A. Philipp Jacob Spener
1. Spener was born in Germany in 1635.
2. In his day, there was much dead orthodoxy in the Luther church.
3. His views began to change with reading the English Puritans.
4. He established small groups of people within his church who were interested in a lively Christianity.
5. These meetings were called collegia pietatis, which is where the name Pietism came from.
6. Spener believed preaching should not be doctrinal or controversial, but should be practical.
7. He also emphasized the new birth as the beginning of the Christian life.
8. Spener died in 1705.
B. August Hermann Francke
1. Francke experience the new birth at age 24 in 1687.
2. He spent some time with Spener, who got him appointed to the University of Halle.
3. He started schools and orphanages and depended on praying in his support.
4. Francke was also instrumental in sending out missionaries.
5. He died 1727.
C. Count von Zinzendorf
1. Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf was born in Germany in 1700.
2. He was from a noble family.
3. He attended Franke's school as a youth and later studied law at Wittenburg.
4. In 1722, he allowed some families from the Bohemian Brethren to settle on his land to escape persecution.
5. Within a few years, hundreds of Brethren had moved to Herrnhut.
6. The combination of Zinzendorf's pietism and the Brethren's beliefs led to the founding of the Moravian Church in 1727.
7. The Moravians emphasized the new birth, assurance of salvation, prayer, and missions.
8. Count von Zinzendorf died in 1760.