Inspired
The inspired are a Christian free church . In addition to the Bible, they also recognize speech, inspired by their faith, from the Holy Spirit as a source of divine revelation .
Their movement emerged from radical Pietism at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries . According to the form and content of their religiosity, they have many points of contact with the revival movements of the 17th and 18th centuries and with the Pentecostal movement of today. The inspired emigrated to the USA in the 19th century , where some of them founded the Amana Colonies .
History of the inspiration communities
Origins in France
The origins of the inspiration communities go back to the persecution of the French Huguenots after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by King Louis XIV . After 1685, many Protestant religious refugees withdrew to the remote regions of the Cevennes , where the so-called camisard uprising took place due to the persistent persecution at the beginning of the 18th century . In the course of this, the royal troops devastated large areas and destroyed the Protestant community structures that existed there.
As more and more pastors were arrested or had to flee, a movement of theologically untrained lay preachers emerged who represented an ecstatic , visionary religiosity. The first inspired prophetess was Isabeau Vincent , about 16 years old , who first appeared in February 1688.
After the suppression of the uprising in 1704, many Huguenots emigrated from the Cevennes to Protestant neighboring countries of France. As exiles they found u. a. Refuge in England, where they were called "French Prophets" and founded their own congregation in London, as the local Huguenot congregation could not integrate them. The Anglican State Church also rejected it. However, they found sympathy with the English dissenters . Since 1709 the French prophets undertook missionary journeys through the European continent under apocalyptic auspices.
The inspired in Germany
The ideas of the inspired spread to Germany by 1711 at the latest, when the two fled revival preachers Allut and Marion were accepted into the pietistic communities of the Wetterau . In the years that followed, the first 10 German inspirational communities were formed there, from which the new religious denomination spread, especially in southwest and western Germany. The “French prophets” were able to build on the ecstatic experiences among radical pietists that they had had since the 1690s.
The outward manifestations of ecstasy were sensational. The “tools” seized by the mind initially lapsed into convulsive movements. This state was then mostly replaced by a cataleptic rigidity in which the sensory perception was switched off. Then the “inspired” speeches of the “tools” began, in which either God himself was introduced as the speaker, his messages were addressed to those present in the third person, or prayers were addressed to God. The content of the sermons had two main themes: the call to repentance and the announcement of an imminent turnaround in the current situation in apocalyptic prophecies. The pronunciations of the “prophets” were written down and published by scribes. They became scriptures and stood alongside the Bible.
Soon after the inspiration movement appeared in Germany, German preachers took over the leadership of the newly emerging congregations. Since these were intent on keeping a distance from the official regional churches, the inspired were also referred to as separatists . Fixed community structures were formed. After they were consolidated, the inspirational phenomena receded. One "tool" after the other fell silent. Only Johann Friedrich Rock retained the inspiration until his death in 1749.
The ideas of the French preachers fell on particularly fertile ground among the Pietists in Württemberg . Two of the most important leaders of the German Inspired emerged from the duchy, the pastor's son and Ysenburg-Büdingische court saddler Johann Friedrich Rock and Eberhard Ludwig Gruber , deacon in Großbottwar . Further centers of the movement in Germany were the accumulation points of radical Pietism: in the two (sub) counties of the county of Ysenburg and Büdingen in the Wetterau, namely in the county of Ysenburg-Büdingen-Wächtersbach, to which the Ronneburg belonged, and in the County of Ysenburg-Büdingen-Meerholz in the municipality of Lieblos , the cities of Frankfurt am Main and Hanau and the counties of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein . In 1739, an inspiration congregation was founded in the religious sanctuary of Neuwied .
In the first half of the 18th century, the Inspired, despite their small number, had a formative influence on radical Pietism . In many cases, however, they were persecuted by Protestant rulers themselves . Also through Halle Pietism and many radical Pietists both the phenomena of inspiration and the formation of communities of the inspired were rejected.
