Protestantism is the second largest form of
Christianity with collectively more than 900
million adherents worldwide or nearly 40%
of all Christians.
It originated with the 16th century Reformation,
a movement against what its followers perceived
to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church.
Ever since, Protestants reject the Roman Catholic
doctrine of papal supremacy and sacraments,
but disagree among themselves regarding the
real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
They emphasize the priesthood of all believers,
justification by faith alone (sola fide) rather
than by good works, and the highest authority
of the Bible alone (rather than with sacred
tradition) in faith and morals (sola scriptura).
The "Five solae" summarise basic theological
differences in opposition to the Roman Catholic
Church.Protestantism is popularly considered
to have begun in Germany in 1517 when Martin
Luther published his Ninety-five Theses as
a reaction against abuses in the sale of indulgences
by the Roman Catholic Church, which purported
to offer remission of sin to their purchasers.
However, the term derives from the letter
of protestation from German Lutheran princes
in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer
condemning the teachings of Martin Luther
as heretical.
Although there were earlier breaks and attempts
to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably
by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, and Jan Hus—only
Luther succeeded in sparking a wider, lasting,
and modern movement.
In the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from
Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland,
Latvia, Estonia, and Iceland.
Reformed (or Calvinist) denominations spread
in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland,
Switzerland and France by reformers such as
John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Knox.
The political separation of the Church of
England from the pope under King Henry VIII
began Anglicanism, bringing England and Wales
into this broad Reformation movement.Protestants
have developed their own culture, with major
contributions in education, the humanities
and sciences, the political and social order,
the economy and the arts, and many other fields.Protestantism
is diverse, being more divided theologically
and ecclesiastically than either the Roman
Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church,
or Oriental Orthodoxy.
Without structural unity or central human
authority, Protestants developed the concept
of an invisible church, in contrast to the
Roman Catholic view of the Catholic Church
as the visible one true Church founded by
Jesus Christ.
Some denominations do have a worldwide scope
and distribution of membership, while others
are confined to a single country.
A majority of Protestants are members of a
handful of Protestant denominational families:
Adventists, Anabaptists, Anglicans, Baptists,
Reformed, Lutherans, Methodists, and Pentecostals.
Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic,
independent and other churches are on the
rise, and constitute a significant part of
Protestant Christianity.
Proponents of the branch theory consider Protestantism
one of the three major divisions of Christendom,
together with the Roman Catholic Church and
Orthodoxy (both Eastern and Oriental).
== Terminology ==
=== Protestant ===
Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers
of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, who issued
a protest (or dissent) against the edict of
the Diet of Speyer (1529), were the first
individuals to be called Protestants.
The edict reversed concessions made to the
Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V three years earlier.
The term protestant, though initially purely
political in nature, later acquired a broader
sense, referring to a member of any Western
church which subscribed to the main Protestant
principles.
However, it is often misused to mean any church
outside the Roman and Eastern Orthodox communions.
Protestantism as a general term is now used
in contradistinction to the other major Christian
traditions, i.e. Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy.
During the Reformation, the term protestant
was hardly used outside of German politics.
People who were involved in the religious
movement used the word evangelical (German:
evangelisch).
For further details, see the section below.
Gradually, protestant became a general term,
meaning any adherent of the Reformation in
the German-speaking area.
It was ultimately somewhat taken up by Lutherans,
even though Martin Luther himself insisted
on Christian or evangelical as the only acceptable
names for individuals who professed Christ.
French and Swiss Protestants instead preferred
the word reformed (French: réformé), which
became a popular, neutral, and alternative
name for Calvinists.
=== Evangelical ===
The word evangelical (German: evangelisch),
which refers to the gospel, was widely used
for those involved in the religious movement
in the German-speaking area beginning in 1517.
Nowadays, evangelical is still preferred among
some of the historical Protestant denominations
in the Lutheran, Calvinist, and United Protestant
(Lutheran & Reformed) traditions in Europe,
and those with strong ties to them (e.g. Wisconsin
Evangelical Lutheran Synod).
Above all the term is used by Protestant bodies
in the German-speaking area, such as the Evangelical
Church in Germany.
In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either
a Lutheran, a Calvinist, or a United Protestant
(Lutheran & Reformed).
The German word evangelisch means Protestant,
and is different from the German evangelikal,
which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism.
The English word evangelical usually refers
to evangelical Protestant churches, and therefore
to a certain part of Protestantism rather
than to Protestantism as a whole.
The English word traces its roots back to
the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism
originated, and then was brought to the United
States.
Martin Luther always disliked the term Lutheran,
preferring the term evangelical, which was
derived from euangelion, a Greek word meaning
"good news", i.e. "gospel".
The followers of John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli,
and other theologians linked to the Reformed
tradition also began to use that term.
To distinguish the two evangelical groups,
others began to refer to the two groups as
Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed.
Nowadays, the word also pertains in the same
way to some other mainline groups, for example
Evangelical Methodist.
As time passed by, the word evangelical was
dropped.
Lutherans themselves began to use the term
Lutheran in the middle of the 16th century,
in order to distinguish themselves from other
groups such as the Philippists and Calvinists.
=== Reformational ===
The German word reformatorisch, which roughly
translates to English as "reformational" or
"reforming", is used as an alternative for
evangelisch in German, and is different from
English reformed (German: reformiert), which
refers to churches shaped by ideas of John
Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli and other Reformed
theologians.
Being derived from the word "Reformation",
the term emerged around the same time as evangelical
(1517) and protestant (1529).
== Theology ==
=== Main principles ===
Various experts on the subject tried to determine
what makes a Christian denomination a part
of Protestantism.
A common consensus approved by most of them
is that if a Christian denomination is to
be considered Protestant, it must acknowledge
the following three fundamental principles
of Protestantism.
Scripture alone
The belief, emphasized by Luther, in the Bible
as the highest source of authority for the
church.
The early churches of the Reformation believed
in a critical, yet serious, reading of scripture
and holding the Bible as a source of authority
higher than that of church tradition.
The many abuses that had occurred in the Western
Church before the Protestant Reformation led
the Reformers to reject much of its tradition,
though some would maintain tradition has been
maintained and reorganized in the liturgy
and in the confessions of the Protestant churches
of the Reformation.
In the early 20th century, a less critical
reading of the Bible developed in the United
States, leading to a "fundamentalist" reading
of Scripture.
Christian fundamentalists read the Bible as
the "inerrant, infallible" Word of God, as
do the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican
and Lutheran churches, but interpret it in
a literalist fashion without using the historical
critical method.
"Biblical Christianity" focused on a deep
study of the Bible is characteristic of most
Protestants as opposed to "Church Christianity",
focused on performing rituals and good works,
represented by Catholic and Orthodox traditions.
However Quakers and Pentecostalists, emphasize
the Holy Spirit and personal closeness to
God.
Justification by faith alone
The belief that believers are justified, or
pardoned for sin, solely on condition of faith
in Christ rather than a combination of faith
and good works.
For Protestants, good works are a necessary
consequence rather than cause of justification.
However, while justification is by faith alone,
there is the position that faith is not nuda
fides.
John Calvin explained that "it is therefore
faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith
which justifies is not alone: just as it is
the heat alone of the sun which warms the
earth, and yet in the sun it is not alone."
