1 research outputs found
'Awakening movement' in early nineteenth-century Germany: the making of a modern and orthodox Protestantism
This thesis examines the ‘Awakening movement’ (Erweckungsbewegung) in
German Protestantism during the Vormärz period (1815-48) in German history. Many
historians have noted that the Awakening was the last nationwide Protestant reform and
revival movement to occur in Germany. This thesis interprets the Awakening movement
as a product of the larger social changes that were re-shaping German society during the
Vormärz period. Theologically, Awakened Protestants were traditionalists. They
affirmed religious doctrines that orthodox Protestants had professed since the
confessional statements of the Reformation-era. However, Awakened Protestants were
also distinctly modern. Their efforts to spread their religious beliefs were successful
because of the new political freedoms and economic opportunities that emerged in the
early nineteenth century. These social conditions gave members of the emerging
German middle class new means and abilities to pursue their religious goals. Awakened
Protestants started many academic and popular publications, voluntary societies, and
institutions for social reform. Adapting Protestantism to modern society in these ways
was the most original and innovative aspect of the Awakening movement. After an
introductory chapter, this study proceeds to discuss Awakened Protestants’ religious
identity in relation to the history of the German Protestant tradition. Chapter one
examines the historical development of the conception of religious ‘awakening’ within
German Protestant thought from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Chapter two
then analyses how the Awakening movement was animated by a particular set of
objections to the eighteenth-century religious Enlightenment and to the Christianity of
those who called themselves Protestant ‘rationalists’. Chapters three through six
consider how the Awakening movement developed within four distinct areas of
Protestant religious life: preaching, academic theology, organised evangelism, and
pastoral initiatives. The thesis concludes that the Awakening movement represented the
realisation of certain long-term reform goals that Martin Luther had defined in the
1520s. It was a type of Protestantism, whose appearance had previously been inhibited
by the limitations of the social, political, and economic conditions of the early modern
period. This thesis is the first substantial analysis of the Awakening written in English