In the USA
Because of this rejection by the authorities, most of the inspiring communities decided to emigrate by the beginning of the 19th century. A few went to Russia , but most of them emigrated to the USA , where they founded, for example, the city of New Harmony in Indiana . In Iowa , the Inspired founded the Amana Colonies . Near Cedar Rapids , Iowa, the Amana Church Society is still a small, 450-member (as of 2006) congregation of inspired people that goes back to German immigrants. There are points of contact with the Schwarzenau Brethren , who also go back to Radical Pietism.
Beliefs and Practices
As followers of radical pietism , the first to be inspired were usually Christians who had turned away from the orthodoxy of the Lutheran or Reformed regional churches . They sought direct access to the experience of God in a visionary, sometimes mystical view.
They have never developed a common, self-contained theological system, and their highest forms of organization were the individual congregations , which had a great deal of freedom to profess their faith this time. This also makes the distinction between the individual groups of the inspiration communities very complicated. What is unique in the field of radical pietism is the fact that the inspired published a common hymnbook, the Davidic Psalter .
What they all had in common, however, was the orientation towards a very narrow, partly literal, partly mystical interpretation of the scriptures. Their real specialty, to which they owe their name, is the so-called inspiration phenomenon. In addition to the words of the Bible, the inspired believe in the direct inspiration of some church members from God. These parishioners, also known as 'tools', expressed themselves in so-called 'prophetic debates' during services.
Other commonalities of the inspired are the rejection of the sacraments as well as of military service and taking oaths . This shows overlaps with Anabaptist communities . In addition, there is a very intensive community life , which, especially in the emigrant communities, often took on Christian early communist forms. For example, there was no private property in the Amana colonies in Iowa until 1932. Also millenarian ideas are spread among the Inspired.
literature
- Georgia Cosmos: Huguenot Prophecy and Clandestine Worship in the Eighteenth Century: The Sacred Theater of the Cévennes . ISBN 0-7546-5182-7
- Max Goebel: History of Christian life in the Rhenish-Westphalian Evangelical Church. Vol 3: The Lower Rhine Reformed Church and separatism in Wittgenstein and on the Lower Rhine in the 18th century , Koblenz 1860.
- ders .: History of the true inspiration communities, from 1688 to 1850 , in: ZHTh, 1854 u. 1855.
- Karl Scheig: The Wetterau Inspirant Movement . Their development and significance , in: From theology and the church. Festschrift for Hans Freiherr von Soden. Munich, 1941 (= BEvTh 6).
- Hans Schneider: The radical Pietism in the 18th century in: History of Pietism. Göttingen 1995. pp. 107-197
- Hillel Schwartz: The French Prophets: The History of a Millenarian Group in 18th-Century England . Berkeley 1980.
- Ulf-Michael Schneider: Prophets of the Goethe era. Language, literature and impact of the inspired. (Palaestra 297) Göttingen 1995.
- Barbara Hoffmann: Radical Pietism around 1700. The dispute about the right to a new society , Frankfurt am Main 1996.
- Eckart Birnstiel / Chrystel Bernat (eds.): La Diaspora des Huguenots. Les réfugiés protestants de France et leur dispersion dans le monde (XVIe - XVIIIe siècles ). Paris 2001.
- Eberhard Fritz: Radical Pietism in Württemberg. Religious ideals in conflict with social realities (sources and research on the Württemberg church history 18). Epfendorf 2003. (deals in detail with the influence of the inspired in Württemberg)
- Ulf-Michael Schneider: ROCK, Johann Friedrich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 8, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-053-0 , Sp. 466-469.
- Eberhard Fritz: "Don't go back immediately, but on and on!". The "inspiration journeys" of Johann Friedrich Rock to Württemberg and south-west German imperial cities. In: Leaves for Württemberg Church History 115/2015. Pp. 35-70.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hermann Koblischke: Die Inspirierte in: Mitteilungsblatt der Heimatstelle Main-Kinzig, Volume 3, 1978 (Issue 6) as well as a list of literature about the Moravians and the Inspired