著者

笠原 俊彦

出版者

長崎大学

雑誌

長崎大学経済学部研究年報 (ISSN:09108602)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.19, pp.1-18, 2003-03

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According to Weber, Pietism emerged within Calvinism and stayed there inseparably for a while. It stimulated Calvinism and revived the doctrine of 'selective blessing' which had been undermined temporarily in Calvinism itself, though Pietism showed indifference to, or even neglection of, the doctrinal study and discriminatory appreciation for 'the religious practice of asceticism' called 'practice of piety'. Pietism, then, began to hold 'the secret meeting' which was believed to be 'the church of the saved' made visible on earth of 'the invisible church' in heaven. And there, apart from the worldly life, they exercised their religious practice in order to get feeling of 'the coexistence with God' - the feeling similar to that of 'unio mystica' ('the mystical unification of beliver with God') of Lutheranism. This feeling of coexistence is one of the characteristics of Pietism considerablly important from Weber's viewpoint. Because, contrary to the Calvinists' coolness, it gave religious emotion to Pietists, and all the more, with this, made them seek not the ascetic battle in this worldly life to get the confidence in their eternal lives there in heaven, but the asceticism to get the bless already here on earth; this, together with their despisement of the worldly life as 'creature', diminished the power in the occupational labour and produced the organzations called 'sects' remote from the world and near to the monkery. Of course there was another direction in Pietism - the extraordinarily severe practice (severer by far than that of average Calvinists) of asceticism in worldly life, to get confidence in their own blessed state. This, however, we cannot distinguish from Calvinism, so far as Weber's observations concern. German Pietism is known with the names of its leaders - Spener, Francke and Zinzendorf. It was based on the ground of Lutheranism and accordingly went away from the Calvinistic doctrine of 'predetermination'. It could be said to be the result of the invasion of the Calvinistic asceticism into Lutheranism, and this brought disorder into the logic of German Pietism, - or more correctly, with its lack of deliberation in introducing Calvinistic asceticism, German Pietism could not formulate any logically consistent doctrine. Also in German Pietism there was a stream with considerable resemblance to Calvinism. It was the stream made by Francke who weakened the logic of the doctrine of selective blessing by setting, in this place, the doctrine of blessing by 'Bufikampf' - doctrine slightly but seriously mixed with emotional moment. This moment of emotion was the main factor which weakened and destroyed the iron logic of the Calvinistic doctrine; it became considerbly large, when one strolls from Francke to Spener, and finally enormous, when one reaches the strange confusion of Zinzendorf. pietism was held mainly by the people with traditional way of life, such as officials and workers of domestic industry. In a word, it was 'the religious pleasure of the leisure class'.