Happy 100th Issue to Pietisten!
Paying tribute to another Pietist publication
If you’ve found yourself resonating with any of my early autumn posts on Pietism, you should check out an older publication that also associates itself with that Christian tradition. Founded in 1986, Pietisten just published its 100th issue.
Named for the Swedish newspaper that helped support a religious revival in that country in the mid-19th century, Pietisten has drawn its writers and readers chiefly from the traditions descending from pietistic Swedish immigrants: the Evangelical Covenant Church, the Evangelical Free Church, the Baptist General Conference (now known as Converge), and the Augustana Synod tradition within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. But it has always had an ecumenical bent and an eclectic approach to publishing, with issues including everything from poems and recipes to sermons, book reviews, and regular columns.
I contributed to Pietisten regularly between 2012 and 2016, until my blogging and editing duties at The Anxious Bench forced me to step back. But I remain a devoted reader of a journal that is in the good hands of chief editor Mark Safstrom, a fellow Covenanter whom I first met when I helped organize a conference on Pietism at Bethel in 2009.
For the 100th issue, Mark explains that Pietisten bills itself as a “herald of awakening and spiritual upbuilding” as a nod to the language of the original periodical, which ran from 1842 to 1917. A professor of Scandinavian studies at Augustana College, Mark adds that Pietisten “echoes Søren Kierkegaard’s concept of ‘upbuilding’ as found in 1 Corinthians 8, where St. Paul states that ‘knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.’ In Danish, as with Swedish, the verb is ‘to upbuild’ (opbygge), something Kierkegaard demonstrates playfully in his ‘Works of Love.’ It remains our hope that this journal will continue to upbuild and awaken in that spirit.”
But while I treasure Pietisten for its attentiveness to the Pietist past, I agree with Mark that
this heritage has important things to say to our present and future. Pietism is something present in our lives and the way we approach the gospel. The past decade and a half has been marked by a rise of deconstructive and exclusionary movements in society and in the church. We see the ministry of Jesus as standing in stark opposition to such trends. The Jesus one encounters in the gospels demonstrated consistent disdain whenever those with more power sought to rationalize the exclusion of those with less, especially the vulnerable: those without food, water, shelter, and healthcare, as well as immigrants, refugees, and the incarcerated (Matthew 25:31-46).
Given that Pietisten identifies closely with a 19th century religious revival that was “interwoven with and adjacent to the great progressive movements of the time, including abolitionism, the Deaconess movement (healthcare), suffrage, and temperance,” Mark isn’t surprised that some critics interpret Pietism as “a sort of proxy term for progressive evangelicalism.” But he emphasizes that “the full scope of Jesus’ ministry is too vast to be co-opted by one political ideology” and remains “optimistic that making room for others is the best strategy for both church and society. If you would have our company, we are glad to have yours!”
To that end, you can learn more about Pietisten at its website. Most issues through 2024 are online, and you can subscribe ($20 for 1 year, $35 for two) to receive the print edition.