A New Christianity Just Dropped: The Unofficial Slogan of the Christian Reformation

While the beginning of my week started with more of the same when it came to renaming files, I switched gears after I was given a series of books that could help with research. Last week I volunteered to create a PowerPoint presentation to explain all the various religious groups that the P.R.I.N.T. Project looks at. However, this quickly proved more challenging than I was expecting.

For one, religious scholars seem to use specific language that someone unfamiliar with the field might not know and much of the language cannot be identified using a quick Google search. So, after reading a set of articles, I always had to speak with Dr. Beiler to clarify my understanding of the topic. I also had trouble finding any relevant information on groups like the pietists. However, after reading An Introduction to German Pietism, a book Dr. Beiler lent me, I now know it’s because there just is not much written about pietists in English. The Pietist movement began in a German town and while it did spread beyond German-speaking places, those that left the German region, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, ended up not being as directly tied to the Pietists. So, while pietist beliefs continue in many North American Christian denominations, they lost their group unity, and pietists as an individual group were largely forgotten about throughout North America.

Instead, most of pietist history is discussed in German. This is starting to make me very aware of the importance of learning other languages within the discipline of history. I have also begun putting together a timeline and a Christian denomination family tree. This also proved difficult, though I was mostly able to figure this out. What is tricky about this part is that the movements within the protestant reformation are often happening simultaneously with others. Figuring out where one group starts and disconnects from the other was not always clearly recorded. Some groups were far more organized than others.

What I will say is that it is interesting to learn about. Pietist to my understanding is the mystic branch of Lutheranism. Many of them claim to have visions and describe impossible things happening to them. It is certainly never a dull moment. Granted my favorite part is reading how the public reacted to such stories. I also am perplexed by the concept of idealizing persecution that often exists in Christianity and how that makes people act and doing this research I see a lot of that. This is especially the case with the Anabaptists.  Now that I have my foot in the door when it comes to researching these groups I am enjoying it a lot more, but I also look forward to the next project.