Pious feelings. Images and Texts in Books of Pietism

In the six-part picture story in Johann Heinrich Reitz's (1665-1729) collected biography Historie der Wiedergebohrnen, the Christian's journey from his entanglement in the world to his conversion and rebirth is presented in an ideal-typical way. In the pictorial allegory, the personified soul meets divine love in childlike form with wings and halo. The title of the book, the copperplate engraving and the example narratives of many known and unknown men, women and children of all classes are related to each other like a classical three-part emblem with motto, pictura (picture) and explanation. The title takes over the function of the motto: »How the same [soul] was first drawn [image I] and converted by God, and after many struggles [image II] and anxieties [image 3] was brought to faith [image V] and peace of conscience« [image VI] by God's Spirit and Word [image IV]. The narratives throughout the book can be interpreted as an interpretation of the motto and pictorial programme. The engraver Johann Friedrich Eggelhoff (1680-1731) borrowed the pictorial motifs I, II, IV and VI from the early Baroque Flemish emblematics in the Pia desideria of the Jesuit Hermann Hugo (1588-1629).

1 [Pictorial Motif I.]

The pictorial motif I in Reitz` Historie der Wiedergebohrnen is taken from Hermann Hugo`s Pia Desideria. The entanglement in the world is symbolised by the jester with his typical attributes such as a flag, a bell cap and a wooden horse.

2 [Pictorial Motif IV.]

»The soul before the curtain«. Copper engraving. In: Luyken, Jan: Voncken Der Liefde Jesu, [...] Den Tweeden Druk. Amsterdam: Arentsz, 1692. The image motif IV from Reitz's collective biography is reproduced here in an adaptation by the engraver Jan Luyken (1649-1712), to whom Reitz dedicates a detailed biography in his work. It is given a new meaning. In Hermann Hugo's imagery, the soul in front of the curtain laments the fact that the beloved is hidden behind the curtain - in Luyken's case a stone wall. In the picture in the Historie der Wiedergebohrnen, the soul stands with open hands in front of the curtain behind which the divine Cupid is hidden. She realises that salvation cannot be achieved by her own merits, symbolised by the empty hands, but only by trusting in God's grace hidden behind the curtain. 3.

3 [Pictorial Motif V.]

»The Imitation of Christ«. Picture V of Reitz' picture programme is taken from the doctrinal treatise The Imitation of Jesus Christ from 1707, also written by Reitz, and is by the engraver Gabriel Uhlich (1682-1741). The soul ascends naked from the place of the skull on a ladder to the cross and leaves all the attributes of the world, enclosed by the devil's ring of the serpent, behind on earth. In this way, her discipleship on the path of Christ's suffering and the metaphor often used in Pietism of the 'stripping of the old Adam' as a prerequisite for participation in God's grace are vividly and drastically symbolised. The skulls lying on the ground, from which blossoms, ears of corn and vines grow, stand for the new life that overcomes death and the devil.

4 [Pictorial Motif VI.]

»The longing of the soul«. This longing of the soul for the dwellings of the Lord in the heavenly Jerusalem is at the centre of the copperplate engraving and prayer meditation by Johanna Eleonora Petersen (1644-1724), who in her Hertzen's Gespräche mit Gott referred to the heart as the seat of the felt knowledge of God and to her own religious experience. The longing of the soul completely fills the interior and is perceived and felt as an inner certainty of being on the irreversible path to the New Jerusalem and thus to God. Petersen oriented himself on Hermann Hugo's Pia desideria. The pictorial motif shown here was taken up, varied and reinterpreted in Protestant devotional literature. In Petersen's work, the Catholic depiction of God on the throne of heaven was replaced by the heavenly Jerusalem or simply the name Jehovah in Reitz's Historie der Wiedergebohrnen.

The title page of Johann Porst's (1668-1728) Theologia Viatorum Practica Oder Die Göttliche Führung Der Seelen Auf dem Wege zur seligen Ewigkeit illustrates in five numbered circular images the Christian's journey from his entanglement in the world to his rebirth. The pictorial programme is not based on the emblematic tradition - as in Reitz's Historie der Wiedergebohrnen - but on the biblical tradition. Here, too, the copperplate engravings illustrate the contents of the 1,700-page work, which are briefly and succinctly summarised in the title: »Therein shown, How man in safety goes [image 1]/ therefrom awakened [image 2]/ variously tempted [image 3], led into repentance [image 4], and in faith is brought to the enjoyment of all goods of grace and salvation [image 5]." Johann Porst, provost at the Nicolai Church in Berlin, created this practical guide for the publishing house of the Halle Orphanage, primarily for preachers and Christian teachers, but also for interested souls, who were to "read through the work chapter by chapter with a simple heart« and be »guided« in the process. The title booklet provided an initial »guidance of souls« that directly appealed to the mind and senses.

