ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how certain strands of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century German Pietism provided social, cultural, and confessional ideas that were manifested in the later Pietist-national synthesis. As a movement of religious renewal, Pietism foregrounded the authentic experience of God’s spirit and an unlimited love for God and man. Some of the Pietists militated against the social misconduct of political authorities. Pietists like Philipp Matthäus Hahn, Johann Georg Rapp, and August Hermann Francke advocated the social integration and tried to establish a network of institutions that were meant to provide support for people in need. As part of consolidating a Gemeinschaft of Christians, the Pietists Gottfried Arnold, Jacob Philipp Spener, Francke, and Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf supported ecumenical Christianity, comprising different shades of Protestants as well as Catholics. The chapter shows that such a Christianity was not only of universal eschatological meaning but was also meant to be applied to the specific German context of deep confessional divide. In the course of forming a community of pious Christians, Pietists argued for choosing the German language over Latin. For these Awakened Christians, this linguistic choice reflected a belief in a direct encounter with divinity which transcends universal eschatology.
