Reformed Pietism

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AV1611

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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?

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

Wilhelmus à Brakel
Gisbertus Voetius
Bernardus Smytegelt
Jodocus van Lodensteyn.

:detective:
 
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.
 
*** Post retracted because I don't know what I'm talking about. :doh: ***
 
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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?

:think:
Click to expand...

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;)
 
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
 
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.

The Pietists, out of a community of 600, sent out over 220 missionaries in 2 decades time. In their history before 1930, for every 12 church members (including children) they sent out one missionary....incredible.

If the SBS did this, for instance, there would be a million and a half missioanries!
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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.
 
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...

Lutheran pietism was a reaction against dead confessional Lutheranism. After the 30 years war exhausted northern Europe, the state run church fell into a stupor.

Lutherans are often considered part of the reformation and therefore this alone is evidence of "reformed dead orthodoxy".


And the same thing happened to some measure among the "real" Reformed.


http://www.xenos.org/essays/pietism.htm

http://www.founders.org/library/reform.html


Historically de Nadere Reformatie coincides and largely runs concurrent with both English Puritanism in the British Isles and German Pietism. Each of these movements had as a common objective to make the wondrous truths of Scripture, rediscovered in the Reformation, a vibrant reality in the hearts and lives of ministers and parishioners alike, and thus strive for a life of genuine piety issuing forth from a life of intimate fellowship with God. These three movements are therefore at times placed under the one umbrella of European Pietism.viii

In global terms these three movements do indeed represent one historical movement; however, each movement had its own unique distinctives. Joel Beeke comments: "Each was rooted deeply in the sixteenth-century Reformation and longed for more thorough reform; yet each movement retained a distinct, historical, theological, and spiritual character."ix English

Puritanism was primarily an ecclesiastical reaction to conditions in the Church of England, the church of compromise; German

Pietism was a reaction to the dead orthodoxy of the Lutheran Church in Germany; and De Nadere

Reformatie, though a reaction against the dead orthodoxy in the Dutch Reformed..

from:

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

http://reformedperspectives.org/newfiles/jac_arnold/CH.Arnold.CH.31.html


http://www.prca.org/pamphlets/Free Offer/chapter9.htm



There are many more links. I do not have the time to list them all.


Yes, even the Reformed tradition has waxed and aned in its zeal. Following Dort most writers speak of a spiritual decline in the Dutch Reformed tradition...and all this following Dort.


At the time of William Carey (even though the famous quote about God converting the heathen is a mere story) zeal was at a low ebb among many churches of all stripes. Among the Dutch the Lord seemed to bless them with a Second Reformation, though you can explain more about the when and the how of this.


Even if your interpretation of history differs, you must admit that most speak of a decline among the reformed in zeal during this period.


Of course, I am always interested to hear an alternate view!
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