While the Theologia Viatorum Practica aims to guide and accompany believers on the path to rebirth, Johann Porst's Theologia Practica Regenitorum is addressed to those who have already been awakened, the born-again, who were required on the path through their ages to accept the temptations and challenges sent by God, to grow steadily in the daily practice of faith and to be perfected in blessed eternity. The engraving shows Jesus as the good shepherd, caring for his flock of lambs, young and old sheep, protecting them and pointing them in the right direction, above them in heaven God the Father with the Lamb of God and the blessed at the »living fountain of water«, an ever-flowing spring as a symbol of eternity. The image of the good shepherd may have had a comforting and strengthening effect on many believers to walk the arduous path of temptations in faith and, like the sheep in the flock, to trust in God and his message of salvation.

Gottfried Arnold's work on the lives of early church models is preceded by two copperplate engravings. On the left side, the faithful are staged in solitude praying to God (above) and studying the New Testament (below). Below and beside the reader are arranged the symbols of the world, from which he turns away and towards God. This is the desired behaviour that believers are to follow. On the right side, the path of light is marked out, which can only be followed through a narrow gate; separated from it - in the lower part of the picture - are the paths of darkness and error. Both paths are flanked by human behaviour, virtues and vices, which are assigned either to darkness or to light. These also include feelings such as despair and fear vs. contrition of heart and joy.

Johann Jakob Rambach (1693-1735) compiled exemplary stories of pious children for children, which illustrated desirable pious behaviour and were intended to inspire imitation. Children thus learned which behaviours were desirable and which were undesirable in Christianity. In the preface, Rambach addresses the children directly: »You will find examples of pious, obedient, reverent, grateful, merciful, chaste, humble, patient, even such children as have allowed themselves to be tortured to death for the sake of Christ«. Good children are therefore God-fearing children who learn, practise and internalise religious emotional practices.

Liturgical and Emotional Communion in the Herrnhut Brethren Community

The four copperplate engravings show the reception into the Herrnhut Brethren Community, the shared eating of the previously distributed, blessed bread (participation) and subsequent worship of the Lord (prostratio) within the framework of the Lord's Supper, as well as the children's love feast (agape). They belong to sixteen plates engraved by Johann Rudolph Holzhalb (1723-1806), which were added to the so-called Zeremonienbüchlein of 1757 to illustrate the text. The author or editor was probably David Cranz (1723-1777), one of the closest associates of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760). The Zeremonienbüchlein is a confessional self-portrayal of the Church of the Moravian Unity in Herrnhut, which informs about the history, the theological self-understanding, the constitutional structures and above all about the liturgical life of the Unity. That the detailed explanation of the church customs was of particular importance is reflected in its designation as a Zeremonienbüchlein.

Zinzendorf understood the experience of faith as a living feeling in the heart. His goal, that true faith had to become visible in all areas of life, was served by the creation of a strict liturgy through which daily life and rituals in the Herrnhut communities were structured. According to Zinzendorf's conviction, being a Christian was not possible without community. The rituals served to create this sense of community, based on emotional norms.

Plate II. Admission to the Brüder-Gemeine.

Admission to the Brüdergemeinde through the kiss of peace and a prayer on the knees took place monthly on "Gemein-Tag" (usually the next Monday after communion).

Plate X. Participation.

Part of the Lord's Supper was the communal eating of the previously distributed, blessed bread (participation). The solemn administration of the Lord's Supper served to create a feeling of deep communion and fellowship.

Plate XI. Prostratio.

Immediately following the participation, the communal worship of the Lord (prostratio) took place. Originally common in the Herrnhut Brethren community, free prayer communities were abolished by Zinzendorf because of his liturgically influenced view of prayer. They were replaced by regularly intoned, pre-formulated prayer chants called litanies. They were each addressed to one of the members of the divine family, i.e. to the Father, Mother (Holy Spirit) or Son. While the Mother and Son were worshipped kneeling, the Father was worshipped lying on his face in the form of the prostratio (Latin for "prostration") as a sign of humility.

