Pietist-Anabaptist Intersection

Neo-Anabaptists like Gregory Boyd and Shane Claiborne essentially offer a path of engaging society that is transnational, rather than one that integrates faith and nationalism. I have been thinking about the way the pietist leader, Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf is a figure that could serve as a bridge between the pietist and Anabaptist traditions. Zinzendorf’s vision is often called ecumenical because it allowed many different confessions or denominations to come in under the Moravian umbrella and work together without giving up the distinctive elements of their respective tradition. But Zinzendorf’s vision went beyond this. Moravians believed that the Holy Spirit worked universally throughout all people groups and nationalities. God’s spirit did not operate within the boundaries of the Christianized world. In theory, this allowed the Moravians to work within a variety of territories, nations and indigenous areas without the baggage of a political, cultural or national agenda. This is exactly what neo-Anabaptists today are advocating. Of course we can debate about how successful the Moravians were or to what degree they really could be free from cultural imperialism, but they at least offered an alternative to the colonialism that permeated their day and age. Perhaps the Moravians are a manifestation of a pietist-Anabaptist intersection.