Young Pietists is the name given to the emerging leaders in the Evangelical Covenant Church. They put out a magazine called The Narthex.
But Pietists is also the name given to the renewal movement after the reformation that added some much needed spiritual life and inner holiness. Hans Anders Michel from Copenhagen was telling me recently that a pietism movement in Denmark was stamped out in the early part of the 20th Century by rationalists, and the current deadness of the churches and lack of spiritual vigor may well have been caused by that unfortunate decision. It makes me wonder if we are experiencing a parallel historical moment – with the emerging contemplative prayer movements getting slammed by fundamentalists.
Since most of the literature on what happened in Denmark is written in Danish, it would be really great if some of you Danish theological students who read this blog might take it upon yourselves to do some research and blog an article on the subject – please let me know if you do.
Technorati Tags: danish, pietism
Andrew,
Read _The Fishermen_ by Hans Kirk, it’s in English and is quite good.
It was also good to meet you and I enjoyed our time together.
Just for the record. His Name is Anders Michael Hansen. And Yes The fishermen or Fiskerne in Danish describes that enviorement pretty well, didnt know it was in English
Hi Andrew –
Learned of your blog through your link to my post on our group, The Young Pietists. We actually decided on the name based on our german-swedish pietistic heritage in the ECC; our particular history includes significant involvement by August Herman Francke and Jacob Spener, and Swedish Lutheran descendants coming to the US. Our church was first called the Mission Friends, and assumed that holistic discipleship meant a foundation in the Bible, personal faith, relying on the Holy Spirit, mission, compassion and justice ministries, worship, and meeting in small groups. We ‘Young Pietists’ of today are excited to rediscover some of this heritage (that other church histories also share), and renew and embody it in new forms in our present context, as pietists have always done! Just wanted to intro myself and this concept a bit further, and many blessings to you with your work at BOAZ; sounds interesting. Also, I’m linking your blog, btw.
Andrew, I am one of the founding counterparts of the YP (along with Liz and others); where did you hear about the YP and The Narthex?
Pietism is an akward thing as it elevates life with God, but often contributes to an individualism that weakens the church as community. Burton Nelson wrote a helpful article on Pietism and Social concern that expands the North American Pietist imagination. It is posted in the first issue of the Narthex at http://www.thenarthex.org