Colloquium on Pietism

This year we’re focused on exploring some of the margins of Pietism studies and how Pietism has been reinvented in different historical and contemporary contexts. We have a great lineup of speakers for this year:

History of Scandinavian Pietism, featuring two scholars who last year published books on that topic. Mark Granquist of Luther Seminary not only published the first new history of Lutherans in America in decades, but edited a Scandinavian Pietist reader for Paulist Press. Mark Safstrom of the University of Illinois (and chief editor of Pietisten) published his own translations of two leading Swedish Pietists: C. O. Rosenius (this year marks his 200th birthday) and P. P. Waldenström.

Keynote address will feature the story of an African-American pastor who has been shaped by the legacy of Scandinavian Pietism. Efrem Smith, president and CEO of World Impact, will reflect on the “missional Pietism” that he learned as a pastor and conference superintendent in the Evangelical Covenant Church, a denomination founded by Swedish immigrants that it is now increasingly multi-ethnic. There will be a time of Q&A with Efrem following lunch. 

Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom, of North Park Theological Seminary, will be revisiting the chapters in her 2010 book on Pietist ethics on Johanna Eleonora Petersen and August Hermann Francke and explain how a Pietist ethos informs her understanding of the relationship between gender and Christianity and her commitment to social reform (in particular, her educational work in prisons).

Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom and Mark Safstrom will also be presenting a rough cut of their in-progress documentary film on the history of Pietism: God’s Glory, Neighbor’s Good.