by Adam Phillips

WE MUST NOT THINK OF PIETISM AS A MUSEUM EXHIBIT, highlighting the glory days of a now distant era. This is the antiquarian’s task. It is not a manual either, a how-to book for the problems of our world today.

Pietism is a rich inheritance, a treasure to be re-investigated and re-told: a collected story and memory of a movement that came out of a trajectory of real events, leading to new mission. This is the work of history. To unearth and reflect with the goal of re-mem-bering and replanting -connecting with one's root system while seeking to bear new fruit.

F. Burton Nelson's 35-year-old essay "The Pietist Heritage and Social Concerns" is this attempt at re-membering and replanting. Both a call to bear witness and a prayer for real socio-ecclesial change at the dawn of the 1970s, Nelson's essay is brilliant in its simple clarion call - "sons and daughters of the Pietist heritage ought to be at the forefront of the social concerns of the Church today."

We cannot see with our own eyes the world of the Pietists. But we know, through their theological reflections, periodicals, hymnody, educational material, and the fruits of their vast missionary efforts, that the Pietists were ultimately concerned with what Nelson so aptly describes as "an authentic daily expression of the spiritual priesthood of all believers." C. John Weborg calls this "a sociological apologetic for the gospel," where "a fruitful Christian life is evidence of the power and therefore of the truthfulness of the gospel."

The Pietist anthem "God's Glory, Neighbor's Good" reflects the ethos of a people who saw their vocation as Christian disciples - equipped and called to good works - following the One who was executed for the sake of the entire world. The Pietists also understood the life-implications of the resurrection. New life in the resurrected Christ was not a static event but a dynamic event that transformed both individual and communal life. This is reflected in the Covenant's early Mission Friend question, "Are you yet living in Christ?"

The early Pietists chose to seek transformation - this was not a passive acceptance of a new age. Coming out of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), people of good faith and good will sought a reconciled life where a Spirit of peace and new life squelched quarrels over the otherworldly confessions and the this-worldly allegiance to competing nationalisms. Theirs was a life rooted in the real struggles of this world, inspired and sustained by the world to come, seeking real change. Dale Brown suggests that "never before had there been such a universal sense of irretrievable disaster. The war was religiously divisive, morally subversive, economically destructive, socially degrading, and ultimately futile in its results."

This is the Germany in which Philipp Jakob Spener survived his adolescence and emerged as a church leader in the war's aftermath. It is not surprising, then, that the general thrust of Spener's seminal Pia Desideria would be eschato-logical, with a "hope for better days." As a practical theologian, Spener described a "true Christianity" which consisted "of more than avoid-ing manifest vices and living an outwardly moral life." The truly godly life was that of the early Church, which sought to live not for personal gain, but in service of God to the glory of God and the nurture and flourishing of the neighbor. Citing Tertullian, Spener saw the godly life as exhibiting the marks of wisdom, temperance, chastity, compassion, truth, and liberty.

The Halle project, led by Spener's student and godson August Hermann Francke, affirmed these marks of the godly life by applying them practically. There in the orphanages, grammar schools, hospitals, university, and missionary training facility, "the whole per-son" was involved. At the center of Francke's concern was what he called, in a 1697 sermon, "The Duty to the Poor."

"Although God the Most High quite earnestly enjoined the care for the poor in the Old as well as in the New Testament through commandments, promises, and threats, ex-perience teaches that most people's hearts are set upon how they either may gather treasure for themselves or use up their abundance in worldly pleasures while the poor go astray and must perish in body and soul."

Urging his government's leaders to have more concern for "the least of these" in his day, it was not enough, to Francke, to exhibit only empty talk, or a "mouth-faith" of praise, song, and adulation. One was a "true person of prayer before God" by "practicing love toward neighbors."

So what do we seek today in reclaiming a Pietist identity? We seek to answer the call to the contemporary holy life - contextual, abundant, and humble - through servant compassion, justice, and advocacy. The Christian seeks justice because it is "that whole and lasting life" - right relationship with God and Creation. Justice is the already and the not-yet promise of the world to come: a place that has to be believed before it can be seen. Nelson's call still rings prophetic for us today. Are we teaching and preaching (in the church and in the public square) a faith that is concerned with the whole of society? Are our spiritual and moral values concerned with individuals or with communities? Do we nurture Christian disciples as "whole people?"

Real change and progress has been made in Nelson's 'five concerns' (see Covenant Quar-terly, Nelson, p. 104). At the dawn of 2005, however, we are on the cusp of taking (at times consciously and with indifference) large steps backward. The bitter crop of racism and ethnic prejudice still infects our hearts and social structures. 842 million people around the globe experience daily hunger. Energy consumption in this country alone is at unsustainable levels, leading to ecological destruction. Reports of prisoner torture, child sex-trafficking, and other abuses are widely reported and documented. We live in a world that sees violence as a first response to conflict.

This is not the time to despair, how-ever. With God, anything is possible (Mark 10:27). As young Pietists today, we must continue, in the words of Spener, "to discern what is the hope of our calling." Science and industry, trade and diplomacy are, in this world, inherently flawed - but they are not irredeemable. With much discovery and capability, we must chan-nel our energy, reflecting God's grace and seeking God's glory, to do good work for the world.

We cannot save the world. But we must seek justice in this world. With the promise of the world we cannot see, and emboldened by the One who went before us and for our collective sake, we must live out a boldly holy life today that seeks:

1. An end to racism, jingoism, and ethnic hate - both individual and systemic.

2. An end to world hunger, seeking a greater equity for all.

3. An ecology reflected in a sustainable economy that seeks to maintain, steward, and nurture the non-human creation.

4. A peaceful world without war.

5. The protection of human rights.

The challenge before us is to live out a faith that is active in love. We seek this life because it is the call of the Sermon on the Mount, the vision of the prophets, and the intention of our Creator. Thankfully we have the Holy Spirit before us and amongst us - and a deep well of heritage that helps equip us for the days ahead. For God's glory, world's good.