The History of Pietism

The book The History of Pietism, written from a confessional Lutheran standpoint, serves as a resource for the study of Pietism. It presents the history of events leading up to the Pietistic Movement and offers a fair appraisal of the movement's founders, Philip Spener and August Francke. The author recognizes the problems in the orthodox church and the validity of the Pietists' complaints. He offers his conclusions on where the Pietists were right and how they went wrong. This book helps readers understand temptations present-day Lutherans face as they seek to improve their congregations. After an introduction in which the author acquaints readers with 17th-century Germany at the time of the Pietistic Movement, he discusses the movement in 10 chapters. It also includes translator and author prefaces, abbreviations and book cited pages, an introduction, endnotes, and an index.