Editing Pietism (section)

===Later history===
[[File:Der breite und der schmale Weg 2008.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''The Broad and the Narrow Way'', a popular German Pietist painting, 1866]]
As a distinct movement, Pietism had its greatest strength by the middle of the 18th century; its very individualism in fact helped to prepare the way for the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] (''Aufklärung''), which took the church in an altogether different direction. Yet some claim that Pietism contributed largely to the revival of Biblical studies in Germany and to making religion once more an affair of the heart and of life and not merely of the intellect.{{Citation needed|date=November 2012}}

It likewise gave a new emphasis to the role of the laity in the church. Rudolf Sohm claimed that "It was the last great surge of the waves of the ecclesiastical movement begun by the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]; it was the completion and the final form of the Protestantism created by the Reformation. Then came a time when another intellectual power took possession of the minds of men." [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]] of the German [[Confessing Church]] framed the same characterization in less positive terms when he called Pietism the last attempt to save Christianity as a religion: Given that for him religion was a negative term, more or less an opposite to [[revelation]], this constitutes a rather scathing judgment. Bonhoeffer denounced the basic aim of Pietism, to produce a "desired piety" in a person, as unbiblical.

Pietism is considered the major influence that led to the creation of the "[[Prussian Union (Evangelical Christian Church)|Evangelical Church of the Union]]" in [[Prussia]] in 1817. The King of Prussia ordered the Lutheran and Reformed churches in Prussia to unite; they took the name "Evangelical" as a name both groups had previously identified with. This union movement spread through many German lands in the 1800s. Pietism, with its looser attitude toward confessional theology, had opened the churches to the possibility of uniting. The unification of the two branches of German Protestantism sparked the [[Prussian Union (Evangelical Christian Church)#Quarrels over the union|Schism of the Old Lutherans]]. Many Lutherans, called [[Old Lutherans]] formed [[free church]]es or emigrated to the United States and [[Australia]], where they formed bodies that would later become the [[Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod]] and the [[Lutheran Church of Australia]], respectively. (Many immigrants to America, who agreed with the union movement, formed German Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed congregations, later combined into the [[Evangelical Synod of North America]], which is now a part of the [[United Church of Christ]].)

[[File:SUVISEURATELLTA 2.jpg|thumb|[[Summer services]] are a feature of [[Laestadian Lutheran]] piety.]]
In the middle of the 19th century, [[Lars Levi Laestadius]] spearheaded a Pietist revival in Scandinavia that upheld what came to be known as [[Laestadian Lutheranism|Laestadian Lutheran theology]], which is heralded today by the [[Laestadian Lutheran Church]] as well as by several congregations within mainstream Lutheran Churches, such as the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland]] and the [[Church of Sweden]].<ref name="Holmquist1981"/><ref name="ElgánScobbie2015">{{cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Sweden|last1=Elgán|first1=Elisabeth|last2=Scobbie|first2=Irene|date=17 September 2015|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=9781442250710|page=159|language=en}}</ref> After encountering a [[Sami people|Sami]] woman who experienced a conversion, Laestadius had a similar experience that "transformed his life and defined his calling".<ref name="Kivisto2014">{{cite book|title=Religion and Immigration: Migrant Faiths in North America and Western Europe|last=Kivisto|first=Peter|date=16 October 2014|publisher=Wiley|isbn=9780745686660|page=109|language=en}}</ref> As such, Laestadius "spend the rest of his life advancing his idea of Lutheran pietism, focusing his energies on marginalized groups in the northernmost regions of the Nordic countries".<ref name="Kivisto2014"/> Laestadius called on his followers to embrace their Lutheran identity and as a result, Laestadian Lutherans have remained a part of the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland]], the [[national Church]] in that country, with some Laestadian Lutherans being consecrated as [[bishop]]s.<ref name="Kivisto2014"/> In the United States, [[Laestadianism in the United States|Laestadian Lutheran Churches]] were formed for Laestadian Pietists.<ref name="Kivisto2014"/> Laestadian Lutherans observe the [[Lutheran sacraments]], holding classical Lutheran theology on [[infant baptism]] and the [[real presence of Christ in the Eucharist]], and also heavily emphasize [[Confession (Lutheran Church)|Confession]].<ref name="Lamport2017">{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation|last=Lamport|first=Mark A.|date=31 August 2017|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=9781442271593|page=406|language=en}}</ref> Uniquely, Laestadian Lutherans "discourage watching television, attending movies, dancing, playing card games or games of chance, and drinking alcoholic beverages", as well as avoiding birth control – Laestadian Lutheran families usually have four to ten children.<ref name="Lamport2017"/> Laestadian Lutherans gather in a central location for weeks at a time for [[Summer services|summer revival services]] in which many young adults find their future spouses.<ref name="Lamport2017"/>

[[R. J. Hollingdale]], who translated [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s ''[[Thus Spake Zarathustra]]'' into English, argued that a number of the themes of the work (especially ''[[amor fati]]'') originated in the Lutheran Pietism of Nietzsche's childhood – Nietzsche's father, [[Carl Ludwig Nietzsche]], was a Lutheran pastor who supported the Pietist movement.<ref name="Nietzsche1974">{{cite book|author=Nietzsche|first=Friedrich|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a9VxKgui0mEC&pg=PT30|title=Thus Spoke Zarathustra|date=28 February 1974|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-0-14-190432-0|pages=30|translator-last=Hollingdale|translator-first=R. J.|author-link=Friedrich Nietzsche|translator-link=R. J. Hollingdale}}</ref>

In 1900, the [[Church of the Lutheran Brethren]] was founded and it adheres to Pietist Lutheran theology, emphasizing a [[Born again|personal conversion experience]].<ref name="Tweton1988"/><ref name="Cimino2003">{{cite book |last1=Cimino |first1=Richard |title=Lutherans Today: American Lutheran Identity in the Twenty-First Century |date=2003 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=9780802813657 |page=3 |language=en}}</ref>