Universal priesthood of believers
The universal priesthood of believers implies
the right and duty of the Christian laity
not only to read the Bible in the vernacular,
but also to take part in the government and
all the public affairs of the Church.
It is opposed to the hierarchical system which
puts the essence and authority of the Church
in an exclusive priesthood, and makes ordained
priests the necessary mediators between God
and the people.
It is distinguished from the concept of the
priesthood of all believers, which did not
grant individuals the right to interpret the
Bible apart from the Christian community at
large because universal priesthood opened
the door to such a possibility.
There are scholars who cite that this doctrine
tends to subsume all distinctions in the church
under a single spiritual entity.
:Calvin referred to the universal priesthood
as an expression of the relation between the
believer and his God, including the freedom
of a Christian to come to God through Christ
without human mediation.
He also maintained that this principle recognizes
Christ as prophet, priest, and king and that
his priesthood is shared with his people.
=== Trinity ===
Protestants who adhere to the Nicene Creed
believe in three persons (God the Father,
God the Son, and the Holy Spirit) as one God.
Movements emerging around the time of the
Protestant Reformation, but not a part of
Protestantism, e.g. Unitarianism also reject
the Trinity.
This often serves as a reason for exclusion
of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement,
Unitarian Universalism, Oneness Pentecostalism
and other movements from Protestantism by
various observers.
Unitarianism continues to have a presence
mainly in Transylvania, England and the United
States, as well as elsewhere.
=== Five solae ===
The Five solae are five Latin phrases (or
slogans) that emerged during the Protestant
Reformation and summarize the reformers' basic
differences in theological beliefs in opposition
to the teaching of the Catholic Church of
the day.
The Latin word sola means "alone", "only",
or "single".
The use of the phrases as summaries of teaching
emerged over time during the Reformation,
based on the overarching principle of sola
scriptura (by scripture alone).
This idea contains the four main doctrines
on the Bible: that its teaching is needed
for salvation (necessity); that all the doctrine
necessary for salvation comes from the Bible
alone (sufficiency); that everything taught
in the Bible is correct (inerrancy); and that,
by the Holy Spirit overcoming sin, believers
may read and understand truth from the Bible
itself, though understanding is difficult,
so the means used to guide individual believers
to the true teaching is often mutual discussion
within the church (clarity).
The necessity and inerrancy were well-established
ideas, garnering little criticism, though
they later came under debate from outside
during the Enlightenment.
The most contentious idea at the time though
was the notion that anyone could simply pick
up the Bible and learn enough to gain salvation.
Though the reformers were concerned with ecclesiology
(the doctrine of how the church as a body
works), they had a different understanding
of the process in which truths in scripture
were applied to life of believers, compared
to the Catholics' idea that certain people
within the church, or ideas that were old
enough, had a special status in giving understanding
of the text.
The second main principle, sola fide (by faith
alone), states that faith in Christ is sufficient
alone for eternal salvation.
Though argued from scripture, and hence logically
consequent to sola scriptura, this is the
guiding principle of the work of Luther and
the later reformers.
Because sola scriptura placed the Bible as
the only source of teaching, sola fide epitomises
the main thrust of the teaching the reformers
wanted to get back to, namely the direct,
close, personal connection between Christ
and the believer, hence the reformers' contention
that their work was Christocentric.
The other solas, as statements, emerged later,
but the thinking they represent was also part
of the early Reformation.
Solus Christus: Christ aloneThe Protestants
characterize the dogma concerning the Pope
as Christ's representative head of the Church
on earth, the concept of works made meritorious
by Christ, and the Catholic idea of a treasury
of the merits of Christ and his saints, as
a denial that Christ is the only mediator
between God and man.
Catholics, on the other hand, maintained the
traditional understanding of Judaism on these
questions, and appealed to the universal consensus
of Christian tradition.Sola Gratia: Grace
aloneProtestants perceived Roman Catholic
salvation to be dependent upon the grace of
God and the merits of one's own works.
The reformers posited that salvation is a
gift of God (i.e., God's act of free grace),
dispensed by the Holy Spirit owing to the
redemptive work of Jesus Christ alone.
Consequently, they argued that a sinner is
not accepted by God on account of the change
wrought in the believer by God's grace, and
that the believer is accepted without regard
for the merit of his works, for no one deserves
salvation.[Matt.
7:21]Soli Deo Gloria: Glory to God aloneAll
glory is due to God alone since salvation
is accomplished solely through his will and
action—not only the gift of the all-sufficient
atonement of Jesus on the cross but also the
gift of faith in that atonement, created in
the heart of the believer by the Holy Spirit.
The reformers believed that human beings—even
saints canonized by the Catholic Church, the
popes, and the ecclesiastical hierarchy—are
not worthy of the glory.
=== Christ's presence in the Eucharist ===
The Protestant movement began to diverge into
several distinct branches in the mid-to-late
16th century.
One of the central points of divergence was
controversy over the Eucharist.
Early Protestants rejected the Roman Catholic
dogma of transubstantiation, which teaches
that the bread and wine used in the sacrificial
rite of the Mass lose their natural substance
by being transformed into the body, blood,
soul, and divinity of Christ.
They disagreed with one another concerning
the presence of Christ and his body and blood
in Holy Communion.
Lutherans hold that within the Lord's Supper
the consecrated elements of bread and wine
are the true body and blood of Christ "in,
with, and under the form" of bread and wine
for all those who eat and drink it,[1Cor 10:16]
[11:20,27] a doctrine that the Formula of
Concord calls the Sacramental union.
God earnestly offers to all who receive the
sacrament,[Lk 22:19-20] forgiveness of sins,[Mt
26:28] and eternal salvation.
The Reformed churches emphasize the real spiritual
presence, or sacramental presence, of Christ,
saying that the sacrament is a means of saving
grace through which only the elect believer
actually partakes of Christ, but merely with
the bread and wine rather than in the elements.
Calvinists deny the Lutheran assertion that
all communicants, both believers and unbelievers,
orally receive Christ's body and blood in
the elements of the sacrament but instead
affirm that Christ is united to the believer
through faith—toward which the supper is
an outward and visible aid.
This is often referred to as dynamic presence.
A Protestant holding a popular simplification
of the Zwinglian view, without concern for
theological intricacies as hinted at above,
may see the Lord's Supper merely as a symbol
of the shared faith of the participants, a
commemoration of the facts of the crucifixion,
and a reminder of their standing together
as the body of Christ (a view referred to
somewhat derisively as memorialism).
Anglicans refuse to define the Presence preferring
to leave it a mystery.
The Prayer Books describe the bread and wine
as outward and visible sign of an inward and
spiritual grace which is the Body and Blood
of Christ.
However, the words of their liturgies suggest
that one can hold to a belief in the Real
Presence and Spiritual and Sacramental Present
at the same time.
For example, "... and you have fed us with
the spiritual food in the Sacrament of his
body and Blood;" "...the spiritual food of
the most precious Body and Blood of your Son
our Saviour Jesus Christ, and for assuring
us in these holy mysteries..."
American Book of Common Prayer, 1977, pp.
365–366.
Perhaps the best way to see it is that the
Anglican view incorporates all three of the
above positions and the Roman and Orthodox.
The classic Anglican view is that the bread
and wine are instruments of God's Grace.
Perhaps the closest that one can get to pinning
down an Anglican view (they are notorious
for refusing to so) are the words of St. John
of Damascus, "the bread and wine are visible
symbols of a spiritual reality."
