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Philip Jacob Spener's Contribution to the Protestant Doctrine of the Church
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In 1666 a young pastor was called to become the head Lutheran pastor in Frankfurt am Main. He was well educated, holding the Doctor of Theology from the University of Strassbourg, and he had some strong notions that would soon galvanize Europe into another surge of reforming zeal--eventually reaching millions in every corner of the globe. The pastor's name was Philip Jacob Spener.
Nine years into his first pastorate, Spener would set forth his call for reform in the Lutheran church in a forward to a collection of sermons by Johannes Arndt. The title of the introduction was Pia Desideria, (Pious Desires) and within weeks this remarkable little tractate set off an astounding reaction throughout most of Europe.1
Modern members of primitive New Testament-style churches will quickly recognize several important themes in this tract, which have stirred strong sentiments today, as they have throughout church history. These ideas include the need for small meetings in the local church that will allow the re-introduction of the inter-active style of koinonia described in I Cor. 14, the need for the laity to learn the Bible and use it, the necessity of congregational review of the public teacher's positions, a vigorous critique of the institutional church and others.
It is the purpose of this paper to identify the key themes of Spener's theology, focusing in the area of ecclesiology. Then, a further attempt will be made to understand the connection between Spener's ecclesiological position and those streams that gave rise to it, as well as those that flowed out from it.
Born in 1635 in a practicing Christian home,2 Spener grew up in the aftermath of the Thirty Years War.3 It is hard to exaggerate the deadening effect that this international holocaust had on the view of the average person in Germany toward religion. Stoeffler says,
It is difficult to overestimate the catastrophic effect of the Thirty Years War upon the German people, The country being at the mercy of the (sic) Europe's soldiery, the destruction was such that whole villages and even towns simply disappeared. 4
The thirty years war was only one manifestation of the unhealthy relationship between church and state at that time. In the sixteenth century the Reformers had turned to the German princes, as "the chief members of the church," to take a hand in the reform of the church in their lands. This move was necessary because, at that time, divergent religious movements were routinely exterminated by armies loyal to the Roman Catholic Church. The fact is that if the leaders of the Reformation had not had the armies of European nobles on their side (especially in Saxony), they probably would have gone the way of previous dissident religious movements like the Albigensians and the Waldensians--genocide.5
It is hard for the modern reader to appreciate what life would have been like in a time when religious toleration was unheard of. Yet it was this fact that originally made partnership with the state indispensable.6 Unfortunately, while preserving the reformation church, this appeal for state assistance had led in time to a condition of permanent control. By the second half of the seventeenth century many of the rulers were members of the church only in a nominal sense, yet they held ecclesiastical legislation (rules for church discipline) firmly in their grasp. They also made the choice of who would hold offices in the church.
Church and state were united in such a way that the state controlled the church, and the ministers of the church became officials of the state.7
One example of state meddling in the church was the legal requirement that everyone attend church, and pay tithes.8 Not surprisingly, for most, this state of affairs tended to lead to a superficial involvement in the church. Another lamentable feature were the terrorizing heretic hunts and witch hunts which periodically engulfed and brutalized a given territory. 9
The Christian state concept had also removed the perceived need to convert the lost in society. It was assumed that most if not all those in church were authentic Christians. Here, the modern reader has less problem identifying with Spener's world.
The unfortunate relationship between church and state was not the only factor leading to the growth of nominal Christianity. Lutheran theology and practice were both problematic at this time, as witnessed by many besides Spener.
