German Pietism

Abstract

Abstract This chapter surveys, by way of important examples, the great plurality of German Pietism in various territories of the Holy Roman Empire and abroad, from the last third of the seventeenth to the last third of the eighteenth centuries. The focus is on the manifold relations between these different branches of Pietism and “awakened” individuals, movements, and undertakings associated with early evangelicalism in Britain and its colonies. Such relations came about either through migration, co-operations, or the cultivation of networks of correspondence and print exchange. Examples include theologians, reformers, groups, and projects connected with both Reformed and Lutheran state churches, such as the émigré pastor Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, who was directly involved in the Great Awakening, or the reception of Gerhard Tersteegen by German Pietists in the colonies but also the Wesley brothers. Special attention is paid to Halle Pietism and the Francke Foundation that had close ties with numerous reform and revival movements across the British Empire and (also by sending Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg) played a key role in the organization of American Lutheranism. Among the examples of radical Pietism examined in this chapter are Labadism and the Pietist Baptist groups that sought refuge in Pennsylvania and founded the Ephrata community. The chapter concludes by turning to the question of how, given these many entanglements, German Pietists and their Anglophone brethren viewed each other and interpreted their religious identities.