The Revival in Mülheim and Surrounding District⤒🔗

My thoughts recently have been with the great revival which began in Mülheim¹ in the 1660s and spread across Europe and the United States, lasting a hundred years. Both the Reformed and Lutheran churches of those times produced men and women of sterling Christian character who have sadly been forgotten ­not only by the world but also by the churches. Joel Beeke, in his book, Forerunner of the Great Awakening, on the life of Theodore Jacob Frelinghuysen, has given us some insight into this revival, and admirers of Spur­geon and George Muller will also know of Hermann August Franke's influence on these two men. Lovers of our great seventeenth and eighteenth-century hymns are also familiar with the works of Paul Gerhardt ("O Sacred Head! Now wounded"), Joachim Neander ("Praise to the Lord, the Almighty") and Gerhard Ter­steegen ("Lo, God is here!"). Few will have heard of the initiator under God of this glorious Awakening, Theodore Untereyck, but some may have heard the name of Philip Jacob Spener, my present subject, who took this Reformed revival into Lutheran territories.

Pure, Spotless, and Successful←⤒🔗

Spener, described by his contemporaries as "the purest and most spotless in character and the most success­ful in his work," was born on January 13, 1635 in Rappolsweiler, Upper Alsace. His parents, Duchy Reg­istrar Johann Philipp and Agathe (née Salzman) Spener, were Strasburg people and he was educated in that city. Strasburg was a turbulent place to live in, often tossed from one side of the German-French border to the other. Chiefly because of the resulting bi-lingual nature of Alsace, the city became an international cen­ter of culture and, under Martin Bucer, the first state in Upper Germany to become truly Reformed. Indeed, while Luther was still struggling in Wittenberg against Rome, and the Augsburg Confession had not been drawn up with its still Rome-tainted Tenth Article on the Lord's Supper, by 1521, Strasburg was won more securely than Wittenberg for the Reformation. It was Bucer 's Strasburg Order and articles that influenced the exiled Continental churches in England² and even the 1552 Prayer Book and which was used in a modified form by the French, Dutch, and English exiled churches at Frankfurt and Geneva during the Marian persecu­tions. Thus, English exiles such as John Hooper, when exiled in the days of Henry VIII, commuted between Strasburg and her confederate partner Zurich, where Henry Bullinger ministered, and took the good news from these parts back to England when good King Edward VI reigned.

Reformation Setbacks←⤒🔗

The Reformation in Strasburg, however, was to expe­rience two great setbacks. After the Schmalkaldian defeat of the German Protestant states, Emperor Charles drove Bucer and his associates from Strasburg and they settled in England, where Bucer died. After the Peace of Augsburg, the Reformed churches were left out of the deal and Strasburg came more and more under the sway of cold, Lutheran orthodoxy. It was in this atmosphere that Spener decided to study theology, but he was never affected by it. This was because most of his private reading was taken up with the works of the English Reformers and with those of Johann Arndt who had studied theology in Strasburg and Basel in better days.

Arndt published his True Christianity in six volumes between 1605 and 1609 under much opposition from his colleagues. Paulus Scharpff in his History of Evan­gelisation argues that these were among the very first books to be published by the German Reformation on evangelism.³ They have remained a great strength to German Christians up to the present day. True Chris­tianity was followed by Arndt's Garden of Paradise in 1612, which became almost equally successful. Such books taught Spener that orthodoxy was not enough and Christian thought must be made known through Christian action. So, too, Spener was protected from cold orthodoxy by his near-relative Count Rappolt­stein whose widow and Spener's godmother was a fine Christian and employed a godly court preacher, Joachim Stoll. The latter was able to lead young Spener along paths of righteousness. Stoll married Spener's sister and Spener confessed of his brother-in-law that he owed to him the first sparks of Christian­ity in his soul.

Spener enters Strasburg University←⤒🔗

In 1651, aged sixteen, Spener matriculated at Strasburg University and immediately began to study history, lit­erature, the classics, and theology enthusiastically. It is said that within nine months he could debate fluently in Greek and Hebrew. His professors were a very mixed group but among them was Sebastian Schmidt, who was the greatest exegete of his day, and Johann Schmidt, who, with the Spirit's blessing, led Spener to Christ. Under such excellent tutorship, Spener soon gained his bachelor degree and took his M.A. while only eighteen. In those days, students were encouraged to finish their studies abroad and so, after graduating at Strasburg, Spener went on to study Hebrew under the famous Buxtorf at Basel, which was followed by a year at Geneva where he studied under Labardie who had been involved with the revival in North-Rhine Wesphalia mentioned above. Multi-lingual Spener thanked his tutor by translating his Manuel de priere into German.