In the seminaries, the students were trained to do theology in Latin, as they had been for hundreds of years. "Disputations" or debates with other schools of theology were the order of the day. These disputations were not only carried out against Reformed, Anabaptist, and Roman Catholic, but also against other Lutherans. They could be carried out in person, or in writing, and tended to become more and more vituperative.10 The clergy who had been trained this way also tended to bring these disputes into the pulpit. Many sermons were scathing sarcastic attacks on rival views, detailed often with latin quotations that the people did not understand or care about.11 This form of teaching--arid, non-biblical, and unapplied--was compared by some to the schul Theologie (scholastic, or school theology) that the Reformation had claimed to replace. 12
In church life, a rigid distinction between clergy and laity tends to be quite unmotivating for the laity, especially when it is not felt that the lay person can do anything of importance. Yet, not only was this distinction maintained as tightly as ever, but other class distinctions were evident as well. Tappert explains,
. . .class distinctions were manifest in the churches, where elevated and upholstered places were reserved for the upper classes and only the common people sat on hard seats in the nave.13
Stoeffler adds,
Some of the noble families of Saxony. . . would not not have their children baptized at church because this would involve baptism with the same water used for other children. 14
There would have been little enthusiasm for spiritual growth, let alone ministry for the average lay person during this period. Stoeffler summarizes the situation,
The popular idea within the territorial churches was that a Christian is anyone who has been baptized and who maintains some formal connection with the Church by making use at least occasionally of the means of grace [[communion, the Word, and baptism] and who believes in general the truths laid down in the doctrinal symbols of his communion and adheres to its cultic forms.15
Naturally, with the flame of the church burning dimly, people became interested in other things. It is not clear whether the drinking bouts and "rioting" that Spener complained about were worse than usual, but there is no good reason to doubt that they were, especially since this part of Spener's thesis was not questioned by his critics.
The overall situation then, in Germany and much of the rest of Europe, was general apathy on the spiritual level. Bickering between theologians had lost the interest of the people, and Christianity itself was discredited by the violence of the religious wars.
Yet, even though the people were tired of murderous fanaticism, the nominal, formalistic religion that was prevalent was not satisfying either. This fact is attested to by scores of written lamentations about the sorry state of the church from this period. As Noll has stated,
In fact, German pietism was but one chord in a symphony of variations on a common theme--the need to move beyond sterile formulas about God to a more intimate experience with him.16
Some of the cries for spiritual reality were radical and even unbiblical such as those of Valentine Weigel and Jacob Boehme who were theosophical mystics. Other mystical authors were more moderate in their position.
Spener's favorite book while growing up was by one such author. The book, which was in Spener's father's library, was John Arndt's True Christianity, the echoes of which are evident in virtually all of Spener's writings. Pia Desideria itself was written as an introduction to a collection of Arndt's sermons. Spener was also deeply affected by the religious views of one countess Agathe. Her Christianity has been characterized as "world-fleeing, quietistic, even mystical."17 Spener also lists as a key influence, his parish pastor, Stoll, who was a strict Lutheran with a practical bent. Finally, there were several other devotional authors who influenced Spener during this period. Briefly, they are, Emmanuel Sothom's Golden Crown-Jewels of the Children of God, (which was written that "those who are Christian in name might become Christian also in deeds and in truth,") and Lewis Bailey's The Practice of Piety. 18 Any student of Spanner's work will recognize the themes of these British quietists readily.
Spener was a sharp student, and by the age of just 16 he was urged to enter the University. There he studied under well known Lutheran scholars, especially Dannhaur, who made him read the works of Luther. Spener was so taken by Luther that he would later claim that no other author since biblical times was as enlightened as he. It can fairly be said that Spener received his orthodox material (including his ecclesiology) from Luther through Dannhaur.19 As he moved toward completion of his education "he became increasingly biblically oriented and the theological writing which he engaged in becomes increasingly exegetical and practical. Gunberg notes that despite the fact that Spener was a contemporary of "Hobbies, Lock, Spines, and Albinos . . .and Bacon, Herbert of Cherry, and Descartes . . .[were] causing a philosophical revolution, Spener took almost no notice of their philosophical labors." 20
After graduation from class work, Spener took the customary 2 years of travels. One interesting stop in his journeys was in Geneva, where he was exposed to the charismatic French mystic, Jean de Labadie.
Labadie later became a mystical extremist, and a separatist (i.e. revolutionary against the established church). His doctrinal influence on Spener's will be considered later.
Spener was called to the pastorate in Frankfurt am Main in 1666. He immediately began to hold forth his views, which apparently remained relatively unchanged over the next 25 years. It was at Frankfurt that he began his collage pietatis in 1670 and published the Pia Desired.21
Within months, the Pia Desideria was known throughout the Lutheran church.
Spener was catapulted into fame, as already stated, by the publication of Pia Desideria in 1676. This little book has some very special qualities as described by Aland,
Spener stands altogether in the stream of a tradition, but with the means at our disposal it is not possible to demonstrate with certainty when he was actually dependent on it. This much is clear. But it is just as clear that he represents a unique phenomenon. Countless books were written on the same theme before and after Spener. None of them, however, even approaches the Pia Desideria in the conciseness and clarity of its thought and the grasp of its goal. . . All the ideas and all the proposals for a reform of existing conditions had been present again and again before him. . . Yet nobody but Spener was capable of putting them together in the way in which we find them in the Pia Desideria.22
The Pia Desideria contains the clearest summary of Spener's theology. Here the parts of the book are mentioned with short representative statements which give the feeling, or flavor of the work.
