The Lutheran Church of Gdańsk in the Face of the “Crisis of Piety” at the End of the 17th Century

Abstract

The article presents the experiences of the Gdańsk Lutheran Church and the paradigm of its fall and the repair of Christian life developed by the Pietists on the example of the polemical writings of Constantin Schütz (1646–1712) and Samuel Schelwig (1643–1715). At the end of the 17th century, the Lutheran Church had to deal with reform proposals put forward by the Pietists. It also had to overcome the crisis of piety. Both Orthodox Lutherans and Pietists recognized the need to improve Christian life, although they understood its assumptions differently, which ultimately led to a split between them. In this way, pietistic attempts to reform the Church were rejected, and the views of Orthodoxy were established as the only legitimate ones.