pietism

noun

1. a movement, originating in the Lutheran Church in Germany in the 17th century, that stressed personal piety over religious formality and orthodoxy.
2. the principles and practices of the Pietists.
3. (lowercase) intensity of religious devotion or feeling.
4. (lowercase) exaggeration or affectation of piety.

noun

1. a less common word for piety
2. excessive, exaggerated, or affected piety or saintliness

noun

1. history a reform movement in the German Lutheran Churches during the 17th and 18th centuries that strove to renew the devotional ideal

n.also Pietism, 1690s, from German Pietismus, originally applied in derision to the movement to revive personal piety in the Lutheran Church, begun in Frankfurt c.1670 by Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705). See piety + -ism.