The symbol is not empty but the visible to
another reality present.
== History ==
=== Pre-Reformation ===
In the late 1130s, Arnold of Brescia, an Italian
canon regular became one of the first theologians
to attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church.
After his death, his teachings on apostolic
poverty gained currency among Arnoldists,
and later more widely among Waldensians and
the Spiritual Franciscans, though no written
word of his has survived the official condemnation.
In the early 1170s, Peter Waldo founded the
Waldensians.
He advocated an interpretation of the Gospel
that led to conflicts with the Roman Catholic
Church.
By 1215, the Waldensians were declared heretical
and subject to persecution.
Despite that, the movement continues to exist
to this day in Italy, as a part of the wider
Reformed tradition.
In the 1370s, John Wycliffe—later dubbed
the "Morning Star of Reformation"—started
his activity as an English reformer.
He rejected papal authority over secular power,
translated the Bible into vernacular English,
and preached anticlerical and biblically-centred
reforms.
Beginning in the first decade of the 15th
century, Jan Hus—a Roman Catholic priest,
Czech reformist and professor—influenced
by John Wycliffe's writings, founded the Hussite
movement.
He strongly advocated his reformist Bohemian
religious denomination.
He was excommunicated and burned at the stake
in Constance, Bishopric of Constance in 1415
by secular authorities for unrepentant and
persistent heresy.
After his execution, a revolt erupted.
Hussites defeated five continuous crusades
proclaimed against them by the Pope.
Later on, theological disputes caused a split
within the Hussite movement.
Utraquists maintained that both the bread
and the wine should be administered to the
people during the Eucharist.
Another major faction were the Taborites,
who opposed the Utraquists in the Battle of
Lipany during the Hussite Wars.
There were two separate parties among the
Hussites: moderate and radical movements.
Other smaller regional Hussite branches in
Bohemia included Adamites, Orebites, Orphans
and Praguers.
The Hussite Wars concluded with the victory
of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, his Catholic
allies and moderate Hussites and the defeat
of the radical Hussites.
Tensions arose as the Thirty Years' War reached
Bohemia in 1620.
Both moderate and radical Hussitism was increasingly
persecuted by Catholics and Holy Roman Emperor's
armies.
Starting in 1475, an Italian Dominican friar
Girolamo Savonarola was calling for a Christian
renewal.
Later on, Martin Luther himself read some
of the friar's writings and praised him as
a martyr and forerunner whose ideas on faith
and grace anticipated Luther's own doctrine
of justification by faith alone.
Some of Hus' followers founded the Unitas
Fratrum—"Unity of the Brethren"—which
was renewed under the leadership of Count
Nicolaus von Zinzendorf in Herrnhut, Saxony
in 1722 after its almost total destruction
in the Thirty Years' War and the Counter-Reformation.
Today, it is usually referred to in English
as the Moravian Church and in German as the
Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine.
=== Reformation proper ===
The Protestant Reformation began as an attempt
to reform the Roman Catholic Church.
On 31 October 1517 (All Hallows' Eve) Martin
Luther allegedly nailed his Ninety-five Theses
(Disputation on the Power of Indulgences)
on the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg,
Germany, detailing doctrinal and practical
abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, especially
the selling of indulgences.
The theses debated and criticized many aspects
of the Church and the papacy, including the
practice of purgatory, particular judgment,
and the authority of the pope.
Luther would later write works against the
Catholic devotion to Virgin Mary, the intercession
of and devotion to the saints, mandatory clerical
celibacy, monasticism, the authority of the
pope, the ecclesiastical law, censure and
excommunication, the role of secular rulers
in religious matters, the relationship between
Christianity and the law, good works, and
the sacraments.The Reformation was a triumph
of literacy and the new printing press invented
by Johannes Gutenberg.
Luther's translation of the Bible into German
was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy,
and stimulated as well the printing and distribution
of religious books and pamphlets.
From 1517 onward, religious pamphlets flooded
much of Europe.Following the excommunication
of Luther and condemnation of the Reformation
by the Pope, the work and writings of John
Calvin were influential in establishing a
loose consensus among various groups in Switzerland,
Scotland, Hungary, Germany and elsewhere.
After the expulsion of its Bishop in 1526,
and the unsuccessful attempts of the Bern
reformer William Farel, Calvin was asked to
use the organisational skill he had gathered
as a student of law to discipline the city
of Geneva.
His Ordinances of 1541 involved a collaboration
of Church affairs with the City council and
consistory to bring morality to all areas
of life.
After the establishment of the Geneva academy
in 1559, Geneva became the unofficial capital
of the Protestant movement, providing refuge
for Protestant exiles from all over Europe
and educating them as Calvinist missionaries.
The faith continued to spread after Calvin's
death in 1563.
Protestantism also spread from the German
lands into France, where the Protestants were
nicknamed Huguenots.
Calvin continued to take an interest in the
French religious affairs from his base in
Geneva.
He regularly trained pastors to lead congregations
there.
Despite heavy persecution, the Reformed tradition
made steady progress across large sections
of the nation, appealing to people alienated
by the obduracy and the complacency of the
Catholic establishment.
French Protestantism came to acquire a distinctly
political character, made all the more obvious
by the conversions of nobles during the 1550s.
This established the preconditions for a series
of conflicts, known as the French Wars of
Religion.
The civil wars gained impetus with the sudden
death of Henry II of France in 1559.
Atrocity and outrage became the defining characteristics
of the time, illustrated at their most intense
in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of August
1572, when the Roman Catholic party annihilated
between 30,000 and 100,000 Huguenots across
France.
The wars only concluded when Henry IV of France
issued the Edict of Nantes, promising official
toleration of the Protestant minority, but
under highly restricted conditions.
Roman Catholicism remained the official state
religion, and the fortunes of French Protestants
gradually declined over the next century,
culminating in Louis XIV's Edict of Fontainebleau
which revoked the Edict of Nantes and made
Roman Catholicism the sole legal religion
once again.
In response to the Edict of Fontainebleau,
Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg
declared the Edict of Potsdam, giving free
passage to Huguenot refugees.
In the late 17th century many Huguenots fled
to England, the Netherlands, Prussia, Switzerland,
and the English and Dutch overseas colonies.
A significant community in France remained
in the Cévennes region.
Parallel to events in Germany, a movement
began in Switzerland under the leadership
of Huldrych Zwingli.
Zwingli was a scholar and preacher, who in
1518 moved to Zurich.
Although the two movements agreed on many
issues of theology, some unresolved differences
kept them separate.
A long-standing resentment between the German
states and the Swiss Confederation led to
heated debate over how much Zwingli owed his
ideas to Lutheranism.
The German Prince Philip of Hesse saw potential
in creating an alliance between Zwingli and
Luther.
A meeting was held in his castle in 1529,
now known as the Colloquy of Marburg, which
has become infamous for its failure.
The two men could not come to any agreement
due to their disputation over one key doctrine.
In 1534, King Henry VIII put an end to all
papal jurisdiction in England, after the Pope
failed to annul his marriage to Catherine
of Aragon; this opened the door to reformational
ideas.
Reformers in the Church of England alternated
between sympathies for ancient Catholic tradition
and more Reformed principles, gradually developing
into a tradition considered a middle way (via
media) between the Roman Catholic and Protestant
traditions.
