Pietism

Pietism was a Lutheran movement that extended from the late seventeenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century and beyond. It was very influential in Protestantism and Anabaptism in general, inspiring not only the Anglican priest John Wesley to start the Methodist movement, and others. The Pietist movement combined the Lutheranism of the time with Reformed, especially Puritan, emphasis on individual piety and a strong Christian life.

A number of historians and sociologists believe that the emergence of Protestantism and the Pietism movement had a major impact on start of the Scientific Revolution.Gregory, 1998 They found a positive relationship between the emergence of the Protestant Pietism movement and experimental science.Sztompka, 2003

Pietism spread from Germany to Switzerland and the rest of the German-speaking European regions, and then reached Scandinavia, the Baltic states, and the rest of Europe (where it had enormous influence, and left a lasting mark on the Lutheranism prevailing in the region). Pietism was brought to North America primarily through German and Scandinavian immigrants. There, Pietism exerted its influence on Protestants of different ethnicities and followers of non-Lutheran Christian denominations from other backgrounds, and contributed to the establishment of the Evangelical movement in the eighteenth century, which is one of the inter-religious Protestant movements, and is followed today by about 300 million people.

The term piety is defined as “an emphasis on devotional practices and experiences,” “a display of religious piety,” or “a sense of religious puritanism, of an excessive or artificial nature,” and is not exclusively associated with Lutheranism or Christianity.

 Beliefs 
Followers of the Lutheran Pietist movement has religious meetings, which were independent of the Eucharist. Pietists believed that a true Christian can look into his past, discover his inner struggle with the sin that led him to the crisis, and finally make the decision to begin a new life centered on Christianity. Pietist Lutherans stress the evangelical duties imposed on believers to live a holy life and to purify their lives for the sanctification of God.

 References 

Category:Christian terminology
Category:Lutheranism
Category:Methodism
Category:17th century
Category:18th century