Reformed Ethics, Volume 1 by Herman Bavinck

Author:Herman Bavinck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethics;Christian ethics—Reformed authors;Reformed Church—Doctrines;Theology;Doctrinal;REL028000;REL093000;REL067070
ISBN: 9781493414444
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2019-04-15T16:00:00+00:00

§20. Mysticism, Pietism, and Methodism1

Reform Movements

We begin with a brief overview of the ways the church has historically viewed the Christian life.2 Reformations occurred in Roman Catholic regions already before the time of the Protestant Reformation, including those of Pope Gregory VII (ca. 1015–85),3 Francis of Assisi (1181–1226), Peter Waldo (ca. 1140–ca. 1205),4 and the Congregation of Windesheim.5 This reformation of monasticism in the Middle Ages was actually considered a reformation of Christianity in general, especially because for Roman Catholics monasticism represented the true, ideal Christian life. The Middle Ages are full of such monastic reformations. Especially noteworthy among these are the reform of the Benedictine Order in Cluny (vow of silence) and the founding of the Franciscan Order (vow of poverty).6 Both were aimed at separating the orders from the world.7 The monastic orders were the cause of the distinction of a twofold morality, one for priests and the other for laity, a distinction between “counsels of perfection” and precepts. The monastic life was considered to be a higher order. But here, too, there were stages: from asceticism to contemplation and mysticism.8 In addition to their regular orders of “Friars Minor” and “Poor Clares” (the women’s Order of Saint Clare), the Franciscans created the secular “Third Order,” the members of which were allowed to remain in the world.9

The Reformation abolished these stages10 in the spiritual life altogether. It affirmed the same ideal of perfection for all Christians and a single moral code. The Reformation had a totally different understanding of the relationship of believers (the church) to the natural areas of life (family, occupation, state, society, etc.). The latter were not to be shunned but sanctified. Biblical texts that spoke of turning the other cheek, giving away one’s goods, etc. were interpreted “with a grain of salt.”11 But the Reformers did believe that progress in the spiritual life was accompanied by struggle and suffering, that it was not complete all at once but was a process. The two basic elements and activities of the spiritual life were also specified: repentance and faith.12 In addition, all of life was seen to consist of self-denial and cross-bearing.13 But actual stages of the spiritual life do not exist as yet [in Protestant understanding].

The Anabaptists, who led the Reformation astray, had different ideas.14 They wanted a congregation of saints, a kingdom of God (chiliasm) with strict separation of the converted and the unconverted (rebaptism). They also separated nature and grace,15 church and state, spiritual and worldly matters (separatism). And then in the church itself they held property in common, a kind of spiritual and physical communism, and organized all this into its own kingdom,16 establishing it with fanaticism. Thomas Müntzer, born in 1490, a mystic by nature and an admirer of Johannes Tauler,17 introduced a community of goods in Allstedt (Germany) in 1523, and members of the community had to experience penitential anxiety and the peace of being graced.18 In Switzerland the Anabaptist movement was led by Balthasar Hubmaier (1480–1528), Conrad Grebel (1498–1526), and Felix Manz (1498–1527).

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