The English Reformation followed a particular
course.
The different character of the English Reformation
came primarily from the fact that it was driven
initially by the political necessities of
Henry VIII.
King Henry decided to remove the Church of
England from the authority of Rome.
In 1534, the Act of Supremacy recognized Henry
as the only Supreme Head on earth of the Church
of England.
Between 1535 and 1540, under Thomas Cromwell,
the policy known as the Dissolution of the
Monasteries was put into effect.
Following a brief Roman Catholic restoration
during the reign of Mary I, a loose consensus
developed during the reign of Elizabeth I.
The Elizabethan Religious Settlement largely
formed Anglicanism into a distinctive church
tradition.
The compromise was uneasy and was capable
of veering between extreme Calvinism on the
one hand and Roman Catholicism on the other.
It was relatively successful until the Puritan
Revolution or English Civil War in the 17th
century.
The success of the Counter-Reformation on
the Continent and the growth of a Puritan
party dedicated to further Protestant reform
polarised the Elizabethan Age.
The early Puritan movement was a movement
for reform in the Church of England.
The desire was for the Church of England to
resemble more closely the Protestant churches
of Europe, especially Geneva.
The later Puritan movement, often referred
to as dissenters and nonconformists, eventually
led to the formation of various Reformed denominations.
The Scottish Reformation of 1560 decisively
shaped the Church of Scotland.
The Reformation in Scotland culminated ecclesiastically
in the establishment of a church along Reformed
lines, and politically in the triumph of English
influence over that of France.
John Knox is regarded as the leader of the
Scottish Reformation.
The Scottish Reformation Parliament of 1560
repudiated the pope's authority by the Papal
Jurisdiction Act 1560, forbade the celebration
of the Mass and approved a Protestant Confession
of Faith.
It was made possible by a revolution against
French hegemony under the regime of the regent
Mary of Guise, who had governed Scotland in
the name of her absent daughter.
Some of the most important activists of the
Protestant Reformation included Jacobus Arminius,
Theodore Beza, Martin Bucer, Andreas von Carlstadt,
Heinrich Bullinger, Balthasar Hubmaier, Thomas
Cranmer, William Farel, Thomas Müntzer, Laurentius
Petri, Olaus Petri, Philipp Melanchthon, Menno
Simons, Louis de Berquin, Primož Trubar and
John Smyth.
In the course of this religious upheaval,
the German Peasants' War of 1524–25 swept
through the Bavarian, Thuringian and Swabian
principalities.
After the Eighty Years' War in the Low Countries
and the French Wars of Religion, the confessional
division of the states of the Holy Roman Empire
eventually erupted in the Thirty Years' War
between 1618 and 1648.
It devastated much of Germany, killing between
25% and 40% of its population.
The main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia,
which ended the Thirty Years' War, were:
All parties would now recognise the Peace
of Augsburg of 1555, by which each prince
would have the right to determine the religion
of his own state, the options being Roman
Catholicism, Lutheranism, and now Calvinism.
(the principle of cuius regio, eius religio)
Christians living in principalities where
their denomination was not the established
church were guaranteed the right to practice
their faith in public during allotted hours
and in private at their will.
The treaty also effectively ended the papacy's
pan-European political power.
Pope Innocent X declared the treaty "null,
void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable,
reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect
for all times" in his bull Zelo Domus Dei.
European sovereigns, Roman Catholic and Protestant
alike, ignored his verdict.
=== Post-Reformation ===
The Great Awakenings were periods of rapid
and dramatic religious revival in Anglo-American
religious history.
The First Great Awakening was an evangelical
and revitalization movement that swept through
Protestant Europe and British America, especially
the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s,
leaving a permanent impact on American Protestantism.
It resulted from powerful preaching that gave
listeners a sense of deep personal revelation
of their need of salvation by Jesus Christ.
Pulling away from ritual, ceremony, sacramentalism
and hierarchy, it made Christianity intensely
personal to the average person by fostering
a deep sense of spiritual conviction and redemption,
and by encouraging introspection and a commitment
to a new standard of personal morality.
The Second Great Awakening began around 1790.
It gained momentum by 1800.
After 1820, membership rose rapidly among
Baptist and Methodist congregations, whose
preachers led the movement.
It was past its peak by the late 1840s.
It has been described as a reaction against
skepticism, deism, and rationalism, although
why those forces became pressing enough at
the time to spark revivals is not fully understood.
It enrolled millions of new members in existing
evangelical denominations and led to the formation
of new denominations.
The Third Great Awakening refers to a hypothetical
historical period that was marked by religious
activism in American history and spans the
late 1850s to the early 20th century.
It affected pietistic Protestant denominations
and had a strong element of social activism.
It gathered strength from the postmillennial
belief that the Second Coming of Christ would
occur after mankind had reformed the entire
earth.
It was affiliated with the Social Gospel Movement,
which applied Christianity to social issues
and gained its force from the Awakening, as
did the worldwide missionary movement.
New groupings emerged, such as the Holiness,
Nazarene, and Christian Science movements.The
Fourth Great Awakening was a Christian religious
awakening that some scholars—most notably,
Robert Fogel—say took place in the United
States in the late 1960s and early 1970s,
while others look at the era following World
War II.
The terminology is controversial.
Thus, the idea of a Fourth Great Awakening
itself has not been generally accepted.In
1814, Le Réveil swept through Calvinist regions
in Switzerland and France.
In 1904, a Protestant revival in Wales had
tremendous impact on the local population.
A part of British modernization, it drew many
people to churches, especially Methodist and
Baptist ones.
A noteworthy development in 20th-century Protestant
Christianity was the rise of the modern Pentecostal
movement.
Sprung from Methodist and Wesleyan roots,
it arose out of meetings at an urban mission
on Azusa Street in Los Angeles.
From there it spread around the world, carried
by those who experienced what they believed
to be miraculous moves of God there.
These Pentecost-like manifestations have steadily
been in evidence throughout the history, such
as seen in the two Great Awakenings.
Pentecostalism, which in turn birthed the
Charismatic movement within already established
denominations, continues to be an important
force in Western Christianity.
In the United States and elsewhere in the
world, there has been a marked rise in the
evangelical wing of Protestant denominations,
especially those that are more exclusively
evangelical, and a corresponding decline in
the mainstream liberal churches.
In the post–World War I era, Liberal Christianity
was on the rise, and a considerable number
of seminaries held and taught from a liberal
perspective as well.
In the post–World War II era, the trend
began to swing back towards the conservative
camp in America's seminaries and church structures.
In Europe, there has been a general move away
from religious observance and belief in Christian
teachings and a move towards secularism.
The Enlightenment is largely responsible for
the spread of secularism.
Several scholars have argued for a link between
the rise of secularism and Protestantism,
attributing it to the wide-ranging freedom
in the Protestant-majority countries.
In North America, South America and Australia
Christian religious observance is much higher
than in Europe.
United States remains particularly religious
in comparison to other developed countries.
South America, historically Roman Catholic,
has experienced a large Evangelical and Pentecostal
infusion in the 20th and 21st centuries.
== Radical Reformation ==
Unlike mainstream Lutheran, Calvinist and
Zwinglian movements, the Radical Reformation,
which had no state sponsorship, generally
abandoned the idea of the "Church visible"
as distinct from the "Church invisible".