Spener begins with an introduction that cautions the clergy that they will not have to answer to God for how proficient they were at winning debates,
"Instead, we shall be asked how faithfully and with how childlike a heart we sought to further the kingdom of God; with how pure and godly a teaching and how worthy an example we tried to edify our hearers amid the scorn of the world...23
Spener's pattern of looking past the external and unimportant to the spiritual realities underlying the situation is immediately apparent.
After the introduction, the first section contains a lengthy lamentation over the condition of all three estates in German-Lutheran society. Of the first estate, the nobility, Spener complains that they do not use their governmental authority in the interest of building a Christian society.
How many of them there are who do not concern themselves at all with what is spiritual, who hold with Gallio that they have nothing to do with anything but the temporal!24
As already mentioned, the relation between the church and the state was a close one in Spener's day, and he saw nothing wrong with this, except for the fact that the nobility were not holding up their end of the bargain.
Of the second estate, the clergy, his main critique is that they have replaced the simple and clear preaching of the gospel with a morbid interest in controversial nit-picking. One source of this is the one-sided impractical education that the clergy receive at seminary.
When men's minds are stuffed with such a theology which, while it preserves the foundation of faith from the Scriptures, builds on it with so much wood, hay, and stubble of human inquisitiveness that the gold can no longer be seen, it becomes exceedingly difficult to grasp and find pleasure in the real simplicity of Christ and his teaching. This is so because men's taste becomes accustomed to the more charming things of reason,25 and after a while the simplicity of Christ and his teaching appears to be tasteless. Such knowledge, which remains without love, "puffs up" (I Cor. 8:1). It leaves man in his love of self; indeed, it fosters and strengthens such love more and more. Subtleties unknown to the Scriptures usually have their origin, in the case of those who introduce them, in a desire to exhibit their sagacity and their superiority over others, to have a great reputation, and to derive benefit therefrom in the world. . .They can hardly be kept from taking to market what gives them the most pleasure, and they generally concentrate on something that is not very edifying to their hearers who are seeking salvation."26
Finally, of the third estate, the peasants and the bourgeoisie, Spener deplores the lack of biblical morality. Examples that he focuses on include the presence of beggars and other poor who are ignored by the working Christians,27 heavy drinking and "riot,"28 and superficiality in the observance of church ordinances:
This leads many people to damnation and even strengthens a false and illusory conception of what constitutes true faith. There are many who think that this comprises all there is to christianity and thus they have done enough if they have been baptized, listen to the divine word in sermons, confessed, received the absolution, and gone to Holy Communion. 29
It is confusing to hear Spener argue against doctrinal wrangling and superficiality in a way very fit unto the modern fundamentalist church, and then turn around and attack drinking! One wonders whether he would reject or embrace modern fundamentalist churches.
Spener's denunciation of all forms of sin is thorough. Yet he does not believe in perfectionism. In the next section of the Pia Desideria, he sets forward a vision of a reformed Lutheran church.
If one wants to seek perfection one must abandon this life for the next. There alone can one find perfection but prior to eternity we cannot hope to have it. 30
On the other hand,
Therefore he is never further away from the conceit of perfection than when he works the most zealously to achieve perfection.31
He summarizes what he would like to see,
We know full well that a wheat field can never be discovered which is so clean that not a single weed can be found in it. But rather we advance to the point that the church is nonetheless free of public scandal and no one expected with scandal is living is left in the church without grave misgivings and finally exclusion, and the true members of the church realize that the degree of perfection with much fruitfulness.32
How was the Lutheran church to correct these deficiencies? In answer to this question, Spener supplied a series of proposals in the third section of the Pia Desideria.
First, there should be more focus on knowledge of the word not only for the clergy, but also for the laity. They should be taught to read it privately, and the clergy should read it and explain it publicly.
It is in this connection that Spener brought forward two of his most dramatic and far-reaching proposals--that the church renew Luther's emphasis on the priesthood of all believers, and that they do so through the initiation of collegia pietatis. These were small interactive meetings of lay Christians focusing on doing exposition of the Bible, admonition, and prayer. The meeting format described in I Cor. 14 was cited as the model for these meetings, which would meet in member's homes.
