Dear Sir,
Kenneth J. Stewart is right to point out in his July letter that I should have been more careful in my statements about Pietism in the 18th century. All sorts of helpful changes came from this German-based renewal movement and we benefit from them to this day. Church historian G. R. Cragg is similarly positive. He devotes an entire page to its merits in his The Church and the Age of Reason (Pelican 1970).
However, Cragg is quite clear about the latent weakness within Pietism: ‘It failed to keep spiritual vitality and intellectual vigour in proper balance’, he says, ‘and this was its most serious defect… It was suspicious of contemporary movements in science and philosophy… It was responsible for the relative sterility of Pietism as a theological force…’
That was my point in citing Pietism as a root cause of our current irrelevances both intellectually and culturally, especially with the Wesley brothers’ visit to Germany (1738) in mind – right at the start of their ministry. I was certainly not suggesting that it was the sole cause. To get at all the rest would require a not inconsiderable tome.
Yours sincerely,
