"The texts are first-rate, and the introductions are informative and reliable. The books will be a welcome...addition to the bookshelf of every literate religious person." The Christian Century Pietists, The: Selected Writings edited with an introduction by Peter C. Erb preface by F. Ernest Stoeffler "The Word of God remains the seed from which all that is good in us must grow." August Hermann Francke (1633-1727) Michel Godrfoid once remarked that "to write the history of Pietism is to write the history of modern Protestantism." From its origins in late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century German Lutheranism, Pietism spread to influence Lutheran, Reformed, and Wesleyan churches throughout Europe and North America. An emphasis on conversion through personal religious experience, on heartfelt union with Christ, and on the importance of Scripture as a guide in the spiritual life has characterized the movement whose influence is still evident today. This volume is the most comprehensive collection of Pietist writings available in English. Here, skillfully edited by Professor Peter Erb, are the works of Philip Jakob Spener, August Francke and the Halle School, the Radical Pietists Gottfried Arnold and Gerhard Tersteegen, the Wurttemberg Pietists Johann Bengel and Friedrich Oetinger, and the founder of Herrnhut, Count Zinzendorf. †