Pietism
Post-Reformation Movements
The Reformations, both Protestant and Catholic, were followed by a period of theological consolidation within both movements. We have already noted how forms of scholasticism emerged within Protestantism in the later sixteenth century. Yet during the seventeenth century, movements emerged within Protestantism that modified this emphasis on doctrinal norms and definitions. We shall consider two movements of particular importance – Puritanism and Pietism. Although sympathetic to increasing theological precision within the Reformed tradition, Puritanism placed considerably greater emphasis on its spiritual and pastoral application. Pietism, a movement that originated primarily within Lutheranism, was hostile to this emphasis on doctrine, feeling that the stress on doctrinal orthodoxy obscured the need for a “living faith” on the part of believers. Other developments took place within Roman Catholicism after the Council of Trent, such as placing an increasing emphasis on the continuity of the Catholic tradition, which suggested that Protestantism was a theological innovation – and hence heterodox. We shall explore these points further in what follows.
The Consolidation of Catholicism
The Council of Trent (1545–1563) represented the definitive response of the Catholic church to the Reformation. The main achievements of the Council may be summarized as follows. First, the Council remedied the problems within the church that had contributed in no small way to the emergence of the Reformation in the first place. Measures were taken to end corruption and abuse within the church. Second, the Council set out the main lines of Catholic teaching on certain central areas of the Christian faith that had become controversial as a result of the Reformation – such as the relation between Scripture and tradition, the doctrine of justification, and the nature and role of the sacraments. (It should be noted that Trent did not address issues such as Christology or the doctrine of the Trinity, precisely because these were not the subject of debate with its Protestant opponents.) As a result, Roman Catholicism was now well prepared to meet the challenges of its Protestant opponents. The final decades of the sixteenth century saw the emergence of a confident, sustained, and significant critique of Protestantism from within the Catholic church.
One of the clearest signs of this new confidence can be seen in Catholic patristic scholarship. The Protestant appeal to the patristic period (now generally known as the “early Christian period”) was initially so effective that some Catholic writers of the middle of the sixteenth century seem to have thought that early Christian writers such as Augustine were actually proto-Protestants. However, the final third of the century saw increasing confidence among Roman Catholic writers concerning the continuity between the patristic writers and themselves. The most important work to establish this continuity was Marguerin de la Bigne’s Bibliotheca Patrum (“Library of the Fathers”), whose eight folio volumes appeared in 1575. This was followed up by major contributions from writers such as Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole.
This new confidence in the continuity of the Catholic tradition led to increasing emphasis being placed upon the constancy of Catholic teaching. The most noted writer to develop this emphasis was Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704), whose Histoire des variations des églises protestantes (“History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches”) became a major weapon in the debates between Roman Catholics and Protestants. According to Bossuet, the teaching of the church remained the same down the ages. Protestants had departed from this teaching, either by introducing innovations or by denying some of its central elements. They had therefore forfeited their right to be considered orthodox. The apostles had handed down their successors a fixed deposit of truth, which had to be maintained from one generation to another.
The teaching of the church is always the same. … The gospel is never different from what it was earlier. Therefore, if anyone at any time should say that the faith includes something which was not said to be “of the faith” yesterday, it is heterodoxy, which is any teaching different from orthodoxy. There is no difficulty in recognizing false teaching, or argument about it: it is recognized at once, whenever it appears, simply because it is new.
The slogan semper eadem (“always the same”) thus became a highly significant element of Catholic polemics against Protestantism. For Bossuet, Protestantism was easily shown to be an innovation – and hence could be considered to be heterodox for that very reason.
Puritanism
One of the most important styles of theology associated with the English-speaking world emerged in late sixteenth-century England. Puritanism is probably best understood as a version of Reformed orthodoxy, which laid particular emphasis on the experiential and pastoral aspects of faith. The writings of the leading Puritan theologians, William Perkins (1558–1602), William Ames (1576–1633), and John Owen (1618–1683), are clearly heavily influenced by Beza, particularly in relation to their teaching on the extent of the death of Christ and the divine sovereignty in providence and election.
In recent years, particular scholarly attention has focused on the pastoral theology of Puritanism. Early seventeenth-century figures such as Laurence Chaderton, John Dod, and Arthur Hildersam were concerned to bring theology to focus on pastoral issues. The Puritan pastoral tradition is widely regarded as having reached its zenith in the ministry and writings of Richard Baxter (1615–1691). Baxter’s reputation rests in part on his massive Christian Directory (1673), whose four parts set out a vision of theology actualized in everyday Christian life. However, his most celebrated work of pastoral theology remains the Reformed Pastor (1656), which addresses ministerial issues from a Puritan perspective.
Although Puritanism was a major theological and political force in early seventeenth-century England, its most significant development took place in the New World. The repressive religious policies of King Charles I forced many Puritans to leave England and settle on the eastern coastal regions of North America. As a result, Puritanism became a major shaping force in North American Christianity during the seventeenth century. The most significant American Puritan theologian was Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), who combined a Puritan emphasis upon divine sovereignty with a willingness to engage with the new questions being raised through the rise of a rational worldview. Although Edwards was much in demand as a spiritual director, especially in the aftermath of the eighteenth-century “Great Awakening” (in which he played a prominent, and probably decisive, role), his theology found its practical expression particularly in his ethics. His sermon series on 1 Corinthians 13 was published in 1746 as Charity and Its Fruits.
In some respects, particularly in relation to the issue of Christian experience, Puritanism shows affinities with Pietism, to which we may now turn.
Pietism
As Orthodoxy became increasingly influential within mainstream Protestantism, so its potential defects and weaknesses became clear. At its best, orthodoxy was concerned with the rational defense of Christian truth claims and a passionate concern for doctrinal correctness. Yet, too often, this came across as an academic preoccupation with logical niceties, rather than a concern for relating theology to the issues of everyday life. The term “Pietism” derives from the Latin word pietas (best translated as “piety” or “godliness”) and was initially a derogatory term used by the movement’s opponents to describe its emphasis upon the importance of Christian doctrine for everyday Christian life.
The Pietist movement is usually regarded as having been inaugurated with the publication of Philip Jakob Spener’s Pia desideria (“Pious Wishes,” 1675). In this work Spener lamented the state of the German Lutheran church in the aftermath of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) and set out proposals for the revitalization of the church of his day. Chief among these was a new emphasis upon personal Bible study. The proposals were treated with derision by academic theologians; nevertheless, they were to prove influential in German church circles, reflecting growing disillusionment and impatience with the sterility of orthodoxy in the face of the shocking social conditions endured during the war. For Pietism, a reformation of doctrine must always be accompanied by reformation of life.
Pietism developed in a number of different directions, especially in England and Germany. Among the representatives of the movement, two in particular should be noted.
Despite their differences, the various branches of Pietism succeeded in making Christian faith relevant to the experiential world of ordinary believers. The movement may be regarded as a reaction against a one-sided emphasis upon doctrinal orthodoxy, in favor of a faith that relates to the deepest aspects of human nature.