ABSTRACT
In his little book Pia desideria (pious wishes) of 1675, the German priest
Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705) presented some ideas for the improvement of
the religious life, which he thought was in a wretched state. According to
Spener, people had to be admonished to read their Bible, the laity should
develop an active church-going life, and it was possible to encourage this
through special congregational meetings in which believers helped one another
through Bible reading and worship. He declared that theological disputation
should cease; Christianity did not consist in knowledge, but in pious acts. The
education of priests was to be reformed so that emphasis would fall on the study
of the Bible and of edifying literature. The centres of theological education were
to become ‘workshops of the Holy Spirit’ in which the professors taught the
students by their own example to turn away from the world and to lead decent
lives. Finally, sermons were to be written in such a way that they brought about
an ‘inner change of heart’ and the fruits of faith among their audiences. All of
this renewal was to take place within the framework of the church. Spener’s
booklet, and the developments it inaugurated, was one of the most important
phenomena in Protestantism in the time after Luther.
