Reformed Piety

Just as sound piety cannot be separated from its source in justification and adoption, personal piety cannot be separated from public activity. An evangelical shaped piety will inevitably turn one away from “forever gazing within” (Calvin), to look out onto a world in need. Medieval piety had not only emphasized merit; it pointed the energetic saint to a life of isolation from the world in meditation upon the eternal Good by transcending the world of appearances. But Reformation piety could not stand in greater contrast. First, it emphasized God’s redemptive activity in history and in the hearing of the gospel, sharply criticizing the Platonized elements of the medieval synthesis, shifting the emphasis from contemplation to action. Second, it emphasized free justification, which freed one from at least the theological motive for serving oneself by serving God and others. If justification before God is already accomplished, God and neighbors are not instrumental to one’s own salvation.
…Too much of [contemporary] Protestant theology has been formed in the womb of a type of pietism with an antitheological bias and a fascination with praxis merely as an interior experience of God and grace. Precisely its lack of concern for doctrine contributes to an individualistic and dualistic practice that is often shared by conservative evangelicals and liberals… Only a Biblical theology of grace and of covenant can produce this inner ambition that is far more powerful that guilt of sentimentalism. The church is called, like Athanasius, to be against the world for the world. [bold emphasis added]
- Michael S. Horton, Covenant and Eschatology (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox), 254-60.