Plate XIV. Agape of the children.

One of the communal spiritual experiences of the Herrnhut Brethren community was the Herrnhut Love Meal (Agape), a social gathering that quickly developed into a liturgical meal. It was inspired by Gottfried Arnold's (1666-1714) book First Love of the Community of Jesus. The early church agape celebration described therein can be seen as a continuation of the table fellowship with Jesus of Naza-reth and was now revived in this way. According to Zinzendorf's conception, Jesus Christ was the "head and elder" of his congregation, around whom the believers gathered.

(Engravings from: David Cranz: Kurze, zuverläßige Nachricht [...]. [o.O.] 1757.)

The frontispiece in Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen's (1670-1739) Predigten über die Sonn- und Fest-Tages-Episteln is the only pictorial example with heart symbolism known from the literature of Hallian Pietism. On the one hand, seven winged and inflamed hearts can be seen, each with an open eye looking straight ahead. Each of these hearts is assigned a name by a banner, whereby they can be identified as the hearts of important men from the Old and New Testaments. They are transmitters of God's word, which explains their position in the engraving between God at the top of the picture and the Christians, represented by another seven hearts with an inscribed cross at the bottom of the picture.

§. 4. Vielweniger ist es der Eigen=Sinn, Eigen=Willen und Bosheit, wie mancher nicht so wol über die Sünde, als über der Sünden Straffe weinet, oder auch darum weinet, weil er seinen Willen nicht haben kan, oder das Irrdische verlassen und verleugnen soll. Es. 15, 2.5.

§. 5. Gleichfals ist diese Quelle der Thränen nicht das blosse Gesetz. Diß fordert wol von dir Thränen, kan dir aber die rechte Thränen nicht geben, Joel 2, 12. und die es auspreßt, sind noch nicht die rechten, I Mos.27,38. I Kön. 21,27. denn sie kommen aus einem knechtischen Hertzen und sind was erzwungenes, so GOtt nicht gefället. Ps.110, 3.

§. 6. Noch sind das keine rechte Thränen, die aus dem blossen und natürlichen Andencken der überstandenen Leiden und Trübsalen bey dir entstehen möchten, oder wenn du, da dich GOtt mit leiblichen Wolthaten überschüttet, aus blosser Eigen=Liebe zu dir, häuffige Thränen vergiessest; oder wenn dich andere fleischliche Menschen trösten, und du darüber weinest.

§. 7. Die rechte Quelle der Thränen ist auch nicht der Misbrauch des Evangelii, wenn du den Trost desselben nur der Straffe der Sünden, nicht aber der Sünde selbst entgegen setzest, und über solchen fleischlichen Trost auch wol vor Freuden weinest.

§. 8. Die rechte Quelle hingegen, woraus die rechte Buß=Thränen fliessen, ist das zerknirschte, das aus liebe GOttes verwundete und zu GOtt wahrhafftig bekehrte Hertz. In diesem wircket der Heil. Geist selbst die rechte Thränen, wenn Er darin GOttes Gerechtigkeit und Liebe, und Christi Tod und Verdienst verkläret, und das alles gegen dein Hertz und Gewissen hält. Da zerschmelzet und zerfliesset das Hertz gleichsam in Thränen, und du wirst GOTT ein rechtes Thränen=Opffer. Ebr. 5, 7.

§. 9. Es wircket aber der Heil. Geist solche Thränen in dir durch das H. Wort GOttes. Das Gesetz muß das harte Hertz erst gleichsam in grobe Stücke zuschlagen: das Evangelium aber zuschmelzet es als wie ein Wachs, oder durchgiessets, salbets, erweichts und bereitets zu, daß es das Bild GOttes wieder annimmt. Ps.32, 3. Luc. 15, 20.

§. 10. Erblickest du mit Petro deinen JEsum in seinem Leiden, wie er für dich, ich sage, für dich so viel und grosse Leiden ausgestanden: und dich dabey so freundlich ansiehet, so gehest du mit Petro hinaus und weinest bitterlich.Luc. 22, 62. Da beweinest du deine Sünde, und wenn auch keine Straffe derselben wäre, weil du einen so liebreichen GOtt und Heyland, der es ohne alle dein Verdienst und Würdigkeit mit dir, seinem Feinde, so treulich meinet, damit beleidiget hast.