The Call to Frankfurt←⤒🔗

Ten years after starting his academic studies, Spener, now Doctor of Divinity, retired from earning univer­sity honors to minister in Würtenburg and tutor the new Count Rappoltstein. But Strasburg called him back to the city two years later and appointed him as Freiprediger⁴ and university lecturer. By now, however, Spener 's reputation as a scholar and as a godly man had spread throughout Germany and, at the early age of thirty-one, Spener, now married to a lady from Strasburg who was to bear him eleven children, was called as 'Senior' to the Frankfurt-am-Maine churches.

The Frankfurt Lutherans had a reputation of culti­vating an institution rather than a church where entry and promotion was through the barren rote learning of Lutheran formulas and paying lip service to the Christian way of life which they did not practice. It was at Frankfurt that the English Reformed exiles had found harsh criticism and opposition from the so-called Gne­sio-Lutherans (purists) a century previously and Frankfurt had not changed. Spener did away with the mere rote learning of his predecessors and taught that purity of doctrine was nothing if not accompanied by purity of life. His emphasis in preaching was on con­version. This caused him to abandon the pericopes (set readings according to the ecclesiastical year) of Scrip­ture which the Lutherans used in preaching, feeling that they often side-stepped much essential teaching. Spener then urged his clergy to adopt an exegetical ministry based on the whole Bible. His colleagues protested that the people needed a priest, not a school­master. Spener then restored the lost pastoral prac­tices of catechizing, confirmation, and encouraged public testimony, introducing preparatory courses for those who wished to take communion. This and Spener's preaching on the false righteousness of the Pharisees resulted in many of the rich righteous-over­much in the city congregations protesting loudly that their new pious pastor was over-stepping his mark. Yet the common people heard Spener gladly.

Soon, Spener found that the more practical Chris­tians in the churches wished to worship in separation from the mere traditionalists and institute-minded and Spener feared that he was fostering a church within a church divided between the righteous-over-much and the holier-than-thou. Through Spener's objective min­istry, church splits were avoided and Spener was able to spend the bulk of his time in Frankfurt until 1686 ministering to a united church.

In 1675, Spener published his Pia Desideria, described in its sub-title as "A heartfelt longing for a God-pleasing reformation of true evangelical churches," recommending six remedies against lethargy among professing Christians. This work became famous throughout all Germany, except in Strasburg where the theologians thought Spener was trading in his high scholarship for devotional plati­tudes. Many of Spener's court friends turned against him and one scholar named Dilfeld published his Theosophia Horbio-Speneriana against Spener, arguing that conversion was not necessary for theological acu­men. Spener replied with his Gottesgelehrtheit, explain­ing the difference between head and soul religions. Now Spener was accused of fostering Separatism, but he wrote his Klage über das vedorbene Christenthum, Misbrauch and rechter Brauch in answer, arguing that his wish was to build up the churches, rather than split them.

Spener had been following the practice of the Reformed churches in Mülheim and Switzerland where people met with their pastor or an elder after the Sun­day service and discussed what they had learned, seek­ing application in their own lives. Spener showed that his way was the best, as during the revivals the estab­lished Reformed and Lutheran churches grew at a rapid rate whereas Separatism in Germany first became a major issue in the late nineteenth century. Under such godly men as Johnn Gerhard Oncken, this Separatism remained in close contact with the established churches and allied with them in the Christian Alliance and Kirchentag.⁵

Spener's Ministry at Dresden and Berlin←⤒🔗

In 1686, Spener was called by Elector George III and the church consistory to Dresden to receive the high­est ecclesiastical post at that time in Lutheran Ger­many. The Elector had heard Spener preach on his visits to Frankfurt and was determined to secure him for his capital and as his court preacher. Spener left Frankfurt with very mixed feelings, knowing that it would be more difficult witnessing to George than preaching to the Dresden churches. Leipzig Univer­sity was opposed to the move as they felt that Spener destroyed the pure scientific nature of theology with his emphasis on the religion of the heart. They argued that Spener the preacher obstructed Spener the scholar so that his teaching fell between two positions. Spener rejected any such splitting up of the needs of sinners, arguing that sound scholarship and sound piety must go hand in hand.

Most of this criticism was mere professional jeal­ousy because Elector George had given a stranger the important post and overlooked the local university men. They were also angry that Spener had criticized the universities for neglecting exegetical studies. They grumbled, too, because Spener, besides introducing Bible studies for his congregation, had set up collegia biblica for those, whether clergy or laity, with a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew to study the Scrip­tures in the original languages. Spener's critics claimed that such studies were the prerogative of the professional ministry alone. Soon, however, Leipzig's oppo­sition grew less and less as many young theology students such as Franke found new spiritual life under Spener's teaching.

Further trouble for Spener was caused by the Elec­tor who neglected church attendance and had appar­ently ceased to live as a professing Christian. Spener wrote a pastoral letter to George, urging him to main­tain a strong Christian testimony in his domains. This caused the Elector to swear that he would have noth­ing more to do with Spener and it would be better for him if he fled the country. On hearing of George's wrath against Spener, Leipzig now openly demanded Spener's removal. George suddenly died and the Leipzig protests died with George's death.

