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Handout #211 |
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Pietism |
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Philip Spener (1635-1705 A.D.), a
Lutheran pastor who came from Alsace, wanted to reintroduce emotion to
religion without departing from Protestantism.
The Christian religion does not consist in abstract knowledge of it, subtleties relating to idle questions, of the kind which people are inclined to engage in beyond measure in our day, it consists in coming to know our Savior Jesus Christ, the true God, as he must be known, by means of his Word, in fearing him from our innermost depths, loving him and calling on him, moved by a true faith, in obeying him on the cross and in his life, in loving others from the bottom of our heart, in helping them by taking pity on them. And ourselves, in our lives, in the presence of danger and death, it consists in abandoning ourselves with an unquenchable confidence to the grace that Christ gives us, looking to eternal life with God. Philip Spener, Pia Desideria, or Aspirations from the bottom of the heart for the betterment of the true evangelical churches which may be agreeable to God. |
