Latest Issue of In Part Focuses on Pietism

In Part — the magazine of the Brethren in Christ Church in the U.S. — has kicked off a four-part series titled “We Believe,” focusing on the four theological traditions that have shaped and continue to shape the Brethren in Christ Church. The first installment in the series, the winter 2012 issue, focused on Anabaptism.

The latest installment, the spring 2013 issue, focuses on Pietism. Specifically, it details how (for the Brethren in Christ) Pietism represents “Jesus within us.” The issue tackles this theological tradition from a number of angles: historical, theological, pastoral/practical, and autobiographical.

Be sure to check out Zach Spidel’s moving piece on how he has experienced (and continues to experience!) God’s grace throughout his spiritual journey; Kim Forry’s inspiring essay on the connection between her disability and her faith commitment; and Deb Wiles’ deeply affecting tale of finding spiritual and emotional healing in the wake of an abusive childhood.

These remarkable stories dwarf (in every sense of the word) my own meager contribution to the issue: an article on the Brethren in Christ’s Church’s Pietist heritage, and the ways in which Pietism continues to inspire the Brethren in Christ today.

To read all the articles in the winter 2012 issue, click here.

Lecture at the Young Center on March 19

The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College, where I’ll be giving a lecture on my research on the Brethren in Christ Church and American Evangelicalism on March 19th, 2013.

As announced in a previous post, I’ve been invited by the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College, to deliver a lecture on my research into the history of the Brethren in Christ Church and American Evangelicalism.

The lecture will take place at the Young Center on Tuesday, March 19, 2013, at 7:30pm.

The event is free and open to the public. I’d love to see some of my faithful readers in attendance!

A Pietism Reading List

Are you interested in learning more about the Pietist strand of the Brethren in Christ heritage? Then check out this very comprehensive reading list, prepared by Bethel University historian and “Pietist schoolman” Chris Gehrz.

Pia Desideria (pictured left), the classic treatise by “patriarch of Pietism” Philipp Jakob Spener, is recommended as an excellent primary source. Dale Brown’s Understanding Pietism (which is published by Evangel Press!) tops the list of secondary sources. Carlton Wittlinger’s Quest for Piety and Obedience gets a nice shout-out, as does The Search for Piety and Obedience. (Thanks, Chris!) I myself am hoping to dig into Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom’s Angels, Worms, and Bogeys: The Christian Ethic of Pietism later this year.

Happy Valentines Day!

I’m about 24 hours too late with this post, but here’s a Valentines Day greeting from The Search for Piety and Obedience.

Over at their Facebook page, the Messiah College Office of Alumni and Parent Relations shares this adorable video telling “love stories from Messiah College.” The series of interviews features several Brethren in Christ couples who met and got married at Messiah College. The video’s also embedded below. So sweet!

Brethren in Christ on the World Wide Web

Here are a few Brethren in Christ-related links that caught my attention over the past weeks!

- The Brethren in Christ in the U.S. have elected a new General Church leader: Carlisle Brethren in Christ Church senior pastor Alan Robinson.

- Is megachurch pastor and Myth of a Christian Nation author Greg Boyd thinking about joining the Brethren in Christ Church?

- Highlights from the annual YouthQuest conference sponsored by the Brethren in Christ.

- The Believers’ Church Bible Commentary series — a four-decade project to which several Brethren in Christ scholars have contributed — has a new editor.

Jacob Engel Day

A charcoal drawing of Jacob Engel, considered by many to be the father of the contemporary Brethren in Christ Church. (Brethren in Christ Historical Library and Archives)

Today is the anniversary of the death of Brethren in Christ/River Brethren patriarch Jacob Engel, who is buried in Marietta, Pennsylvania, in present-day Lancaster County.

Here’s a short bit of background on Engel, courtesy of the Transhistorical Body blog (maintained by our friends at Circle of Hope):

Jacob Engel (or Engle) died 0n February 10, 1833.  He arrived with his parents in Philadelphia in 1754. They left Switzerland because of the persecution Mennonites were facing. The family settled in Lancaster, PA. Township tax records indicate Jacob was a farmer, owner of a cloth processing mill, and a minister of average financial means.

As a young man, “Yokeli” was transformed when elements of the Pietist revival, which first began in Germany, reached rural Pennsylvania. When a religious awakening swept through the German-speaking settlements, Jacob, assisted by his brother John, became [one of] the leader[s] of the emerging River Brethren (ca. 1780).

Read the whole post here.

Today, three groups trace their ancestry to these River Brethren — the Brethren in Christ (U.S. and Canada), the Old Order River Brethren, and the United Zion Church. The groups recently collaborated on the placement of a historical marker. The marker celebrates the origins of the River Brethren group, and is placed near the home where Engel, his wife, and his daughter Magdalena lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Little is known about Engel, especially his ministry, though most Brethren in Christ consider Engel as a significant figure in the origins of the group.

You can learn more about Engel and his gravesite in this post.

Speaking at the Young Center at Elizabethtown College

The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College does great work. Their conferences and events bring to campus well-respected historians, theologians, and other scholars from around the world, and they are internationally recognized for their leadership in Amish studies.

That’s why I was honored when Jeff Bach, the Center’s director, invited me to speak at the Young Center this spring.

My lecture, “Born-Again Brethren: Religious Identity in an Age of Evangelicalism,” will draw on the research from my master’s thesis in exploring how cultural and religious forces affected the identity of the Brethren in Christ Church in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Here’s a synopsis:

Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, the Brethren in Christ Church transformed from a small, separatist religious society into a growing mainstream evangelical denomination. Central to this transformation was the church’s increasing investment in the larger American neo-evangelical movement. This lecture will examine the ways Brethren in Christ members ratified or resisted the claims of the neo-evangelical movement in an effort to construct a new identity for their denomination.

If you’re in the central PA area, I’d love to see you at the lecture!