Eric Jonas Swensson

Kinderbeten: the Origin, Unfolding, and Interpretations of the Silesian Children's Prayer Revival Eric Jonas Swensson

The origin of this revival came to be connected to the arrival of Swedish soldiers and their daily worship on the parade field because this was also seen providentially. Thus the prayer revival and the soldiers as an answer to prayers for liberation mutually informed one another in the minds of contemporaries. However, this was confused by the interpretation offered by Lutheran Orthodoxy. Pietists, on the other hand, warmly embraced the movement and sought to place it within an apocalyptic interpretation of history, coming closer to the original conflation of the two events. However, both interpretations failed to give appropriate significance to reports that the revival had begun in the mountains before the Swedes' arrival. It is suggested here that prayer is the key interpretive grid. Subsequent historians have missed this interpretation largely because of their own presuppositions against divine intervention.