4. Pietism: religion of the heart
Pietism: religion of the heart 1. Origins Pietism was a movement for spiritual renewal within the German Lutheran
Churches. It would be no exaggeration to say that it changed the face of Lutheranism—for the better, according to its defenders, and for the worse, according to its critics. There can however be no doubting its colossal impact. Among English-speaking Protestants, Pietism has gained a special interest because of its deep connections with the Evangelical Revival in mid-18th century Britain, particularly its direct and strong influence on John Wesley and early Wesleyan Methodism.
There has been much discussion of the origins of Pietism. In part, it was a reaction against Lutheran Orthodoxy; Pietists felt it had become too dry, lacking in practical piety, and too obsessed with condemning the errors of others. Some have seen in Pietism a symptom of a wider drive across
Europe toward a more intense spirituality, also manifest as Puritanism in the Reformed world (see Chapter 3) and as Jansenism in the Catholic world
(see Chapter 6). However, historians have also identified some very specific positive sources of Pietism.
One of the most important sources was the Lutheran pastor and writer Johann Arndt (1553–1621), who could be called the spiritual grandfather of Pietism. Born at Ballenstedt in Lutheran Anhalt, Arndt originally studied medicine, but ironically illness forced him to abandon a medical career. His mind turned to theology. In 1584 he became pastor of the church at Badeborn in Anhalt. Life became difficult, however, under Anhalt's new
Prince, Christian I (1586–1630), who was Reformed rather than Lutheran.
The new Calvinist regime pressurized Arndt to remove religious icons from his church, and drop the traditional Lutheran exorcism in the baptismal rite, but Arndt refused. Eventually Arndt moved from Badeborn to Quedlinburg in 1590, and left the lands of Anhalt altogether for Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1599. He ended up as superintendent from 1611 of the Lutheran churches in Brunswick's Celle region, where the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg had a residential castle.
Arndt was a prolific author, but his most epoch-making was True Christianity, published between 1605 and 1610 in four books. In this treatise, Arndt emphasized the transforming work of Christ in the soul of the believer. He drew on medieval writings such as the anonymous
Theologica Germanica, the works of Johann Tauler, and Thomas a Kempis'
Imitation of Christ, as well as Luther himself, in setting out his theme.28 It has often been said (rightly) that Arndt wanted to draw attention to Christ's life in His people, as a corrective to Lutheran theology's tendency to dwell almost exclusively on Christ's death for His people. Indeed many orthodox
Lutheran theologians condemned Arndt for allegedly betraying the central truth of justification by faith alone, although it must be said that one of the greatest theologians of the period, Johann Gerhard (see section 2), defended
Arndt from these attacks.
At any rate, Arndt's True Christianity proved a popular success (20 editions in his lifetime), and had a far-flung influence, well beyond the boundaries of German Lutheranism. For example, it became the favourite spiritual reading of the illustrious Russian Orthodox bishop and saint,
Tikhon of Zadonsk (1724–83). Tikhon, in advising a young Russian noble on his religious reading, said of Arndt's True Christianity: "Always, morning and night, study the Bible and Arndt; you should only skim other books." Certainly the early Pietists regarded Arndt as their greatest inspiration; they believed they were trying to implement on a church-wide basis what Arndt had offered to the individual soul.
There were also strong Reformed or Calvinist influences on Pietism. In general, there was some degree of mingling between Lutherans and Calvinists in southwestern Germany, where the immediate "father" of Pietism, Philip Jacob Spener lived (see below for his life). For example, we find some instances of Lutheran sponsors at Reformed baptisms, and Reformed people taking part in Lutheran services of holy communion.
Spener was particularly impacted by several Reformed figures.
One was Jean de Labadie (1610–74). Labadie was a French Jansenist who had embraced the Reformed faith; Spener met him during the former's travels in 1659–61, while Labadie was a pastor in Geneva. Later Labadie became suspect in the eyes of Reformed orthodoxy; he founded a community that practised communist principles (the community's property and children were "owned" jointly by the whole membership), and his theology, critics felt, placed an unbalanced emphasis on the Holy Spirit's
role in revealing the Bible's meaning to the individual. Spener, however, met Labadie prior to these developments. He translated into German
Labadie's The Christian Practice of Prayer and Meditation, publishing it in 1667.
