Spener

Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705).
Pia Desideria: oder Herzliches Verlangen nach Gottgefälliger Besserung der Wahren Evangelischen Kirche.
Leipzig: K. F. Köhler, 1841.
(36853)

Lutheran minister and theologian Phillip Jakob Spener has been called the patriarch of German Pietism. His contributions to the movement include starting weekly small group Bible study and prayer meetings within churches (collegia pietatis) and establishing the University of Halle as a center for Pietist thought.

Spener’s seminal work, Pia Desideria… (“Heartfelt Desire for a God-pleasing Reform of the True Evangelical Church”), first published in 1675, presented a six-point plan for renewing Christianity and provided the movement its name. This classic of Christian literature remains in print today. The earliest copy at Bridwell Library was published in Leipzig in 1841. 

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