At this time, however, Spener was mercifully called to Berlin to take up a position in the Brandenburg con­sistory and to an appointment as Provost of Saint Nico­lai, which formerly Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) had pastored. At Berlin, Spener was opposed by Elector Frederick III's wife, Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, but the congregation at St. Nicolai was far greater than that of Dresden and welcomed their new pastor. Spener also found support from other members of the court and among university men. As was his usage, Spener immediately set up a congregational Bible Study and began to train suitable young men for the ministry. Several of Spener's Bible-believing student friends from Leipzig and Berlin, on graduating, took up duties at the new theological faculty of Halle, founded by Spener in 1694. Spener's influence in Halle, through Franke, and Copenhagen, through court preacher Lütkens and King Frederick IV, led to the first German and Danish mis­sionary college and society being founded, which sent Bartholomew Ziegenbalg (1682-1719) and Heinrich Plütschau (1677-1747) to set up the first Protestant mission in Tranquebar, India. When Carey was called to follow in the footsteps of Ziegenbalg and Plütschau, he found spiritual and financial support from the Danes and the Danish royal family.

Now Spener began to write more profusely, pub­lishing sixty-six sermons on regeneration and works on true, saving faith, and Christian responsibility, besides a number of Bible commentaries. Spener's pas­toral letters to his flock and correspondence with other ministers became so numerous that the Emperor ruled that his letters were necessary for the benefit of his realms so they must be granted free postage. Luther's old university of Wittenberg became appalled at the popularity of Spener, now hailed as a new Luther, and took over Leipzig's former criticisms. In 1695, they published a work condemning Spener as a heretic on no less than 283 counts. This increased Spener's pop­ularity to no end as all Germany laughed at the folly of the university dons. The charges were easily dis­proved and it was shown that the Wittenberg profes­sors, in their zeal to discredit Spener, had put their names to a document which they cannot possibly have read and which contained the fantasies of a man known to be mentally deranged.

Combating False Ecumenical Ideas←⤒🔗

Meanwhile, many Lutheran ministers, never far from Rome in their sacramentalism, had begun to depart from Luther's Reformation principles through the the­ology taught by George Calixtus (1586-1656), who believed he was walking in Melanchthon's footsteps. Calixtus had the idea of reconciling Roman Catholics, Reformed, and Lutherans, sometimes ignoring all the things that separated them and at other times com­bining everything they individually believed. The result was that he was looked upon by those who disagreed with him as either a Crypto-papist or a Crypto-Calvin­ist. The Konigsberg divines followed the Calixtus path so closely that they soon found themselves wandering back to Rome.

Frederick III now asked Spener to use his pen and pulpit influence to denounce this Romeward trend. Spener wrote his Der evangelischen Kirche Rettung vor falschen Beschuldigungen in 1695 which helped enor­mously to put the east German Lutheran churches back on the right path. Sadly, however, the Elector of Sax­ony, whose forefathers had supported Luther's initial Reformation, led his family and court back to Rome.

From Black Sorrow to White Joy←⤒🔗

During Spener's final years, he was busy defending the eternal divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ against Polish, Hungarian, and East German denials of the doctrine and, at last, he began to see a growth in true Christ­ian piety in his church. The Lutheran ministers now began to depart from their sacramental idea that the mechanical performance of rites and rituals, including baptism and the Lord's Supper, brought salvation. The ordinary people now realized that the church was not a purely clerical system and that they shared the responsibility of gospel piety and witness.

Spener felt death approaching towards the begin­ning of 1705. On his deathbed, he remembered a book called Rivet's Last Hours (Riveti horae novissimae) which had proved of great comfort to him in younger days. He called his friend Hilderbrand van Canstein to his bedside and asked him to bring him the book which he then read again, receiving the same comfort from Dr. Rivet's godly testimony that he had received in his youth. He then asked his friends to wear no black sign of mourning at his funeral and told them:

I have been a sorrowful man these many years, lamenting the deplorable state of Christ's church militant here on earth; but now, being upon the point of retiring into the church triumphant in heaven, I will not have the least mark of sorrow left upon me; but my body shall be wrapped up all over in white, for a testimony that I die in expec­tation of a better and more glorious state to come.⁶

On the day before he died, Spener asked that the glo­rious seventeenth chapter of John should be read to him. He confessed that this was his favorite passage of Scripture, but he had never preached on it as it was beyond his comprehension. After asking to hear the chapter read for a second and third time, Spener told his friends, quoting Luke 2:29-32, he would now depart in peace and fell into a sweet sleep. Next morn­ing, February 5, 1705, Spener's friends placed him in a chair but they soon realized that he was dying and hurried to put him back into bed. Before they could do so, Spener died in the arms of his wife.

Spener was called home before seeing the ripest fruit of his labors. True revival broke out in Berlin in 1708 and entered even the Prussian Royal family; the king, the churches, and the country were able to wor­ship God together in happy unison.