Another Reformed influence on Spener was John Durie (1596–1680).
Durie was Scottish by birth, but had been ordained as an Anglican clergyman. A very moderate Puritan, Durie was a member of the Westminster Assembly (where his broad views on religious toleration got him into trouble).29 Committed to ecumenism among Protestants, Durie spent much of his life on the Continent trying to promote LutheranReformed unity, although few Lutherans were interested. Spener, however, said he saw "more evidence of true Christian discipleship in Durie" than he saw in many Lutherans!
Other Puritan influences on Spener came through literature: for instance, Lewis Bayly's The Practice of Piety, Daniel Dyke's The Mystery of Selfdeceiving, and Richard Baxter's The Necessary Teaching of the Denial of Self. These were all Puritan classics that had been translated into German.30
Finally, there was some influence of mysticism on Pietism. We know that another great Pietist leader, August Hermann Francke, reprinted the Spiritual Guide of the Catholic Quietist mystic Miguel de Molinos.31 The strange and possibly incomprehensible Lutheran mystic, Jacob Boehme
(c.1575–1624), also influenced the more radical Pietists.
2. Philip Jacob Spener Philip Jacob Spener (1635–1705), Pietism's spiritual father, was born to devout Lutheran parents at Rappoltsweiler in Alsace (at that point, Alsace was part of Germany—most of it would be conquered by France in 1639 during the Thirty Years' War). After studying at various universities, including Geneva, he had a three year spell in Strasbourg as a preacher without pastoral duties (Strasbourg remained part of Germany until annexed by France in 1681). Then in 1666, Spener became pastor of the Lutheran church in the city of Frankfurt. Here he became disillusioned with what he felt was the spiritually dry and dead orthodoxy of the Lutheranism of his day; in his judgment, it lacked genuine living faith, especially among the clergy. It was little more, he felt, than indoctrinating people in strict
Lutheran orthodoxy. Repulsed by this perceived sterility, Spener—together with a group of sympathetic pastors—argued that the cause of the deadness lay in the defective training of Lutheran clergy. He especially blamed the divorce between academic theology and spiritual life. Clergy, he said, were trained to the fingertips in book learning, but had little or no experiential knowledge of Christ and the affairs of the soul.
Spener and his sympathizers began meeting twice a week in Spener's study from 1670 onwards for spiritual edification. They became known as "the college of piety". Soon non-clergy were also allowed to attend, and— very radical for that day and age—even women (although it must be said that the women were not allowed to take part in discussions). The meetings opened and closed with hymn-singing and prayer; they focused on promoting group spirituality through reading and discussing Christian literature. By 1674, the nickname "Pietist" was being applied to the group.
Spener gave classic expression to his ideals in his landmark work Pia Desideria (which can be translated "Holy Desires", or "Pious Aspirations"), published in 1675 as a preface to an edition of Johann Arndt's sermons, then reissued in 1676 as a separate treatise. It became the spiritual manifesto of Pietism. It set out concrete proposals for spiritual renewal within the life of the Lutheran Church, summed up under the following six heads:
1. The committed practice of Bible study by all church members, e.g. in small discussion groups.
2. The active involvement of the laity in church life—there must be no "one-man ministry".
3. An emphasis on the living practice of Christian love as more important than a mere head-knowledge of doctrine.
4. An emphasis on what united Christians across denominational divides as against theological quarrels, e.g. between Lutherans and Calvinists.
5. The reform of pastoral training, so that spiritual formation of soul and character were the main focus, not the mere transmission of scholarship.
6. Preaching should be simple and edifying, not mere rehearsals of Lutheran orthodoxy with denunciations of all who disagree. Johann
Arndt should be taken as a model of good preaching.
Soon Lutherans all over Germany were reading Pia Desideria. An instant best-seller, it went through four editions over the next three decades, and was translated into Latin for the international scholarly market. Some
Orthodox Lutherans condemned it as having a disparaging attitude to theology, over-emphasizing the religious role of emotion, and being soft on Calvinists; but as we saw, no less a figure than Abraham Calov, the firebreathing guardian of Lutheran Orthodoxy, commended the book. By the close of the 17th century, Pia Desideria had unloosed a river of Pietist influence that flowed not only in Germany but in Lutheran Scandinavia too
(Denmark, Sweden, Norway), and crossed religious barriers to find a friendly reception in Reformed Switzerland and the Dutch Republic.