It was a rational extension of the state-approved
Protestant dissent, which took the value of
independence from constituted authority a
step further, arguing the same for the civic
realm.
The Radical Reformation was non-mainstream,
though in parts of Germany, Switzerland and
Austria, a majority would sympathize with
the Radical Reformation despite the intense
persecution it faced from both Roman Catholics
and Magisterial Protestants.The early Anabaptists
believed that their reformation must purify
not only theology but also the actual lives
of Christians, especially their political
and social relationships.
Therefore, the church should not be supported
by the state, neither by tithes and taxes,
nor by the use of the sword; Christianity
was a matter of individual conviction, which
could not be forced on anyone, but rather
required a personal decision for it.
Protestant ecclesial leaders such as Hubmaier
and Hofmann preached the invalidity of infant
baptism, advocating baptism as following conversion
("believer's baptism") instead.
This was not a doctrine new to the reformers,
but was taught by earlier groups, such as
the Albigenses in 1147.
Though most of the Radical Reformers were
Anabaptist, some did not identify themselves
with the mainstream Anabaptist tradition.
Thomas Müntzer was involved in the German
Peasants' War.
Andreas Karlstadt disagreed theologically
with Huldrych Zwingli and Martin Luther, teaching
nonviolence and refusing to baptize infants
while not rebaptizing adult believers.
Kaspar Schwenkfeld and Sebastian Franck were
influenced by German mysticism and spiritualism.
In the view of many associated with the Radical
Reformation, the Magisterial Reformation had
not gone far enough.
Radical Reformer, Andreas von Bodenstein Karlstadt,
for example, referred to the Lutheran theologians
at Wittenberg as the "new papists".
Since the term "magister" also means "teacher",
the Magisterial Reformation is also characterized
by an emphasis on the authority of a teacher.
This is made evident in the prominence of
Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli as leaders of
the reform movements in their respective areas
of ministry.
Because of their authority, they were often
criticized by Radical Reformers as being too
much like the Roman Popes.
A more political side of the Radical Reformation
can be seen in the thought and practice of
Hans Hut, although typically Anabaptism has
been associated with pacifism.
Anabaptism in shape of its various diversification
such as the Amish, Mennonites and Hutterites
came out of the Radical Reformation.
Later in history, Schwarzenau Brethren, Bruderhof,
and the Apostolic Christian Church would emerge
in Anabaptist circles.
== Denominations ==
Protestants refer to specific groupings of
congregations or churches that share in common
foundational doctrines and the name of their
groups as denominations.
The term denomination (national body) is to
be distinguished from branch (denominational
family; tradition), communion (international
body) and congregation (church).
An example (this is no universal way to classify
Protestant churches, as these may sometimes
vary broadly in their structures) to show
the difference:
Branch/denominational family/tradition: Methodism
Communion/international body: World Methodist
Council
Denomination/national body: United Methodist
Church
Congregation/church: First United Methodist
Church (Paintsville, Kentucky)
Protestants reject the Roman Catholic Church's
doctrine that it is the one true church, believing
in the invisible church, which consists of
all who profess faith in Jesus Christ.
Some Protestant denominations are less accepting
of other denominations, and the basic orthodoxy
of some is questioned by most of the others.
Individual denominations also have formed
over very subtle theological differences.
Other denominations are simply regional or
ethnic expressions of the same beliefs.
Because the five solas are the main tenets
of the Protestant faith, non-denominational
groups and organizations are also considered
Protestant.
Various ecumenical movements have attempted
cooperation or reorganization of the various
divided Protestant denominations, according
to various models of union, but divisions
continue to outpace unions, as there is no
overarching authority to which any of the
churches owe allegiance, which can authoritatively
define the faith.
Most denominations share common beliefs in
the major aspects of the Christian faith while
differing in many secondary doctrines, although
what is major and what is secondary is a matter
of idiosyncratic belief.
Several countries have established their national
churches, linking the ecclesiastical structure
with the state.
Jurisdictions where a Protestant denomination
has been established as a state religion include
several Nordic countries; Denmark (including
Greenland), the Faroe Islands (its church
being independent since 2007), Iceland and
Norway have established Evangelical Lutheran
churches.
Tuvalu has the only established church in
Reformed tradition in the world, while Tonga—in
the Methodist tradition.
The Church of England is the officially established
religious institution in England, and also
the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican
Communion.
In 1869, Finland was the first Nordic country
to disestablish its Evangelical Lutheran church
by introducing the Church Act.
Although the church still maintains a special
relationship with the state, it is not described
as a state religion in the Finnish Constitution
or other laws passed by the Finnish Parliament.
In 2000, Sweden was the second Nordic country
to do so.
=== United and uniting churches ===
United and uniting churches are churches formed
from the merger or other form of union of
two or more different Protestant denominations.
Historically, unions of Protestant churches
were enforced by the state, usually in order
to have a stricter control over the religious
sphere of its people, but also other organizational
reasons.
As modern Christian ecumenism progresses,
unions between various Protestant traditions
are becoming more and more common, resulting
in a growing number of united and uniting
churches.
Some of the recent major examples are the
United Protestant Church of France (2013)
and the Protestant Church in the Netherlands
(2004).
As mainline Protestantism shrinks in Europe
and North America due to the rise of secularism,
Reformed and Lutheran denominations merge,
often creating large nationwide denominations.
The phenomenon is much less common among evangelical,
nondenominational and charismatic churches
as new ones arise and plenty of them remain
independent of each other.
Perhaps the oldest official united church
is found in Germany, where the Evangelical
Church in Germany is a federation of Lutheran,
United (Prussian Union) and Reformed churches,
a union dating back to 1817.
The first of the series of unions was at a
synod in Idstein to form the Protestant Church
in Hesse and Nassau in August 1817, commemorated
in naming the church of Idstein Unionskirche
one hundred years later.Around the world,
each united or uniting church comprises a
different mix of predecessor Protestant denominations.
Trends are visible, however, as most united
and uniting churches have one or more predecessors
with heritage in the Reformed tradition and
many are members of the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches.
== Major branches ==
Protestants can be differentiated according
to how they have been influenced by important
movements since the Reformation, today regarded
as branches.
Some of these movements have a common lineage,
sometimes directly spawning individual denominations.
Due to the earlier stated multitude of denominations,
this section discusses only the largest denominational
families, or branches, widely considered to
be a part of Protestantism.
These are, in alphabetical order: Adventist,
Anglican, Baptist, Calvinist (Reformed), Lutheran,
Methodist and Pentecostal.
A small but historically significant Anabaptist
branch is also discussed.
The chart below shows the mutual relations
and historical origins of the main Protestant
denominational families, or their parts.
=== Adventism ===
Adventism began in the 19th century in the
context of the Second Great Awakening revival
in the United States.
The name refers to belief in the imminent
Second Coming (or "Second Advent") of Jesus
Christ.
William Miller started the Adventist movement
in the 1830s.
His followers became known as Millerites.
Although the Adventist churches hold much
in common, their theologies differ on whether
the intermediate state is unconscious sleep
or consciousness, whether the ultimate punishment
of the wicked is annihilation or eternal torment,
the nature of immortality, whether or not
the wicked are resurrected after the millennium,
and whether the sanctuary of Daniel 8 refers
to the one in heaven or one on earth.
