ABSTRACT
A second keyword of the Pietist movement was ‘community’. This was best expressed by the collegia pietatis, regarded by many as the most distinctive feature of the movement.44 The reborn came together in a community in which denominational and class barriers no longer mattered. Many Pietists were deeply convinced that this spiritual equality was correct. On the other hand it would be wrong to overemphasize the idea of community. There were still differences within and between the various Pietist groups. Between 1675 and 1750 a sundering of class barriers remained very unusual, but it was not completely unknown. The barriers within Pietist communities were not so much removed as became obsolete when they proved to be an obstacle to faith. The community of the pious was in principle universal and everybody was expected to join. As a result Pietists became interested in Christian mission extending to all continents and in the spiritual care of Christians who had left their home country to live in overseas colonies. In this way a relationship between British and German Christians came into being that was more intensive than ever before. Pietists began a missionary movement that remained active into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, long after the founding generations of Pietists had died.
