# Reformed Pietism



## AV1611 (May 22, 2007)

Does anyone have any good sources and overviews of Reformed Pietism and the _nadere reformatie _movement?

Also what is your take on it, was it a good thing?


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## AV1611 (May 22, 2007)

As a follow up, anyone have info on the following?

Wilhelmus à Brakel 
Gisbertus Voetius
Bernardus Smytegelt
Jodocus van Lodensteyn.


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## Mayflower (May 22, 2007)

Dear Richard,

I have from Wilhelmus à Brakel & Gisbertus Voetius some works, and i hath from Bernardus Smytegelt & Jodocus van Lodensteyn books, which i sold (needed money for other books). They all are worthy to read and Smytegelt as Lodensteyn are experimental sermons, i think you would get benefit from it. Here in the orthodox reformed churches in the Netherlands those who likes forexample J.C Philpot & Huntington, also like the works of Voetius, Brakel, Smytegelt, Lodestein, Hellenbroek & Teellinck, because they all are experienmental preachers !

If you could read dutch, i could give you good links and titels of books.


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## Mayflower (May 22, 2007)

AV1611 said:


> As a follow up, anyone have info on the following?
> 
> Wilhelmus à Brakel .




Maybe this is helpfull:

http://www.frcna.org/Data/StudentSo... Wilhelmus Brakel - Rev. Bartel Elshout.pdf


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## Davidius (May 22, 2007)

*** Post retracted because I don't know what I'm talking about.  ***


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## Mayflower (May 22, 2007)

Jacobus Koelman :

http://www.reformedfellowship.net/articles/vandam_nov05_v55_n10.htm

Gisbertus Voetius:

http://www.reformedfellowship.net/articles/vandam_gisbertus_voetius_mar06_v56_n03.htm

Only if you can read dutch : Sleutel tot de Nadere reformatie 

http://www.ssnr.nl/site/pagina.php?pagina_id=3


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## jawyman (May 22, 2007)

AV1611 said:


> Does anyone have any good sources and overviews of Reformed Pietism and the _nadere reformatie _movement?
> 
> Also what is your take on it, was it a good thing?



You really should check out www.heritagebooks.org. They have some pretty good titles related to Reformed Pietism. Heritage is also the bookstore for my seminary...Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary


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## VirginiaHuguenot (May 22, 2007)

The _Nadere Reformatie_ is the Dutch counterpart to the English/Scottish/American Puritan era. Good introductions to the _Nadere Reformatie_ may be found in works by Joel Beeke (_Meet the Puritans_; _Puritan Reformed Spirituality_; and _A Quest for Full Assurance: The Legacy of Calvin and His Successors_) and Arie de Reuver _Sweet Communion: Trajectories of Spirituality from the Middle Ages through the Further Reformation_).

There are many threads on the _Nadere Reformatie_ and its leaders and works, including some listed below:

Wilhelmus a Brakel

Willem Teellinck

Gisbertus Voetius

Abraham Hellenbroek

Jacobus Koelman

Petrus van Mastricht

Herman Witsius

Jodocus van Lodensteyn

Bernardus Smytegelt

Jean Taffin

Johannes Hoornbeek

Jacobus Koelman 

A Plug for the Second Reformation – Dutch Writers


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## AV1611 (May 23, 2007)

Thank you all


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## R. Scott Clark (May 23, 2007)

Trevor,

Can you give examples of "dead orthodoxy" of the period?

rsc




trevorjohnson said:


> It was better than some of the dead orthodoxy of that day.
> 
> The Pietists get beat up too much... when the Calvinistis and state-Lutherans ofthat day were the real villains.
> 
> ...


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## MW (May 23, 2007)

Pietism should not be confounded with the other reformation. One denigrated doctrine whilst the other insisted that true doctrine is the basis for godliness, 1 Tim. 6:3. Zeal to teach and preach the truth is not dead orthodoxy.


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## R. Scott Clark (May 23, 2007)

Trevor,

Who gets to say what dead orthodoxy is? There are a some folk I'm sure who think I'm the embodiment of dead orthodoxy! I've been called unregenerate by folk who didn't think that I was spiritual enough.

If you asked them, they would (and do) say, "There's dead orthodoxy right there."

By the late 16th century there's a pretty strong distinction between the Lutherans and the Reformed. Some scholars even dispute that there really was such a thing as full-blooded "Reformed" pietism. It doesn't follow that if x happened among the Lutherans it must also have happened among the Reformed. 

To where can one point to find concrete evidence of widespread spiritual decline among the Reformed as a result of excessive devotion to orthodoxy? 

I have ideas about when and where it might have occurred (partly in relation to the rise of Arminianism and post-Napoleon in the NL) and why but there was certainly no direct connection between a devotion to orthodoxy and spiritual decline.

In fact most of the time the story is told either by pietists or by those with pietist sympathies who don't think much of cold orthodox documents such as the Canons of Dort or the Westminster Confession of Faith.

In other words, absent carefully qualified and contextualized evidence, be very skeptical about claims of widespread spiritual "decline." By what is measure does one decide such a thing? 

If attendance to the means of grace is a good indicator, well, several scholars have pointed out that what many predestinarian folk regard as a high point of spirituality in the early 18th century did not result in sustained attendance to the means of grace.

rsc 



trevorjohnson said:


> Dr. Clark:
> 
> You know more than I do about Reformed history, but most writers and scholars trace a waning of zeal among the reformed...
> 
> ...


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## JOwen (May 23, 2007)

jawyman said:


> You really should check out www.heritagebooks.org. They have some pretty good titles related to Reformed Pietism. Heritage is also the bookstore for my seminary...Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary


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## VirginiaHuguenot (May 28, 2007)

Tony Reinke's recent post about _Sweet Communion_ by Arie de Reuver has a helpful intro to the spirituality of the _Nadere Reformatie_.


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