The movement has encouraged the examination
of the whole Bible, leading Seventh-day Adventists
and some smaller Adventist groups to observe
the Sabbath.
The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
has compiled that church's core beliefs in
the 28 Fundamental Beliefs (1980 and 2005),
which use Biblical references as justification.
In 2010, Adventism claimed some 22 million
believers scattered in various independent
churches.
The largest church within the movement—the
Seventh-day Adventist Church—has more than
18 million members.
=== Anabaptism ===
Anabaptism traces its origins to the Radical
Reformation.
Anabaptists believe in delaying baptism until
the candidate confesses his or her faith.
Although some consider this movement to be
an offshoot of Protestantism, others see it
as a distinct one.
The Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites are
direct descendants of the movement.
Schwarzenau Brethren, Bruderhof, and the Apostolic
Christian Church are considered later developments
among the Anabaptists.
The name Anabaptist, meaning "one who baptizes
again", was given them by their persecutors
in reference to the practice of re-baptizing
converts who already had been baptized as
infants.
Anabaptists required that baptismal candidates
be able to make their own confessions of faith
and so rejected baptism of infants.
The early members of this movement did not
accept the name Anabaptist, claiming that
since infant baptism was unscriptural and
null and void, the baptizing of believers
was not a re-baptism but in fact their first
real baptism.
As a result of their views on the nature of
baptism and other issues, Anabaptists were
heavily persecuted during the 16th century
and into the 17th by both Magisterial Protestants
and Roman Catholics.
While most Anabaptists adhered to a literal
interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount,
which precluded taking oaths, participating
in military actions, and participating in
civil government, some who practiced re-baptism
felt otherwise.
They were thus technically Anabaptists, even
though conservative Amish, Mennonites, and
Hutterites and some historians tend to consider
them as outside of true Anabaptism.
Anabaptist reformers of the Radical Reformation
are divided into Radical and the so-called
Second Front.
Some important Radical Reformation theologians
were John of Leiden, Thomas Müntzer, Kaspar
Schwenkfeld, Sebastian Franck, Menno Simons.
Second Front Reformers included Hans Denck,
Conrad Grebel, Balthasar Hubmaier and Felix
Manz.
=== Anglicanism ===
Anglicanism comprises the Church of England
and churches which are historically tied to
it or hold similar beliefs, worship practices
and church structures.
The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana,
a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least
1246 that means the English Church.
There is no single "Anglican Church" with
universal juridical authority, since each
national or regional church has full autonomy.
As the name suggests, the communion is an
association of churches in full communion
with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The great majority of Anglicans are members
of churches which are part of the international
Anglican Communion, which has 85 million adherents.The
Church of England declared its independence
from the Catholic Church at the time of the
Elizabethan Religious Settlement.
Many of the new Anglican formularies of the
mid-16th century corresponded closely to those
of contemporary Reformed tradition.
These reforms were understood by one of those
most responsible for them, the then Archbishop
of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, as navigating
a middle way between two of the emerging Protestant
traditions, namely Lutheranism and Calvinism.
By the end of the century, the retention in
Anglicanism of many traditional liturgical
forms and of the episcopate was already seen
as unacceptable by those promoting the most
developed Protestant principles.
Unique to Anglicanism is the Book of Common
Prayer, the collection of services that worshippers
in most Anglican churches used for centuries.
While it has since undergone many revisions
and Anglican churches in different countries
have developed other service books, the Book
of Common Prayer is still acknowledged as
one of the ties that bind the Anglican Communion
together.
=== Baptists ===
Baptists subscribe to a doctrine that baptism
should be performed only for professing believers
(believer's baptism, as opposed to infant
baptism), and that it must be done by complete
immersion (as opposed to affusion or sprinkling).
Other tenets of Baptist churches include soul
competency (liberty), salvation through faith
alone, Scripture alone as the rule of faith
and practice, and the autonomy of the local
congregation.
Baptists recognize two ministerial offices,
pastors and deacons.
Baptist churches are widely considered to
be Protestant churches, though some Baptists
disavow this identity.Diverse from their beginning,
those identifying as Baptists today differ
widely from one another in what they believe,
how they worship, their attitudes toward other
Christians, and their understanding of what
is important in Christian discipleship.Historians
trace the earliest church labeled Baptist
back to 1609 in Amsterdam, with English Separatist
John Smyth as its pastor.
In accordance with his reading of the New
Testament, he rejected baptism of infants
and instituted baptism only of believing adults.
Baptist practice spread to England, where
the General Baptists considered Christ's atonement
to extend to all people, while the Particular
Baptists believed that it extended only to
the elect.
In 1638, Roger Williams established the first
Baptist congregation in the North American
colonies.
In the mid-18th century, the First Great Awakening
increased Baptist growth in both New England
and the South.
The Second Great Awakening in the South in
the early 19th century increased church membership,
as did the preachers' lessening of support
for abolition and manumission of slavery,
which had been part of the 18th-century teachings.
Baptist missionaries have spread their church
to every continent.The Baptist World Alliance
reports more than 41 million members in more
than 150,000 congregations.
In 2002, there were over 100 million Baptists
and Baptistic group members worldwide and
over 33 million in North America.
The largest Baptist association is the Southern
Baptist Convention, with the membership of
associated churches totaling more than 15
million.
=== Calvinism ===
Calvinism, also called the Reformed tradition,
was advanced by several theologians such as
Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr
Vermigli, and Huldrych Zwingli, but this branch
of Christianity bears the name of the French
reformer John Calvin because of his prominent
influence on it and because of his role in
the confessional and ecclesiastical debates
throughout the 16th century.
Today, this term also refers to the doctrines
and practices of the Reformed churches of
which Calvin was an early leader.
Less commonly, it can refer to the individual
teaching of Calvin himself.
The particulars of Calvinist theology may
be stated in a number of ways.
Perhaps the best known summary is contained
in the five points of Calvinism, though these
points identify the Calvinist view on soteriology
rather than summarizing the system as a whole.
Broadly speaking, Calvinism stresses the sovereignty
or rule of God in all things—in salvation
but also in all of life.
This concept is seen clearly in the doctrines
of predestination and total depravity.
The biggest Reformed association is the World
Communion of Reformed Churches with more than
80 million members in 211 member denominations
around the world.
There are more conservative Reformed federations
like the World Reformed Fellowship and the
International Conference of Reformed Churches,
as well as independent churches.
=== Lutheranism ===
Lutheranism identifies with the theology of
Martin Luther—a German friar, ecclesiastical
reformer, and theologian.
Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification
"by grace alone through faith alone on the
basis of Scripture alone", the doctrine that
scripture is the final authority on all matters
of faith, denying the belief of the Catholic
Church defined at the Council of Trent concerning
authority coming from both the Scriptures
and Tradition.
In addition, Lutheranism accepts the teachings
of the first four ecumenical councils of the
undivided Christian Church.Unlike the Reformed
tradition, Lutherans retain many of the liturgical
practices and sacramental teachings of the
pre-Reformation Church, with a particular
emphasis on the Eucharist, or Lord's Supper.
Lutheran theology differs from Reformed theology
in Christology, the purpose of God's Law,
the divine grace, the concept of perseverance
of the saints, and predestination.
Today, Lutheranism is one of the largest branches
of Protestantism.
With approximately 80 million adherents, it
constitutes the third most common Protestant
confession after historically Pentecostal
denominations and Anglicanism.
