Pietism was not a separate church, it was a diverse and very widespread movement which cannot be certainly traced back to any single source. Credit for its origin has often been assigned to Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705), court chaplain at Dresden and author of a very widely read book "Pia Desideria" (1675). In this he advocated private meetings for Bible study, a greater share for the laity in church government, more emphasis in theological education on the devotional life and effective preaching, a more sympathetic attitude to unbelievers, and above all the need to
do
Christianity as well as
know about
it. Some of the theologians most revered by 18th century Pietists, however, lived before this; Johann Arndt, for example, published his "True Christianity" before Spener was born. The chief roots of Pietism lie in German Lutheranism, but it included teachings derived from elsewhere, mainly
England and Holland. It has been shown to have some teachings in common with contemporary movements outside Protestantism, such as the Jansenists and Quietists in France, and even outside Christianity, with the Hasidic movement in Judaism. One of its aims was to be a second Reformation, to rescue true Christianity from the mass of irrelevant dogma that was smothering it, not only among Catholics but also, so the Pietists claimed, in mainstream Lutheranism.
There was a strong egalitarian streak in Pietism, a belief that all individuals were equal before God, and Pietist theologians tried to put their message into simple language, based on everyday experience, with much use of anecdote, allegory and illustration. Besides bringing out the value of individual spirituality, and the spirituality of uneducated people, the Pietists also wished to restore a balance between the intellectual and the emotional elements in religion. They revived interest in visions, ecstatic experiences and prophecy. They widened the difference between the devout and the worldly life, which sometimes led them to allow themselves greater freedom in the latter (by criticising the government, for example). They devised a new religious language, expressing their relationship with God in the words of a young child or a lover, using very vivid, sometimes lurid, imagery. There were many hymnwriters among them and some Pietist hymns are still used in British churches today.
The Methodist hymns of John and Charles Wesley give some idea of Pietist imagery and feeling.
The Herrenhuters and "Inspirirten" [Inspired People], whom Bräker mentions later, were offshoots of Pietism. The Herrenhut community was founded by a nobleman of Saxony, Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, in 1722, to shelter some Pietist refugees from Bohemia and Moravia. This eventually developed into the Moravian Church of today. They founded many other communities in England and America and were well known for their missionary zeal. The Inspired People are mentioned by Simmler as a separate group from the Pietists, possibly because unlike the majority of Pietists they had broken off as a separate church. The name dates from 1714 and the movement originated in Germany, but was strongly influenced by the "French prophets" or Camisards, who were driven out of France at the end of the 17th century. Some Inspired People claimed that God spoke through their mouths; ecstasy and prophecy, often involving involuntary speech and movement, and bizarre behaviour generally (not all of it
involuntary) were prominent in their way of life. Like some Pietists they believed that the Last Judgement was to come in their lifetime. They too travelled widely and were often in trouble with the secular authorities and cold-shouldered by the mainstream churches.
Pietism did not reach Switzerland until the end of the 17th century, and by the time that Bräker was being dragged along to meetings by his grandmother its influence was already subsiding. His attendance, however, would have followed soon after a mission by Joseph Rock of Wetterau, a leader of the Inspired People, who attracted a following in the Toggenburg in 1738. The meetings that he attended, however, seem not to have included the bizarre cantrips of Inspiration, they seem to have been sober gatherings for hymn-singing, extempore prayer, Bible readings with commentary by the preacher, and possibly the recounting of spiritual experiences by individual members.
