tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1413271602812032968.post1843654199468929303..comments2018-09-09T14:41:46.821-05:00Comments on A Wonderful Providence: Anna's Change of Heart: Bookish Reformed Ladies, History, and God's Use of MeansSarah W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03024583350349359456noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1413271602812032968.post-60050478657123052652017-05-24T09:56:21.405-05:002017-05-24T09:56:21.405-05:00I definitely wouldn't call pietism a bad thing...I definitely wouldn't call pietism a bad thing. And it makes sense to me that later in life, she would set aside academic study in favor of a more pietistic expression. I guess it's the dis-integration of the intellectual and the pietistic/experiential that bugs me. Surely it's possible to embody both? And I think there's a difference between having a foretaste of heaven on your deathbed, and actively going full-bore anti-intellectual in one's public writings...<br /><br />I think treating the intellectual/scholarly and the pietistic/experiential as if they are somehow opposite poles is something that has weakened the American evangelical tradition a lot. So that's probably one reason I react strongly to things like this.<br /><br />I should add that just because I think she embraced some erroneous things doesn't mean I think she was heretical--those are different categories. <br /><br />Thanks for reading and commenting; I was wondering what you would think.Sarah W.https://www.blogger.com/profile/03024583350349359456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1413271602812032968.post-47433332698705705222017-05-24T08:46:52.963-05:002017-05-24T08:46:52.963-05:00I hope this doesn't sound too postmodern, but ...I hope this doesn't sound too postmodern, but is it possible that just as "there is a time to gather stones and a time to scatter them; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing" -- there might also be a time in one's life for dogged study, and a time in the same life for pietist anti-intellectualism?<br /><br />Her path reminds me of Thomas Aquinas' one. He spent his whole life on the Summa, and then right before he died he had a vision of heaven or something, and said that is work was "all straw". Obviously, it isn't, and has been a huge part of the theological tradition since.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com