The Lutheran World Federation, the largest
global communion of Lutheran churches represents
over 72 million people.
Additionally, there are also many smaller
bodies such as the International Lutheran
Council and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran
Conference, as well as independent churches.
=== Methodism ===
Methodism identifies principally with the
theology of John Wesley—an Anglican priest
and evangelist.
This evangelical movement originated as a
revival within the 18th-century Church of
England and became a separate Church following
Wesley's death.
Because of vigorous missionary activity, the
movement spread throughout the British Empire,
the United States, and beyond, today claiming
approximately 80 million adherents worldwide.
Originally it appealed especially to labourers
and slaves.
Soteriologically, most Methodists are Arminian,
emphasizing that Christ accomplished salvation
for every human being, and that humans must
exercise an act of the will to receive it
(as opposed to the traditional Calvinist doctrine
of monergism).
Methodism is traditionally low church in liturgy,
although this varies greatly between individual
congregations; the Wesleys themselves greatly
valued the Anglican liturgy and tradition.
Methodism is known for its rich musical tradition;
John Wesley's brother, Charles, was instrumental
in writing much of the hymnody of the Methodist
Church, and many other eminent hymn writers
come from the Methodist tradition.
=== Pentecostalism ===
Pentecostalism is a movement that places special
emphasis on a direct personal experience of
God through the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost,
the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks.
For Christians, this event commemorates the
descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers
of Jesus Christ, as described in the second
chapter of the Book of Acts.
This branch of Protestantism is distinguished
by belief in the baptism with the Holy Spirit
as an experience separate from conversion
that enables a Christian to live a Holy Spirit–filled
and empowered life.
This empowerment includes the use of spiritual
gifts such as speaking in tongues and divine
healing—two other defining characteristics
of Pentecostalism.
Because of their commitment to biblical authority,
spiritual gifts, and the miraculous, Pentecostals
tend to see their movement as reflecting the
same kind of spiritual power and teachings
that were found in the Apostolic Age of the
early church.
For this reason, some Pentecostals also use
the term Apostolic or Full Gospel to describe
their movement.
Pentecostalism eventually spawned hundreds
of new denominations, including large groups
such as the Assemblies of God and the Church
of God in Christ, both in the United States
and elsewhere.
There are over 279 million Pentecostals worldwide,
and the movement is growing in many parts
of the world, especially the global South.
Since the 1960s, Pentecostalism has increasingly
gained acceptance from other Christian traditions,
and Pentecostal beliefs concerning Spirit
baptism and spiritual gifts have been embraced
by non-Pentecostal Christians in Protestant
and Catholic churches through the Charismatic
Movement.
Together, Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity
numbers over 500 million adherents.
=== Other Protestants ===
There are many other Protestant denominations
that do not fit neatly into the mentioned
branches, and are far smaller in membership.
Some groups of individuals who hold basic
Protestant tenets identify themselves simply
as "Christians" or "born-again Christians".
They typically distance themselves from the
confessionalism or creedalism of other Christian
communities by calling themselves "non-denominational"
or "evangelical".
Often founded by individual pastors, they
have little affiliation with historic denominations.Hussitism
follows the teachings of Czech reformer Jan
Hus, who became the best-known representative
of the Bohemian Reformation and one of the
forerunners of the Protestant Reformation.
This predominantly religious movement was
propelled by social issues and strengthened
Czech national awareness.
Among present-day Christians, Hussite traditions
are represented in the Moravian Church, Unity
of the Brethren, and the refounded Czechoslovak
Hussite churches.The Plymouth Brethren are
a conservative, low church, evangelical movement,
whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland,
in the late 1820s, originating from Anglicanism.
Among other beliefs, the group emphasizes
sola scriptura.
Brethren generally see themselves not as a
denomination, but as a network, or even as
a collection of overlapping networks, of like-minded
independent churches.
Although the group refused for many years
to take any denominational name to itself—a
stance that some of them still maintain—the
title The Brethren, is one that many of their
number are comfortable with in that the Bible
designates all believers as brethren.
The Holiness movement refers to a set of beliefs
and practices emerging from 19th-century Methodism,
and a number of evangelical denominations,
parachurch organizations, and movements which
emphasized those beliefs as a central doctrine.
There are an estimated 12 million adherents
in Holiness movement churches.
The Salvation Army and The Wesleyan Church
are notable examples.
Quakers, or Friends, are members of a family
of religious movements collectively known
as the Religious Society of Friends.
The central unifying doctrine of these movements
is the priesthood of all believers.
Many Friends view themselves as members of
a Christian denomination.
They include those with evangelical, holiness,
liberal, and traditional conservative Quaker
understandings of Christianity.
Unlike many other groups that emerged within
Christianity, the Religious Society of Friends
has actively tried to avoid creeds and hierarchical
structures.Unitarianism is sometimes considered
Protestant due to its origins in the Reformation
and strong cooperation with other Protestants
since the 16th century.
It is excluded due to its Nontrinitarian nature.
Unitarians can be regarded as Nontrinitarian
Protestants, or simply Nontrinitarians.
Unitarianism has been popular in the region
of Transylvania within today's Romania, England,
and the United States.
It originated almost simultaneously in Transylvania
and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
== Interdenominational movements ==
There are also Christian movements which cross
denominational lines and even branches, and
cannot be classified on the same level previously
mentioned forms.
Evangelicalism is a prominent example.
Some of those movements are active exclusively
within Protestantism, some are Christian-wide.
Transdenominational movements are sometimes
capable of affecting parts of the Roman Catholic
Church, such as does it the Charismatic Movement,
which aims to incorporate beliefs and practices
similar to Pentecostals into the various branches
of Christianity.
Neo-charismatic churches are sometimes regarded
as a subgroup of the Charismatic Movement.
Both are put under a common label of Charismatic
Christianity (so-called Renewalists), along
with Pentecostals.
Nondenominational churches and various house
churches often adopt, or are akin to one of
these movements.
Megachurches are usually influenced by interdenominational
movements.
Globally, these large congregations are a
significant development in Protestant Christianity.
In the United States, the phenomenon has more
than quadrupled in the past two decades.
It has since spread worldwide.
The chart below shows the mutual relations
and historical origins of the main interdenominational
movements and other developments within Protestantism.
=== Evangelicalism ===
Evangelicalism, or evangelical Protestantism,
is a worldwide, transdenominational movement
which maintains that the essence of the gospel
consists in the doctrine of salvation by grace
through faith in Jesus Christ's atonement.Evangelicals
are Christians who believe in the centrality
of the conversion or "born again" experience
in receiving salvation, believe in the authority
of the Bible as God's revelation to humanity
and have a strong commitment to evangelism
or sharing the Christian message.
It gained great momentum in the 18th and 19th
centuries with the emergence of Methodism
and the Great Awakenings in Britain and North
America.
The origins of Evangelicalism are usually
traced back to the English Methodist movement,
Nicolaus Zinzendorf, the Moravian Church,
Lutheran pietism, Presbyterianism and Puritanism.
Among leaders and major figures of the Evangelical
Protestant movement were John Wesley, George
Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Billy Graham,
Harold John Ockenga, John Stott and Martyn
Lloyd-Jones.
There are an estimated 285,480,000 Evangelicals,
corresponding to 13.1% of the Christian population
and 4.1% of the total world population.
