What Role Does Scripture Play In The Life Of A Pietist

Pietism is a historical movement that influenced Protestantism down to the present day. It started as a movement within the German Lutheran church in the late seventeenth century, which became more diverse and in part more radical. Important figures at the beginning of Pietism, which at first was a foreign appellation, were Philipp Jacob Spener and August Hermann Francke. They wanted to reform the church from within and to gather the more devoted Christians within the Lutheran church without challenging the state church system. Their ideal was for Christians to lead a faith-driven life as opposed to going to church as a social event ore reading the bible to pass the time. These were problems they had to face because of the church state system in which everybody was a member of the church regardless of their actual wish to be and their devotion to faith. Because of this system in which it is difficult to get involved in a deeper spirituality, small conventicles were created and used as a space to discuss religious matters and learn about spiritual practices. …show more content…
Francke’s Einfältiger Unterricht shows how he even taught “simple individuals” about the right approach to reading Scripture. Through his very practice-oriented text which gives concrete examples he intends to make Scripture more accessible for the less educated. The Pietist’s efforts in printing cheap bibles also contributed to higher physical accessibility of Scripture. In doing so they took Luther’s priesthood of all believers very serious and tried to enable them to live spirituality and faith without the need of a clergy man to do so. But this also implies that some authority is taken away from the latter and the church, which leads to one main point of criticism against the Pietist movement: