Critiquing Mysticism and Pietism: Six Points (Bavinck)

 In his first volume of Reformed Ethics, Herman Bavinck spent quite some time discussing mysticism and pietism.  At the end of the section on mysticism and pietism, Bavinck wrote the following critique.  (For the record, I wish he would've expanded a bit on these points since they are helpful.) However justified mysticism and Pietism were in…

Pietism, Subjectivism, and Christian Worship (Clark)

The pietist movement and subjectivism are two things - among others - that have corroded, watered down, and weakened Christian worship in our day.  When all the emphasis is on the self, feelings, experiences, and emotions, you know you're in the realm of pietism and subjectivism. In this type of worship, the objective truths of Scripture -…

Avoiding False Spirituality/Spiritualities

There are many popular quasi- and pseudo-Christian spiritualities in existence today.  The “Christian” bestsellers typically include books about spirituality without a clear explanation of or belief in the gospel.  Some popular “Christian” authors deny key aspects of the historic faith and others talk about being spiritual without much dependence on Scripture.  You can find bestselling…

One Of The Great Mistakes Of Pietism

These are great words from a great book by Louis Berkhof: Assurance of Faith. “It was one of the great mistakes of the Pietism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that, in seeking the assurance of faith, or of salvation, it divorced itself too much from the Word of God.  The basis of assurance was…

Lutheran Pietism vs Lutheran Orthodoxy

This is a repost from January, 2008. A LCMS pastor and dear friend of mine recently gave me Bo Giertz’s Hammer of God to read as a sort of “fun” read.  It was not only fun, it was outstanding.  This book is fiction but it is based on historical and theological happenings in 19th century…