In 1686 Spener was appointed court preacher at Dresden in electoral Saxony at the invitation of the Saxon prince, John George III (1680–91).
Unfortunately John George soon repented of his choice when Spener criticized the moral conduct of the prince's son. There was a tense stand-off between preacher and prince, with Spener refusing to retract his criticism despite intense pressure, and John George hesitating to sack him. The problem was resolved in 1691 when Spener was invited to relocate to Berlin by the margrave of Brandenburg-Prussia, Frederick III (he ruled as prince from 1688; in 1701 he transformed his lands into a kingdom, taking the title of king as Frederick I of Prussia, reigning until his death in 1713).
3. Pietism in Prussia: The life and work of August Hermann Francke The religious situation of Brandenburg-Prussia was highly unusual in Germany. This large, powerful state had a mostly Lutheran population but Reformed rulers, the Hohenzollerns, who had embraced Calvinism under Prince John Sigismund (1608–19). Unable to persuade his Church to follow his example, John Sigismund had to let his people remain Lutheran. But the Calvinist Hohenzollern court in Berlin fostered the growth of the Reformed faith in other ways, e.g. offering financial incentives to Calvinists to immigrate into Brandenburg-Prussia from other parts of Europe, and giving them their own judicial system.32 Many French Huguenots took up the offer and settled in Prussia to escape persecution in their own country, especially after the Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685 (see Chapter 7, section 3).
There were frictions between the two religious communities; the court sometimes had to order Lutheran and Reformed preachers to stop denouncing each other from the pulpit.33 Still, this unique Prussian experiment in Lutheran-Calvinist diversity survived all the tensions.
Prussia seems to have suited Spener, who had been so influenced by Reformed spirituality. Although he opposed the Reformed doctrine of predestination, he had a very mild attitude to the Reformed view of the eucharist: both sides agreed that Christ was present, he felt, and disagreed only about the mode. On this basis Spener advocated Lutheran-Reformed cooperation against the "common enemy", Rome. More than anything else, this made Spener abhorrent to many orthodox Lutherans, who accused him of the same laxity over doctrine that had characterized Georg Calixtus and so-called Syncretism. The main opposition to Spener's ideals came from the University of Wittenberg, whose theologians discovered no fewer than 284 heresies in Pietist teaching. In fact Spener personally adhered to the theology of the Lutheran confessions, but he did distinguish in them between what was essential and non-essential. At any rate, he found a spiritual home in Prussia, with its odd combination of largely Lutheran people under a Reformed government. Certainly the Calvinist Prince
Frederick III became a zealous supporter both of Spener himself and of his Pietist outlook.
In Berlin, Spener was appointed rector of the Saint Nicholas Church. His greatest achievement, however, was the creation of Halle University in
1694. Funded by Frederick III, Halle was deliberately organized as a Pietist university, where Spener's ideals would reign supreme. Spener had the perfect man to teach at Halle and set its spiritual tone: August Hermann
Francke (1663–1727). A disciple of Spener, Francke was born at Lubeck, the son of a prominent local politician; he studied at several universities, ending up in Leipzig. After various adventures, including a life-changing experience of assurance of salvation in 1687, he went back to Leipzig in 1689 to give exegetical lectures; Hebrew and Greek were Francke's speciality. By now he had identified himself closely with Pietism, and the university authorities took a violent dislike to the spiritual element in Francke's teaching. Under its impact, people were forming Bible study groups; the city fathers of Leipzig frowned on these groups as existing outside the structures of the established Lutheran Church. So Francke was banned from lecturing. Spener found him temporary relief as a deacon in Erfurt in 1690, where his preaching drew a crowd; but eventually the city council expelled him, once again from hostility to his Pietism. Spener now invited Francke to settle in Prussia and teach at the new Halle University, at that point still being planned.
Francke arrived during the Christmas of 1691–2, and to keep him gainfully employed while the university was set up, Spener had him appointed pastor of Saint George Church in Glaucha, near Halle. He remained in this pastorate even after taking up his responsibilities in Halle
University when it was finally opened for business in 1694, combining the two roles of pastor and professor very successfully. In the university he taught Greek and Oriental languages (from 1698, he taught theology).