. . .perhaps it would even be useful if we again brought in to being the ancient apostolic way of gathering the church together, which leads to mature thinking. In addition to the customary sermons other gatherings would be held in the same way Paul in I Cor. 13 describes them. Instead of just one getting up to teach, which will still be done at other times, others who are blessed with talents and insight would also contribute. They would present their pious thoughts which might be instructive to the rest concerning the matters discussed without disorderliness or quarreling. . .What each one contributed would be examined by the rest especially by those whose calling was teaching, as to the conformity with the intent of the Holy Spirit in the scriptures and thus the whole group would be edified.33
Spener argued that this kind of structure was necessary because the people were not learning the Bible through the customary Sunday meetings.
Now if one gathers together all the texts which have been presented in many years one after another to one congregation there will be only a small part of the scripture which has been expounded. The congregation does not hear the rest at all, or they hear only a few sayings or directives which are mentioned in the sermon without being able to understand their whole significance even though there is something important in them. . .The people have little opportunity to grasp the understanding of the scripture in any other way then from the text that are interpreted to them. That they even have less opportunity to use the scriptures themselves as their edification requires.34
It was also needed in order to establish what Luther had called the "Spiritual Priesthood" as a reality rather than a dead letter. This must be done because,
. . .one of the foremost reasons why the minister cannot accomplish everything and carry out what should be easy, is that he is too weak without the help of the universal priesthood of all believers. One man is not enough among so many since to just one is usually entrusted the accomplishment of everything necessary for the edification of the people under his care.35
The fourth proposal had to do with the moral lives of the people. Here, Spener calls for clear teaching and admonition regarding loving God, and one's neighbor.
. . .when we awaken a fervent love among Christians--first for each other, then toward all mankind--both of which (love of bothers and love of mankind) must follow one another (II Pet. 1:7) - and bring it into practice. . .then almost everything we desire is accomplished.36
Changes in behavior when carrying out disputations was the fifth part of Spener's program. He agreed with Arndt that not all disputing is useful,"37 but felt that leaders should not abandon the practice of debate altogether because,
. . .the defense of the pure truth and thus also the disputation which are part of its defense, must be maintained within the church just as much as other functions ordained for the edification of the church. Christ, the apostles, and their followers stand out as blessed examples who also disputed, powerfully refuted the opposing errors and defended the truth. On the other hand those who want to take away and condemn this necessary use of the spiritual sword of the divine Word would plunge the Christian church into the greatest danger, in as much as it should be used against false teaching.38
However, they should use loving demeanor, should give no offense, whether it be from name calling, or an unloving lack of desire to win the disputant. He thought they should realize the limitations of disputations, and should accept those from other confessions who are close enough to be Christians. Finally, the disputer should practice love and good works to back up his argument.39
The fifth proposal dealt with correcting the deficiencies in the clergy. Spener argued that the seminaries should choose only qualified students, that is, morally qualified. An effort should be made to find out what their lives were like before they were admitted. Once there, the professors should supervise the lives of students, insisting on piety in addition to scholarship.40 They should terminate partying, joking around and "rioting," and should even give certificates from the seminary stating that the graduate was qualified to minister because of his godly life.41
He felt that disputing should be the focus of only the few in seminary, and that the others focus on knowing how to teach Christianity in German to their people. Thus, the focus of seminary would be to produce practical preachers, not idle, picky intellectuals.42
In order to school the private walk of the students, Spener recommends late medieval mystical books like Tauler, Theologica Deutsch (The German Theology) and Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ. These books, along with the Bible, are what in Spener's mind probably made Luther who he was. Arndt's own book is also of the sort desired.43
Finally, the sixth proposal is that existing clergy should preach sermons planned to further faith and fruit in the hearers. Like the sermons in Arndt's Postille, for which Pia Desideria was an introduction, they should not be designed to show how knowledgeable the preacher was, but to edify. In other words, sermons should be practical, while focusing on inner change, as well as outer. No sermon should ever be devoid of application.44
At last, Spener gives a short literary and bibliographical introduction to the volume of Arndt's sermons. He comments that, "In these spiritually enriching writings . . .he [Arndt] has directed everything to the true center, to the inner person."45
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