Piety v. Pietism
Everyone would enjoy a beer with a pious person who is that way because they have been with Jesus, and everyone would avoid the barstool next to a pietist! Personal piety is great, but “pietism” is heavy lifting and oppressive. The 17th century Pietistic Movement, much of which has been transported into evangelicalism today, managed to change the view from what God has done for us in his Son, to what we can and should do for him. Philip J. Spener, who died February 5 , 1705, best personifies the spirit of German Lutheran Pietism. Like all movements, Pietism started with the best of intentions: to promote personal holiness and methods for spiritual growth. It sought to extend the 16th century Reformation into 17th century individual experience and practice (deeds over creeds). “Enough talk about doctrine you crazy Lutheran reformers; let’s apply this stuff to our lives!” Very quickly this man-made system of spiritual growth changed the face of Christianity from assurance of salvation because of our identity planted in Christ, to: (hoped for) assurance based on performance and self-improvement techniques.
From the fussy pulpits of Pietism has come our modern-day ideas for mission, ecumenism, revivalism, social activism, and home Bible study groups. The pietistic rise of moralism is today's evangelicalism! Are you deeper with God than you were a year ago (usually asked in a lowered penitential voice)? More like Jesus? How are your quiet-times with God? If you walk into a church and Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline is the book-of-the-month featured in the bookstore, and the preacher is in a five week series on Steps to Improve Your Marriage, you probably have guessed right: this church is well down the road of Pietism.
In his book Pia Desideria (Heartfelt Desire for God-pleasing Reform), Philip Spener prescribed six things that are meant to lead to holy living and spiritual vitality. This is Pietism's manifesto and it can be boiled down to: "try harder to be a better Christian," and "correct theology is less important than experiencing God.”
So, what's wrong with the rise of moralism, and rules and exercises for holy living and holy dying (Jeremy Taylor, 1650), and a serious call to a devout and holy life (William Law, 1728)? Pietism makes Christianity about the individual - about me - and about my fulfillment, rather than about God's glory. In pietism the practice of spiritual ladder-climbing is ahead of "Come to me and I will give you rest." “Pietism cannot comprehend an obedience that flows naturally from the heart of the Christian and is motivated by assurance rather than fear” (Theocast: A Primer on Pietism). It focuses on duty and obedience as the way to earn a respectful status before God rather than “trusting” that we are his adopted children - that, then, leads to obedience.
Piety is not the same thing as pietism. Practices of piety are great. Praying, worshipping with your church family, and reading the Bible with friends are wonderful habits of the heart that lead us more and more into the presence of God. But never can the "things we do” be anything other than the fruit of Faith that follow after justification (Thirty-nine Articles of Religion XII & XIII). The spiritual disciplines are only meaningful and beneficial when they come from a heart changed by love, otherwise they become badges of pride, judgment, and pharisaism. Sermons that dispense instruction and give advice only confirm our inadequacies. But sermons that bring us to Christ, are always transformational.
A few years ago I wrote this to hopefully catch the eye of anyone who was walking down the road of pietism.
“Dear new believer,
Welcome to his family. The Bible tells us that there is rejoicing in heaven over the change in your heart and life!! You are free, and it is exciting to share God’s love with you!
When I first heard and believed, so long ago, I was told that new believers must rush to do certain things to get settled in the Christian life. “You should read your Bible and pray every day,” I was told. “Find a Bible-believing church and join it, join an accountability group and share your testimony with others.” It made sense. If I was to grow, I needed to apply myself to doing Christians things. I had no idea, however, just how long that “to do” list of things is! It is impossibly long, including being nicer, and trying harder and doing more for God like tithing, helping the poor, teaching Sunday school, and possibly becoming a missionary in a South American country! In some churches we hear weekly add-ons to the “to do” list from the pulpit - an impossible mountain to climb in these bare feet!
While all this was well-intentioned church advice, it took me many years to learn that God doesn’t want me doing anything before he wants me. You see, the gospel that changed your heart and mine is not dependent on our faithfulness, but on God’s faithfulness. I wish that someone had taken me aside back then to explain who I am in Christ, and the sheer wonder of being “in Christ.” The church put on me a heavy weight of duty before they explained to me my new identity. In Christ, the most important thing settled is our identity, who we are, and how the Christian life then becomes a matter of living from that truth. It’s not about mounting the treadmill of pietism and moral improvement, but heart-felt gratitude for our new identity as God’s adopted children. We don’t have to become the kind of person God will accept because we are already accepted! “Being” leads to “living,” of course, but there’s no living apart from being that doesn’t soon become a drudgery. John Steinbeck (in East of Eden) was right, “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”
Coming to see Christianity from your identity in Christ, rather than your performance for him, is what I missed for many of my early Christian years. So this is my advice to you as a new believer: don’t get “being” and “doing” backwards. Don’t do a thing until you have time to contemplate and appreciate what was done for you in Christ. Go on a long retreat, take long walks, to “behold what manner of love the Father have given unto us that we should be called the children of God” (1 John 3). That “there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8). That nothing in all of creation can separate you from the love of God (Romans 8) because “you have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1).
And once the “it is finished” message is the song that runs in the background of your life, then the disciplines of the Christian life will breath with life and joy. It’s not moral progress that makes you a Christian, but God’s love. Start then by resting in God’s approval of you. This is your new identity. You are his beloved and he delights over you with gladness!
In Christ,
Chuck”