Alongside this, he gave practical expositions of Scripture to the entire student body every Thursday morning between ten and eleven. These expositions were crucial in permeating the university with a Pietist spirit:
Halle would be equally a centre of academic and spiritual life and training.
Apart from the Bible itself, the basic text at the heart of the university curriculum was the homilies of Macarius. The 50 homilies were traditionally attributed to Macarius of Egypt (c.300–91), one of the desert fathers; modern scholarship puts them slightly later, by an unknown author of the 5th century. A treasured part of Eastern Orthodox spirituality, the homilies were universally popular among Pietists, partly because of the homilies' emphasis on the need for an experiential religion rather than mere
head-knowledge. Gottfried Arnold (see below) translated them into German.
Meanwhile Francke's work as a pastor in Glaucha blossomed into a whole range of works. His area was beset with a severe social problem— street children. In 1695, Francke set up an orphanage to care for these children and give them the necessary skills to earn a living. Within a year,
Francke had to buy a house for it, so successful had the venture become. A year later he had to purchase a second house. As well as reclaiming the street children, Francke established a school for poor children. The orphanage and school were soon being imitated across Germany by other
Pietists; their orphanages were known as Franckesche Stiftungen ("Francke Foundations"), after the pioneer. In his school, Francke did not follow the traditional curriculum based on the ancient Greek and Latin classics; he devised what he believed was a curriculum that enshrined the biblical values of Pietism. Rather than classical Greek and Latin, students learned biblical Greek and Hebrew.
A man of unbelievable energy, Francke also set up a school to train teachers, the Paedegogium. He helped found a "Bible institute" in 1710, the forerunner of the Bible Societies that proliferated in the 19th century. The Bible institute printed and distributed copies of the Bible at cheap prices— some two million, all told, in the 18th century. It also published hymn books, prayer books, and other devotional material. The financial support that enabled the Bible institute to function came from a wealthy Pietist aristocrat, Carl Hildebrand von Canstein (1667–1719).
The Prussian prince, Frederick III—King Frederick I, since his elevation to monarchy in 1701—not only backed Francke's various activities; he and his successors made extensive use of those trained in Halle University. The Prussian army was flooded with Pietist chaplains from Halle, imparting a unique spiritual flavour to Prussian military life. Halle-trained Pietists were appointed to run Prussia's royal school, the Collegium Fredericianum.
Prussia's other Protestant University of Konigsberg was restructured in 1726 to conform to the Pietist template of Halle; the order came direct from King Frederick William I (1713–40). When in 1763 the Prussian government introduced compulsory education for all children from the ages of 5 to 13, the new public school system was modelled on Francke's ideals and practices. With this level of state patronage, it is not surprising that some have spoken of Pietism becoming the official state religion of Prussia.
4. Other significant Pietists Pietism spawned a myriad of fascinating figures. Here we can consider only a few of the more significant. One was certainly Gottfried Arnold (1666–
1714). Born at Annaberg, in Saxony, he studied at Wittenberg from 1685 to 1689. He then had a spell as a private tutor at Dresden, at the time that Spener was court preacher there; the two men met, becoming friends.
Arnold later said he owed his religious conversion to conversations with Spener in Dresden. Thereafter, Arnold's life was very unsettled, as he drifted from one job and place to another, usually having to move on because of his outspoken disagreements with theologians and pastors, generally those of a Lutheran Orthodox persuasion. He retained Spener's affection, however. This was despite Arnold's embrace of a more extreme
Pietism that no longer saw any need to work within Lutheranism for its renewal (Spener's governing ideal). Arnold exemplified what historians have called "Radical Pietism" as against Spener's "Church Pietism". The difference was precisely the attitude to the established Lutheran Churches of Germany: while Church Pietists remained within to revitalize the Church of their birth and baptism, Radical Pietists showed a separatist tendency.
They would denounce unsatisfactory pastors as unconverted, and refuse to take holy communion from their unworthy hands. Arnold sometimes ended up cut off from any actual church, worshiping by himself. Spener tried to discourage these developments, but only very mildly. He was afraid of quenching the Spirit if he took too hard a line.
It was while Arnold was in the grip of this Radical Pietism that he wrote his masterpiece—his Impartial History of Church and Heresy. In this massive work, published in two volumes in 1699 and 1700, Arnold narrated
Church history not as the story of an institution, but as the story of God's people who could not be identified with any institution. After the first few centuries, according to Arnold, the institutional Church was increasingly characterized by a power-mad hypocrisy; its ultimate disaster was the conversion of Constantine, which allied the Church with the powers of the world. Thereafter Arnold found God's truth and Spirit mainly in dissenting movements. These, he argued, had the true apostolic succession of spiritual life. To underline his thesis, he published editions of patristic, medieval, and 16th-17th century mystics, who embodied for him the authentic voice of the Spirit. His favourite was the author of the Macarian homilies (see previous
section). However, he also travelled far beyond normal Protestant boundaries in editing the works of the Lutheran-turned-Catholic mystic
Angelus Silesius (1624–77),34 and publishing translations of the Catholic Quietists Miguel Molinos and Madame Guyon.35
In 1707, Arnold modified his Radical Pietism enough to become pastor the Lutheran parish church of Perleberg in Brandenburg-Prussia, where he ministered for the remainder of his life. He is best remembered today for his hymns, especially among German-speakers; the hymns first appeared in a volume Sparks of Divine Love (1697), often reprinted with additions. Many were translated into English by Catherine Winkworth (1827–78).
Arnold's new approach to church history was echoed and promoted by two other Pietists, the jurist and philosopher Christian Thomasius (1655–
1728) and the theologian Joachim Justus Breithaupt (1658–1732). Both men taught at Halle University after being driven out of their previous homes for their Pietism (Thomasius from Leipzig, Breithaupt from Erfurt).
Thomasius and Breithaupt saw the Church in non-denominational terms as the total number of all believers throughout the world. They classed as heretics only those who rejected the utterly basic truths necessary to personal salvation. On that basis, they were willing to regard Calvinists and Roman Catholics as fellow believers. This ecumenical impulse flowed partly from the earlier work of Georg Calixtus (see section 2); it was a key factor enabling the easy spread of Pietism across religious boundaries.
English Protestants, for example, were to be deeply impacted by Pietism— which seems only fitting, given the huge input of English Puritanism into early Pietism.
This prompts us to consider one final figure who illustrates the capacity of Pietism to transcend denominations, namely, the Radical Pietist Gerhard
Tersteegen (1697–1769). Born in the little independent city of Moers in northern Germany, he trained as a merchant in Muhlheim, apprenticed to his brother-in-law. Here, at age 16, he experienced a spiritual awakening which instilled into him a distaste for the grubby pursuit of profit.
Convinced that the life of a merchant was no longer for him, Tersteegen became a ribbon-maker. He came to public attention through religious meetings originally organized in Muhlheim by the Reformed Pietist pastor,
Theodore Undereick, some decades previously. Tersteegen was encouraged to speak at these meetings in 1725 by an admirer, the Pietist William
Hoffman. In 1727 the whole area (the Duchy of Berg) was swept by a
spiritual awakening, which gave Tersteegen even more prominence at the Muhlheim meetings. People flocked to Tersteegen to ask his spiritual advice. In consequence, he abandoned his ribbon-making the following year to become a full-time counsellor of souls from his home, the "Pilgrims'
Hut" in Otterbeck, near Muhlheim.
Tersteegen represents a Radical Pietism that operated with scant regard for any institutional Church, whether Lutheran or Reformed (although
Tersteegen's immediate roots were Reformed). His circle was a purely spiritual gathering, rooted in shared experience; the Pilgrims' Hut became the focus for a sort of unofficial non-monastic religious community of likeminded souls. Meanwhile, Tersteegen translated into German many works of the French Quietists, such as Madame Guyon, and wrote a body of his own intense yet tender religious poetry that has endeared itself to millions.
John Wesley translated into English Tersteegen's Thou hidden love of God and Lo, God is here! Let us adore, which have become well-known hymns.
Many of his other poems and hymns were translated into English by Catherine Winkworth and Frances Bevan (1827–1909).
5. Orthodox critiques of Pietism: Valentin Ernst Löscher There was significant opposition to Pietism from upholders of Lutheran
Orthodoxy. Wittenberg University in particular, a Lutheran Orthodox stronghold, was highly critical of many aspects of Pietism.
