla Poewe do recognize their influence. We can hope that future theologians and historians rediscover the Pietists and write a grace-based theology with a passion for holiness.
Partial Bibliography
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_____ True Christianity, trans. A. W. Boehm, American Edition, Boston: Lincoln and Edmands, 1809.
Brown, Dale W. Understanding Pietism. Grantham, PA: Evangel Publ. House, 1996.
Erb, Peter C. The Pietists: Selected Writings, Classics of Christian Spirituality.
???. Pietists, Protestants, and Mysticism: The Use of Late Medieval Spiritual Texts in the Work of Gottfried Arnold. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1989.
Lindberg, Carter. The Third Reformation? Macon: Mercer University Press, 1983.
Longenecker, Stephen L. Piety and Tolerance. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1994.
Lund, Eric. "Johann Arndt and the Development of a Lutheran Spiritual Tradition." Yale, 1979.
_____. Documents from the History of Lutheranism, 1517-1750. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002
Neill, Ruth Rouse and Stephen Charles, ed. A History of the Ecumenical Movement. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1968.
O'Malley, J. Stephen. Early German-American Evangelicalism. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1995.
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Sattler, Gary R. God's Glory, Neighbor's Good. Chicago: Covenant Press, 1982.
Spener, Phillip Jakob. Pia Desideria. Philadelphia, Fortress, 1964
Stein, K. James. Philipp Jakob Spener: Pietist Patriarch. Covenant Press. Chicago, 1986.
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Strom, Jonathan. Orthodoxy and Reform: The Clergy in Seventeenth Century Rostock. Tubigen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1999.
Tillich, Paul. A History of Christian Thought, ed. Carl Braaten. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1968.
Ward, W.R. The Protestant Evangelical Awakening. Cambridge, 1992
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[24]Solida declaratio, art. xi Tappert, T. G. The B(2000, c1959). Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, (2000, c1959).
[74]Martin Luther, LW 26, 248.
[108] Luther, LW 34, 337.
[109] Luther, LW 35, 369.
Luther Scholars
