The Pietist movement that originated in Germany in the late seventeenth century played an important role in the creation of modern Protestantism, Western culture, and global Christianity, but it has been only in recent years that American scholars have begun to take it seriously as an object of research. Pietists experimented with new forms of spirituality, created new types of communities including utopian societies, established schools, published hymnals, and provided the first Protestant missionaries to non-European peoples. Pietism, like many social movements, is hard to define but is often described as a renewal movement within German Lutheranism that emphasized affective spirituality, the active involvement of the laity in church life, and the creation of voluntary societies for the promotion of morality and alleviation of human suffering. Since the year 2000 there have been a several international conferences on Pietism, one of which was sponsored by Bethel University in Minnesota in 2009.

The Pietist Impulse is a collection of some of the papers presented at that conference, and it offers a good entre into the complex world of the Pietists in Europe and America. The chapters by Jonathan Strom and Richard Pierard along with the editors' introduction are particularly helpful for those new to the field. Twenty-five authors are included in the collection, some of whom seem less familiar with Pietist studies than others. The diversity of topics is striking, and most people will use this volume selectively based on their own research interests. Contributions in this volume address topics as diverse as the hymnody of the Harmonists in America, the children's revival in Silesia, and the role of alchemy in radical Pietism. Roger Olson makes a strong case for the central role of Pietism in American church history, particularly in the evangelical movement. More should have been said about the influence of Pietism on African American Christianity, although Peter Heltzel's piece on Martin Luther King, Jr. is insightful. It is a little surprising this volume appears in a theological monograph series since it is not a monograph and not all of the contributions are theological in nature. In fact, it is not always clear if the focus of the conference was on the history of Pietism and Pietist groups or on ways that Pietism could be helpful for contemporary Christianity theologically and ecclesiastically. Some of the chapters focus too much on overcoming the unfortunate stigma that twentieth-century theologians and church history placed on Pietism rather than expanding our knowledge of Pietism.

One of the real contributions of the book is that John Wesley and the Methodists are presented as English Pietists. It is somewhat surprising that there is no chapter specifically devoted to Zinzendorf and the Herrnhuters although they figure prominently in many of the individual articles. Many of the chapters highlight the importance of Pietism in American denominations with roots in Northern and Central Europe. American historians, particularly church historians, tend to interpret North American history solely through English-language sources. The Pietist Impulse, for instance, reminds the reader that one of the most important influences on the famous Walter Rauschenbusch was his father, who was one of the most important representatives of nineteenth-century German Pietism. Two chapters look at the importance of Pietism on Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard, but more could have been done with their roles as transmitters of Pietist perspectives in modern theology. Church historians may be particularly interested in the chapters that address the importance of Gottfried Arnold's historical works on Pietist theologians and church leaders, including John Wesley. Pietism, like many renewal or reform movements, looked to the past as a way to restructure Christian communities in the modern era. Some of the controversy surrounding Pietism was the struggle over the meaning of the history of the church and the role of iconic figures, such as Martin Luther, in defining the meaning of the modern church.

Although there are many good features of this book, The Pietist Impulse suffers the weakness of most multi-author works in that the individual contributions vary in quality. Some of the chapters still read like oral presentations and treat their subject matter rather cursorily. There also is little that unites the twenty-five chapters other than the term Pietism interpreted broadly. The title promises more than this volume delivers since the book does not adequately describe what the Pietist “impulse” is nor does it adequately address the full scope of that impulse, but the individual contributions of The Pietist Impulse should prove helpful to historians of modern Christianity.