pietism
Ostentatious religious fervor
Pietism began as a 17th-century Lutheran movement emphasizing personal devotion and emotional religious experience over formal doctrine and ritual.
In lowercase, pietism describes any approach to religion that stresses inner feeling and moral earnestness over theology or institutional practice.
The term often carries a faintly dismissive tone, suggesting excessive or performative piety: His pietism struck me as more about showing virtue than living it.
Address to deity
- worshipReligious reverence and praise
- holinessSacred spiritual purity
- devotionalRelating to worship
- reverenceProfound admiring respect
godliness · fervor · zeal · meditation · observance · Bible study · hymn · personal faith
Wesley's Protestant movement
- PuritanismProtestant reform movement
- ProtestantismReformation-era Christian movement
- conventicleIllicit religious assembly
- laityNon-ordained church members
sectarianism · denominationalism · evangelical · renewal · schism · ecclesiastical · brotherhood · fellowship
Spiritual guidance within oneself
- new birthSpiritual regeneration or conversion
- spiritual experienceProfound sense of transcendence
- contemplationSustained reflective attention
- illuminationProvision of light
quietism · transcendence · rapture · divine union · regeneration · conversion experience · awakening · numinous
Adherence to accepted beliefs
- scholasticismRigorous dialectical learning method
- formalismPrivileging structure over substance
- ecclesiologyStudy of church theology
- church disciplineCongregation's response to member sin
doctrine · theology · hermeneutics · exegesis · catechism · confession · institutionalism
Genuinely felt, not feigned
- ferventIntensely and sincerely felt
- devoutDeeply religious, sincere
- heartfeltDeeply and sincerely meant
- genuineTruly what it claims
zealous · committed · serious · dedicated · intense · steadfast · faithful · ardent
Restraining one's own desires
- abstinenceVoluntary forgoing of indulgences
- temperanceHabitual moderation in behavior
- austerityEnforced economic stringency
- disciplineTrained self-control or specialty
fasting · frugality · simplicity · sobriety · restraint · mortification · puritanical · spartan
prayer
Address to deity
- worshipReligious reverence and praise
- holinessSacred spiritual purity
- devotionalRelating to worship
reverence · godliness · fervor · zeal · meditation · observance · Bible study · hymn · personal faith · inner life
Methodism
Wesley's Protestant movement
- PuritanismProtestant reform movement
- ProtestantismReformation-era Christian movement
- conventicleIllicit religious assembly
laity · sectarianism · denominationalism · evangelical · renewal · schism · ecclesiastical · brotherhood · fellowship
inner light
Spiritual guidance within oneself
- new birthSpiritual regeneration or conversion
- spiritual experienceProfound sense of transcendence
- contemplationSustained reflective attention
illumination · quietism · transcendence · rapture · divine union · regeneration · conversion experience · awakening · numinous · beatitude
orthodoxy
Adherence to accepted beliefs
- scholasticismRigorous dialectical learning method
- formalismPrivileging structure over substance
- ecclesiologyStudy of church theology
church discipline · doctrine · theology · hermeneutics · exegesis · catechism · confession · institutionalism
sincere
Genuinely felt, not feigned
- ferventIntensely and sincerely felt
- devoutDeeply religious, sincere
- heartfeltDeeply and sincerely meant
genuine · zealous · committed · serious · dedicated · intense · steadfast · faithful · ardent · purposeful
self-denial
Restraining one's own desires
- abstinenceVoluntary forgoing of indulgences
- temperanceHabitual moderation in behavior
- austerityEnforced economic stringency
discipline · fasting · frugality · simplicity · sobriety · restraint · mortification · puritanical · spartan · modesty
- Frontier Religioncamp meetings, revivalism, revivals, tent revivals, Second Great Awakening
- German ProtestantismMartin Luther, 95 Theses, Lutheranism, Reformation, Wittenberg
- religious fervorfervor, zeal, zealotry, fanaticism, devotion
- religious stancesdevout, faithful, atheist, agnostic, reverent
- Puritanismpuritanism, moral purity, prudery, prudishness, strictness
- Nordic thoughtKierkegaard, either/or, fear and trembling, leap of faith, authenticity
pietismirreligion
Absence of faith
godlessness · impiety · atheism · secularism · unbelief
pietismhypocrisy
Pretense of virtue
sanctimoniousness · lip service · going through the motions · insincerity · outward show
pietismrationalism
Reason as knowledge source
scholasticism · formalism · ritualism · intellectualism · dogmatism