Pietism 101

Spener, Thou Hast Conquered

A reader asked, "What is Pietism?"

Officially, Pietism began with Jacob Spener (1635-1705) when he published "Pious Wishes" as an introduction to an orthodox Lutheran book. Pious Wishes became a separate book and a movement, centered in Halle (where Muhlenberg came from). Muhlenberg began the General Synod, Pietistic and Unionistic from the beginning.

Several key components of Pietism are:

1. Accommodation with the Reformed, including compromise about the efficacy of the Word, baptismal regeneration, and the Real Presence in Holy Communion.
   
2. An emphasis on lay-led cell groups or conventicles - the real church. The Sunday worshiping and sacramental church is a corrupt shell for the pure, the noble, the far superior cell groups. New terms are prayer, share, care, koine, home Bible study, and affinity groups. WELS Prayer Institute, etc.
   
3. Cooperative (unionistic) missionary activity, often through separate para-church groups.
   
4. Opposition to Lutheran orthodoxy by teaching love as superior to pure doctrine, works as superior to justification by faith.
   
5. Eleemosynary activity in the form of hospitals, orphanages, old age homes, soldier and sailor missions.

Prayer as the means of grace.

A code of conduct, such as not drinking alcohol (even communion wine), not smoking, not watching any form of theatre, not playing cards. The German Pietists never gave up alcoholic beverages. The Swedes were very eager to promote the Temperance Movement.

The Reformed, unionistic tendency of Lutheran Pietism always wins out. The next stage after Pietism is Universalism - a doctrine dear to the hearts of UOJ fanatics. In the Wisconsin sect and the Little Sect on the Prairie, everyone is saved, everyone is forgiven.

WELS, Missouri, the ELS, and ELCA all had Pietistic roots. That is why all four groups have found the Church Growth Movement so harmonious. No one has been scandalized by CGM in Holy Mother Synod. Everyone who openly embraced CGM is promoted and extolled as wise man or woman, no matter how many scandals, arrests, and lawsuits follow.

We could argue that the liberal tendency in each synod is really a Pietistic urge, a deeply felt desire to return home to unionism, salvation by works, and rejection of the Means of Grace.

Readers, the Pietists have won.

Use a Name with Your Comments

Cat, Looking for Mouse

Bailing Water seems to have sunk with the notion of registering. If I were WELS, I would say, "No I am not turning my ID over to the WELS KGB." In fact, I believe that was the plan, to end any discussions even hinting that WELS is less than perfect, heaven on earth, a synod so glorious that eternal bliss will seem to be a bit disappointing in comparison.

I did like one idea from BW. That is - adopt a name for your anonymous posts and stick with that name. I can tell a friendly Anonymous from the ever-wrathful and petty Rev. Mouse, but a host of readers may become confused. What happened to Anonymouse? Why is he so intelligent and friendly today? Did the prunes start working? Did they switch therapies? Did he reconcile with his Life Partner?

I am not going to register people.

Participants are welcome to use their real names, but are not compelled.

All comments come to me first as email. I have had background information sent to me but not posted. Some send email that I do not post, quote, or discuss. As I have told many, "I don't burn sources. That is why I have so many."

I have to save some for later commentary. Some days are too busy for writing.

Stanley Hauerwas, Yale Alumnus

Yale Divinity School and Stan Hauerwas

Dateline: Rock Island, Illinois. Augustana College, 1967.

I obtained a coveted job at the Denckman Memorial Library. The Denckman family was related to the Weyerhause clan, who began in the Quad-Cities, and built a fortune in lumber. Later a Weyerhaus funded the apostate trend at Fuller Seminary.

I was moving books from the old stacks to the newly expanded section. Standing nearby was a skinny new graduate of Yale's doctoral program and my future editor for my dissertation/book, published by the Augustana Historical Society. I used to move those books in and out of the storeroom. One Augustana College president (Andreen) had been a famous professor at Yale, but he left that sinecure to run a nearly bankrupt school no one knew existed.

Stan Hauerwas was the new hire from Yale. He lasted one year. He was not an Augustana graduate and suffered from being different from the rest. Non-Augie almost guaranteed not fitting in. That is why a parochial school system yields parochial graduates with a long list of unwritten rules for conformity. Nobody knows who wrote the rules, but every insider knows the rules.

Stan took a job at Notre Dame at a considerable decrease in income. My sister-in-law babysat his son while she was earning a master's at Notre Dame, so the Hauerwas name was often mentioned. I met with him when I considered attending Notre Dame since he was the only person I knew by name.

Notre Dame accepted me and I enjoyed taking an ethics course from Hauerwas. He was famous for his Texan descriptions of life in general, so colorful that I cannot print them. He repeatedly said in class, looking at me, "Lutherans are not good at sanctification." I waited for him to repeat his witticism and added, "Or sanctimony."

Hauerwas became famous for the extent and volume of his publications. They began as essays and ended as collections of essays. Notre Dame loved professors who published, but he was the star of them all. I followed his example and Bainton's in publishing. Trying to write about a subject means learning far more about it than will ever reach print. I found that a tiny publication had a huge audience compared to a congregation. I made money from writing while studying at Notre Dame, serving also as an agent for my program supervisor.

Notre Dame was ordered to get rid of the non-Catholics in the theology department, so Hauerwas left, even though he had tenure. Robert Wilken and the Schussler-Fiorenza couple left too. (All were pushed out.) Wilken went to Duke and became Roman Catholic. Hauerwas went to Duke and became world famous. The Schussler-Fiorenza theology team both obtained endowed professorships at Harvard Divinity. They were Roman Catholic, but Frank was a liberation theologian, a category hated by Pope John Paul II, loved by Harvard Lefties.

Hauerwas is one of the most famous theologians in the world. I imagine most academic bookstores would have his latest books on display. He has been mentioned in Time.

Hauerwas was raised United Methodist but now attends the Episcopal Church. He was a pacifist long before that was popular. He once mentioned abortion to me. I did not want to find out he was pro-abortion. In fact, he was pro-life when no one else seemed to be.