Transmission and Adaptation of German Pietism in the Environment of Czech-Moravian, Hungarian and Silesian Evangelicalism
Abstract
Although pietism was a very suitable religious current for the survival of evangelical communities under conditions of repression and in congregations without coherent spiritual leadership, its reception in the environment of secret evangelicalism was accompanied by many pitfalls and necessary transformations. The reason for this, apart from the risk of persecution, was the different social structure of the reception group.
The topic of the influence of pietism in the environment of Bohemian-Moravian Protestants is not new, but it is an interesting subject of research from the perspective of the study of cultural transfers in early modern Europe. The paper offers a comparison of the situation in Bohemia and Moravia with that in Hungary and Austrian Silesia, with the intention of comparing the local conditions, actor strategies and outcomes of the transfer in the other countries that made up the Habsburg monarchy in the early modern period.
Starting from the conclusions of Jan Horský's examination of two central categories of pietistic thought - "rebirth" and "conscience" - for the Czech-Moravian environment, the author will raise the question of the content transformations of the faith and piety of Czech Protestants under the influence of the new current or the question of the diversity of intercultural mediators.