Symposium: What is Pietism?
Saturday, March 7, 2020
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Bucher Meetinghouse
Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies
The symposium will combine presentations and discussion around the questions of what Pietism is and its influences today. After each presentation, the speaker will invite conversation from the audience members about their understandings and questions related to the talk.The symposium's goal is to engage the insights of the audience and the presenters for greater understandings about Pietism.
Speakers
Craig Atwood, Charles D. Couch Professor of Moravian Theology and director of the Center for Moravian Studies at Moravian Theological Seminary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Jeff Bach, director of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies and associate professor of religious studies at Elizabethtown College
Devin Manzullo-Thomas, senior lecturer in the humanities at Messiah College and director of the E. Morris and Leone Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan Studies
Schedule
| 9:00 am | PRESENTATION | |
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"Pious Longings: German Pietism and Modern Christianity," by Craig Atwood |
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| 9:45 am | Audience discussion | |
| 10:15 am | Break | |
| 10:30 am | PRESENTATION | |
| "Robert Friedmann's View of Pietism," by Jeff Bach | ||
| 11:00 am | Summary comments on the morning sessions | |
| 11:45 am | Lunch | |
| 1:00 pm | PRESENTATION | |
| "A Defining Moment: Pietism, ‘Heart Religion,’ and the Brethren in Christ," by Devin Manzullo-Thomas | ||
| 1:45 pm | Audience discussion | |
| 2:15 pm | Closing conversations: "What is Pietism? What Influence Does It Have?" | |
PRESENTATION: “Pious Longings: German Pietism and Modern Christianity”
German Pietism was one of the most significant movements in the history of Christianity. Beginning around 1675, German Pietists tried to revive Christian faith in war-torn Europe by helping people experience a “new birth” and working for the Kingdom of God on earth. Church Pietists tried to work within the state church by establishing various charitable and missionary institutions, such as the Canteen Bible Institute. Other Pietists separated from the state church and promoted a radical return to the church of the apostles. These radical Pietists sought to follow the teachings of Jesus and built voluntary societies. German immigrants brought Pietism to Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century and left a permanent mark on American Christianity. Craig Atwood will look at what the various Pietists had in common and explore some of the most important varieties of Pietism, including the Church of the Brethren.
PRESENTATION: “Robert Friedmann's View of Pietism”
Jeff Bach will review some of the distortions of Pietism that Friedmann created by his selections of sources for defining Pietism. A review of Friedmann’s work is necessary because he set the terms for many discussions of Pietism and Anabaptism.
PRESENTATION: “A Defining Moment: Pietism, ‘Heart Religion,’ and the Brethren in Christ”
Devin Manzullo-Thomas will discuss the Brethren in Christ (originally River Brethren), one of many communities influenced by Pietist revivals in the eighteenth century. Pietist convictions have remained important to the Brethren in Christ across their nearly 250-year history. How and why did the early Brethren embrace Pietism? How have the Brethren in Christ blended Pietist beliefs and practices with those from Anabaptism and the holiness tradition? How are Pietism and evangelicalism related in the Brethren in Christ Church?
REGISTRATION
Cost for the symposium is $15, which covers the cost of lunch.
To register, please call the Young Center at 717-361-1470.
LINKS
Campus map pdf (The Young Center/Bucher Meetinghouse is #19)