[…]     

§. 13. Fliessen nun bey dir, o Seele, solche Thränen, so siehe zu, daß sie recht beschaffen seyn, daß sie wahrhafftig und hertzlich, Demuths und Glaubens=voll, ja auch Liebes=voll und eifersüchtig seyn. Je freyer und frecher du vorhin deine Sünden getrieben, desto milder laß aus deinen Hertzen und Augen Thränen fliessen. Doch wasche dich nicht so in deinen Thränen, als ob du durch dieselbe dich von deinen Sünden abwaschen wollest und könnest. Das sey ferne. In deines JEsu Thränen, die Er für dich so mildiglich vergossen und in seinem Blute bade dich nur getrost und beständig. Das wird deine Sünde wegnehmen. Ebr. 5,7. Luc. 19,41. Joh. 11,35.

§. 14. O Seele, bete, daß dir GOTT die rechte Thränen gebe. Im Gebet erweichet das Hertz. Je mehr du betest, je besser werden die Thränen fliessen. Schäme dich auch der Buß=Thränen nicht, ob dich die Welt gleich darüber verhöhnet. Gnug, daß deine Thränen GOtt angenehm sind. Ps. 6, 9.

§. 15. Ach mein JEsu! erweiche du mein hartes Hertz, und gib mir rechte Buß=Thränen. Blicke mich, wie dort den Petrum an, daß ich auch wie er, meine Sünden bitterlich beweine. Amen.

Quelle: Die 23. Betrachtung. Von Thränen eines bußfertigen Sünders. In: Porst, Johann: Compendium Theologiæ Viatorum Et Regenitorum Practicæ oder Die Göttliche Führung der Seelen, und Wachsthum der Gläubigen, in einem kurtzen Auszug vorgestellet.[...]. Halle: Waisenhaus, 1723. BFSt: 43 H 3

Johann Porst's (1668-1728) didactically prepared text Von den Thränen eines bußfertigen Sünders stands for the strict observance and disciplining of weeping in Pietism. Tears are among the emotional practices that belong to the conditio humana, but are only tolerated and considered valuable in the pious world of life if they flow from the right, i.e. correct, inner, religious attitude and feeling and are regulated by binding norms. Therefore, Porst first lists which tears are undesirable: Tears of earthly emotion due to a soft constitution, out of hypocrisy and imitation, out of fear of God's punishment, out of relief from overcoming suffering or out of outward compliance with laws. In contrast, in the middle of the text, from § 8, the criteria are named that distinguish »right« tears, »tears of repentance«: Tears from the realisation of one's own sinfulness and from deeply felt repentance, from the grace of God, from the law of God and from the realisation of God's love towards the sinner.

Tears, according to the Christian conception, are limited to human life on earth, because at the end of all days God will »wipe away all tears from their eyes« (Rev. 7:17). There will be no more weeping in paradise. That is why the banners on the title page of Friedrich Eberhard Collins' (1684-1727) Exempelbuch für Kinder, Wundervoller Schauplatz der Heiligen Märtyrer (1729) say: »Here we wept but a short time. There we jubilate for eternity.« Not exactly appropriate for children - from our contemporary point of view - it drastically contrasts the martyrdom of pious children on a battlefield on earth with the jubilant choirs in heaven.

In this writing, the expressions of specific and particularly intense religious emotional experiences are described. Influenced by the apocalyptic mood towards the end of the 17th century, there was an increase in ecstatic apparitions and visionary experiences in the environment of the enthusiastic direction of Pietism. The most frequent reports of such revelations in central Germany came from theologically uneducated women of low social standing, who were therefore also referred to by contemporaries as »enthusiastic maidens«. Magdalena Elrichs (1667-?), who came from the poor quarter on the Münzenberg in Quedlinburg, was one such maid. From December 1691 onwards, she experienced frequent ecstatic states accompanied by various visions.

The author of the work, which in addition to the case of Magdalena Elrichs also deals with other comparable cases, is probably the philosopher and Protestant theologian Gerhard Meier (1664-1723), who came to prominence with several writings against the Quedlinburg Pietists. The frontispiece corresponds with the baroque title page, which already tells us that Magdalena gave birth to an illegitimate child at her mother's home on the Münzenberg in 1699 and that a fire broke out due to a lantern being knocked over, which developed into a major fire. The illustration supports the intended vilification and condemnation of both the protagonist and the direction of Pietism, which was characterised by enthusiasm with partly radical ecstatics.