If Puritanism has at times become an unfairly maligned “dirty word”, the same can be said of pietism. We frequently are told that there is this thing called pietism which is about individual piety and doesn’t care about society. However check out its roots, check out it’s influence on the Wesleys and the Great Awakening. Social reform including ending the slave trade and then later factory reforms, introducing if schooling etc arise out of this movement. In fact, I think it is a myth that Evangelicals, at least in the UK pulled out of public engagement. We don’t like party/tribal politics in the pulpit and our public theology priorities have changed at different times but there is a long continuous tradition of engagement in the public square.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Faithroots 