Saturday, September 4, 2010

Weedon gives on his blog the following Gerhard quote:

The very foundation and principle of a holy life is godly sorrow for sin. -- Blessed Johann Gerhard, Sacred Meditations III

Allow me to provide a corollary. The very foundation and principal for pietism is a smug sorrow over the sins of others.

2 comments:

Dan at Necessary Roughness said...

Hmmmm. Pietists may be smug, but I wouldn't say it's their platform.

I'd go with, for a platform:
1. A distrust of the Holy Spirit to work faith where and when he pleases through the preaching of the Word and the sacraments
2. An emphasis on what the man does for God over what God does for man
3. A desire to lessen the damning impact of the Law in Christians lives, leaving only the instructive or 3rd use.

What do you think?

Rev. Eric J Brown said...

Ah, but underlying all these things is the assumption that other people are bad and that they need to improve.

1. They are so lousy, so this current preaching and sacramental practice must not be working.
2. They are so lousy, they need to focus more on what they are doing.
3. They are so lousy, so we better teach them to be better like me.

But I think your 3 ways in which pietism rears its ugly head are spot on.