Pietism

American  

[pahy-i-tiz-uhm] / ˈpaɪ ɪˌtɪz əm /

noun

1. a movement, originating in the Lutheran Church in Germany in the 17th century, that stressed personal piety over religious formality and orthodoxy.

2. the principles and practices of the Pietists.

3. (lowercase) intensity of religious devotion or feeling.

4. (lowercase) exaggeration or affectation of piety.

   Synonyms:

   sanctimony

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pietism ¹ British  

/ ˈpaɪɪˌtɪzəm /

noun

1. a less common word for piety

2. excessive, exaggerated, or affected piety or saintliness

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Pietism ² British  

/ ˈpaɪɪˌtɪzəm /

noun

1. history a reform movement in the German Lutheran Churches during the 17th and 18th centuries that strove to renew the devotional ideal

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Other Word Forms

• Pietist noun
• pietist noun
• pietistic adjective
• pietistical adjective
• pietistically adverb

Etymology

Origin of Pietism

1690–1700; < German Pietismus < Latin piet ( ās ) piety + German -ismus -ism

Example Sentences

The difference was that he could not imagine finding that experience within Pietism.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 12, 2018

His faith was grounded in personal Pietism, a doctrine that ignored the political origins of injustice.

From Economist • Mar. 28, 2018

Renewed spiritual fervor and personal conviction gripped the German churches in a movement known as Pietism.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

He does offer some valuable hints, insisting, for example, on the importanceof the 17th- and 18th-century religious revival known as Pietism, which urged believers to devote themselves to improving life on earth.

From New York Times • Jul. 16, 2010

Pietism laid great store by helping congregations find God themselves, through personal acquaintance and knowledge of the scriptures, through humility, non-confrontation and piety, through an ethos of hard work, and through education.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall