Note: With the publication of the excellent book (that you need to read!) The Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity by Chris Gehrz and Mark Pattie (IVP Academic, 2017), I am reposting a series of entries based on the book by Roger Olson and Christian T. Collins Winn Reclaiming Pietism: Retrieving an Evangelical Tradition. […]
In a day when sermons when sermons were heavily focused on doctrinal exposition with a minimal emphasis on right living, Spener wrote: Our whole Christian religion consists of the inner man or the new man (sic), whose soul is faith and whose expressions are the fruits of life, and all sermons should be aimed at this. Spener, Philip […]
Philip Jacob Spener recognizes the importance of clergy in the reform of the church. (Unfortunately, he only thought men should be pastors–so his quotes in this blog will reflect that. Just so you are aware, I am committed to the full participation of men and women in all areas of leadership and ministry in the […]
Spener is concerned about the way Christians conduct themselves with unbelievers and heretics. I think he also has wise words for Christians as they relate to other believers, and those of other faiths. Spener holds to orthodox Christian teaching. We must “strengthen and confirm ourselves in the known truth,” and we must “protect” each other […]
Following Jesus is much more than just an intellectual exercise. There is believing, and there is belonging to each other, and there is also, must be, behaving. Followers of Jesus are to look and act and speak differently. This is a view shared not only by Pietists, but by many Christians, but Pietists (says Olson […]