However, we should not think that the Orthodox opposition was either heartless or mindless. There were solid issues at stake. We can perhaps best gauge the nature of the critique in the life of Valentin Ernst Löscher (1673–
1749), whose father taught theology at Wittenberg. Born at Sondershausen, Löscher himself studied at Wittenberg University, and then at Jena in central Germany. His studies convinced him that the philosophical ideas of the French Catholic René Descartes were a grave danger to a traditional
Christian worldview.36 Travelling widely in Europe, he especially spent time in the Dutch Republic, whose traditions of intellectual liberty made it the ideal place to learn all the latest fashions of thought; here his negative assessment of Descartes was reinforced by interacting with other critics of the French philosopher. This desire to position Christianity in relation to the thought-currents of the day was to be a lifelong concern of Löscher's. In 1696 Löscher became a lecturer back at Wittenberg. From 1698 to 1701 he was superintendent of the Lutheran churches in Jüterborg, then from 1701 to 1707 in Delitzsch. Two years of further lecturing at Wittenberg (1707–9) were followed by another superintendency in Dresden, the cultural capital of German Lutheranism, where he also pastored the Cross Church. He remained in Dresden for the rest of his life.
What, then, of Löscher's relationship to Pietism? He admitted that Pietists had exposed genuine problems and needs in Lutheran Church life.
Some of his own reforming activities as a superintendent could easily be perceived as a Pietist programme for reinvigorating church life: he encouraged family devotions, pastoral home visitation, fellowship meals, generous practical care of orphans and the poor. Indeed, Löscher found little to disagree with in the original first-generation Pietism of Philip Jacob
Spener, and defended Spener against his critics. It might be said that Löscher had a Pietist side to his own personality. However, he had increasing problems with Spener's disciples, especially the Radical Pietists
(see above). This impelled him to a more polemical stance. In particular, he criticized what he believed was a wrong view among many Pietists of the relationship between doctrine and spiritual life, as though the latter could
flourish where the former was downgraded. For Löscher, all true piety had to grow out of correct Lutheran doctrine. He defended traditional Lutheran
Orthodoxy as the authentic theological expression of Lutheran belief; he strenuously opposed any dilution of its doctrinal content which might blur the differences between Lutheran and Reformed (too many Lutheran
Pietists, he argued, were now moving towards a fusion of Lutheranism and Calvinism into a theologically boneless jelly of "mere piety"). He was especially concerned that a right understanding of justification by faith was being lost amid all the zeal for Christian experience and holiness.
To promote his critique, in 1701 Löscher founded Germany's first theological periodical, the Unschuldige Nachrichten von alten und neuen theologischen Sachen ("Unbiased News of Theological Matters Old and New"). In a series of articles under the heading Timotheus Verinus, Löscher set out his reasons for rejecting the Pietist remedy for the Church's ills. The entire series was then published in two volumes as The Complete Timotheus
Verinus (1718–22). Löscher was so eloquent in voicing his concerns that the ranks of Lutheran Orthodoxy came to look on him as their chief spokesman against the massive advances that Pietism, especially in its more Radical forms, was making in their Churches.
On the other hand, for all his robust critique of Pietism, Löscher did not see it as the most urgent threat to Lutheran Orthodoxy. The new philosophical thinking of the period, stemming often from Descartes, was
(he believed) a far deadlier enemy. His Theological Preconceptions (1709) was an attempt at a comprehensive analysis and criticism of the new thinking, which he argued was essentially human-centred, exalting the human mind as the ultimate measure of all things, and leaving no effective space for a sovereign God or for supernatural divine revelation.
Löscher's conviction that this godless philosophy was the real enemy inspired him to deal fraternally with Pietists as fellow-Christians in spite of their errors. He tried to bring about a rapprochement between the Orthodox
Lutherans and Pietists, drawing up a six-point basis of discussion between the two parties. However, as is often the fate of the mediator, he was rebuffed by both sides. The Orthodox wanted to discuss not six, but sixty points; the Pietists were offended that anyone should query their fidelity to Scripture or the Lutheran confessions. Despite this, Löscher arranged a private meeting with August Hermann Francke in May 1719 at Merseburg.
Löscher thought the meeting had provided a basis for further friendly
conversations. But Francke evidently had other ideas; Löscher was given a sealed letter in which Francke informed the Orthodox theologian that he needed to be born again—only then would Löscher be able to see that the Pietists had the truth! Löscher's attempt at Orthodox-Pietist collaboration bit the dust.