About Anabaptists and Pietists
The Anabaptist movement dates from religious seekers in early sixteenth century Switzerland and southern Germany who believed they were building on the reforms of Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli. Most early Anabaptists stressed the separation of church and state, voluntary church membership by adult (believers') baptism, biblical pacifism (nonresistance), strict church discipline, and separation from worldly corruption. A major emphasis was their stress on the restoration of a New Testament church. The movement spread rapidly, but because of their radical positions on baptism and the separation of church and state, they were heavily persecuted by Catholic and Protestant princes alike. Anabaptism survived among the Swiss Brethren (later known as Mennonites) in Switzerland and South Germany, the Mennonites in Holland and northern Germany, and the Hutterites in Eastern Europe. The Amish, perhaps the best known Anabaptist group, developed out of a division among the Swiss Brethren/Mennonites in 1693. The first Mennonites immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1683, Amish settled in Pennsylvania in the 1730s, and Hutterites began moving to South Dakota and the western states in 1873.
Pietism may best be understood as a reform movement that began with the state Lutheran and Reformed churches of Germany in the late seventeenth century. Inspired by the writings of Phillip Jakob Spener, August Herman Franke, and Gottfried Arnold, among others, Pietism stressed practice over doctrine, spirit over form, a thorough-going spiritual rebirth of the individual and that religious faith is something to be lived out in service to others. Pietists were extremely skeptical of theological scholasticism. Although some Pietists withdrew from the state churches to become individual Separatists, most held that fellowship with other Christians an essential part of their faith. Radical Pietists such as the Moravians, the German Baptists (Church of the Brethren), and Inspirationists (Amana Colonies/Church Society) are expressions of its institutional forms. Although as a reform movement Pietism reached its peak by the 1750s, it continued to influence revival movements in America including Methodism, the United Brethren, the Evangelical Association and the Brethren in Christ/River Brethren.
