German Neo-Pietism and the Formation of National Identity

Bibliographic Data

ID3456804
AuthorsDoron Avraham (0000-0001-8833-7932, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume88
Issue1
Pages87-119
Publication date2019-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueChurch History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-6407 • E-ISSN: 1755-2613
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0009640719000544
OpenAlexW2945651622
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited38

In the early nineteenth century, a neo-Pietist circle of awakened Protestants emerged in Prussia and other German lands. Disturbed by the consequences of the French Revolution, the ensuing reforms and the rising national movement, these neo-Pietists-among them noble estate owners, theologians, and other scholars-tried to introduce an alternative meaning for the alliance between state and religion. Drawing on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century pietist traditions, neo-Pietists fused their keen religious devotion with newly constructed conservative ideals, thus rehabilitating the legitimacy of political authority while investing the people's confession with additional meaning. At the same time, and through the same pietistic source of inspiration, conservative neo-Pietists forged their own understanding of national identity: its origins, values, and implications. In this regard, and against the prevailing view of the antagonist stance taken by Christian conservatives toward nationalism in the first half on the nineteenth century, this article argues for the consolidation of certain concepts of German national identity within Christian conservatism

German · Legitimacy · Meaning (existential) · National identity · Nationalism · Pietism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · European Political History Analysis · Historical Legal Studies and Society · History · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious studies

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