The Americas, Africa and Asia are home to
the majority of Evangelicals.
The United States has the largest concentration
of Evangelicals.
Evangelicalism is gaining popularity both
in and outside the English-speaking world,
especially in Latin America and the developing
world.
=== Charismatic movement ===
The Charismatic movement is the international
trend of historically mainstream congregations
adopting beliefs and practices similar to
Pentecostals.
Fundamental to the movement is the use of
spiritual gifts.
Among Protestants, the movement began around
1960.
In America, Episcopalian Dennis Bennett is
sometimes cited as one of the charismatic
movement's seminal influence.
In the United Kingdom, Colin Urquhart, Michael
Harper, David Watson and others were in the
vanguard of similar developments.
The Massey conference in New Zealand, 1964
was attended by several Anglicans, including
the Rev. Ray Muller, who went on to invite
Bennett to New Zealand in 1966, and played
a leading role in developing and promoting
the Life in the Spirit seminars.
Other Charismatic movement leaders in New
Zealand include Bill Subritzky.
Larry Christenson, a Lutheran theologian based
in San Pedro, California, did much in the
1960s and 1970s to interpret the charismatic
movement for Lutherans.
A very large annual conference regarding that
matter was held in Minneapolis.
Charismatic Lutheran congregations in Minnesota
became especially large and influential; especially
"Hosanna!" in Lakeville, and North Heights
in St. Paul.
The next generation of Lutheran charismatics
cluster around the Alliance of Renewal Churches.
There is considerable charismatic activity
among young Lutheran leaders in California
centered around an annual gathering at Robinwood
Church in Huntington Beach.
Richard A. Jensen's Touched by the Spirit
published in 1974, played a major role of
the Lutheran understanding to the charismatic
movement.
In Congregational and Presbyterian churches
which profess a traditionally Calvinist or
Reformed theology there are differing views
regarding present-day continuation or cessation
of the gifts (charismata) of the Spirit.
Generally, however, Reformed charismatics
distance themselves from renewal movements
with tendencies which could be perceived as
overemotional, such as Word of Faith, Toronto
Blessing, Brownsville Revival and Lakeland
Revival.
Prominent Reformed charismatic denominations
are the Sovereign Grace Churches and the Every
Nation Churches in the US, in Great Britain
there is the Newfrontiers churches and movement,
which leading figure is Terry Virgo.A minority
of Seventh-day Adventists today are charismatic.
They are strongly associated with those holding
more "progressive" Adventist beliefs.
In the early decades of the church charismatic
or ecstatic phenomena were commonplace.
=== Neo-charismatic churches ===
Neo-charismatic churches are a category of
churches in the Christian Renewal movement.
Neo-charismatics include the Third Wave, but
are broader.
Now more numerous than Pentecostals (first
wave) and charismatics (second wave) combined,
owing to the remarkable growth of postdenominational
and independent charismatic groups.Neo-charismatics
believe in and stress the post-Biblical availability
of gifts of the Holy Spirit, including glossolalia,
healing, and prophecy.
They practice laying on of hands and seek
the "infilling" of the Holy Spirit.
However, a specific experience of baptism
with the Holy Spirit may not be requisite
for experiencing such gifts.
No single form, governmental structure, or
style of church service characterizes all
neo-charismatic services and churches.
Some nineteen thousand denominations, with
approximately 295 million individual adherents,
are identified as neo-charismatic.
Neo-charismatic tenets and practices are found
in many independent, nondenominational or
post-denominational congregations, with strength
of numbers centered in the African independent
churches, among the Han Chinese house-church
movement, and in Latin American churches.
== Other Protestant developments ==
A plenty of other movements and thoughts to
be distinguished from the widespread transdenominational
ones and branches appeared within Protestant
Christianity.
Some of them are also in evidence today.
Others appeared during the centuries following
the Reformation and disappeared gradually
with the time, such as much of Pietism.
Some inspired the current transdenominational
ones, such as Evangelicalism which has its
foundation in the Christian fundamentalism.
=== Arminianism ===
Arminianism is based on theological ideas
of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius
(1560–1609) and his historic supporters
known as Remonstrants.
His teachings held to the five solae of the
Reformation, but they were distinct from particular
teachings of Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli,
John Calvin, and other Protestant Reformers.
Jacobus Arminius was a student of Theodore
Beza at the Theological University of Geneva.
Arminianism is known to some as a soteriological
diversification of Calvinism.
However, to others, Arminianism is a reclamation
of early Church theological consensus.
Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated
in the Remonstrance (1610), a theological
statement signed by 45 ministers and submitted
to the States General of the Netherlands.
Many Christian denominations have been influenced
by Arminian views on the will of man being
freed by grace prior to regeneration, notably
the Baptists in the 16th century, the Methodists
in the 18th century and the Seventh-day Adventist
Church in the 19th century.
The original beliefs of Jacobus Arminius himself
are commonly defined as Arminianism, but more
broadly, the term may embrace the teachings
of Hugo Grotius, John Wesley, and others as
well.
Classical Arminianism and Wesleyan Arminianism
are the two main schools of thought.
Wesleyan Arminianism is often identical with
Methodism.
The two systems of Calvinism and Arminianism
share both history and many doctrines, and
the history of Christian theology.
However, because of their differences over
the doctrines of divine predestination and
election, many people view these schools of
thought as opposed to each other.
In short, the difference can be seen ultimately
by whether God allows His desire to save all
to be resisted by an individual's will (in
the Arminian doctrine) or if God's grace is
irresistible and limited to only some (in
Calvinism).
Some Calvinists assert that the Arminian perspective
presents a synergistic system of Salvation
and therefore is not only by grace, while
Arminians firmly reject this conclusion.
Many consider the theological differences
to be crucial differences in doctrine, while
others find them to be relatively minor.
=== Pietism ===
Pietism was an influential movement within
Lutheranism that combined the 17th-century
Lutheran principles with the Reformed emphasis
on individual piety and living a vigorous
Christian life.It began in the late 17th century,
reached its zenith in the mid-18th century,
and declined through the 19th century, and
had almost vanished in America by the end
of the 20th century.
While declining as an identifiable Lutheran
group, some of its theological tenets influenced
Protestantism generally, inspiring the Anglican
priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist
movement and Alexander Mack to begin the Brethren
movement among Anabaptists.
Though Pietism shares an emphasis on personal
behavior with the Puritan movement, and the
two are often confused, there are important
differences, particularly in the concept of
the role of religion in government.
=== Puritanism, English dissenters and nonconformists
===
The Puritans were a group of English Protestants
in the 16th and 17th centuries, which sought
to purify the Church of England of what they
considered to be Roman Catholic practices,
maintaining that the church was only partially
reformed.
Puritanism in this sense was founded by some
of the returning clergy exiled under Mary
I shortly after the accession of Elizabeth
I of England in 1558, as an activist movement
within the Church of England.
Puritans were blocked from changing the established
church from within, and were severely restricted
in England by laws controlling the practice
of religion.
Their beliefs, however, were transported by
the emigration of congregations to the Netherlands
(and later to New England), and by evangelical
clergy to Ireland (and later into Wales),
and were spread into lay society and parts
of the educational system, particularly certain
colleges of the University of Cambridge.
They took on distinctive beliefs about clerical
dress and in opposition to the episcopal system,
particularly after the 1619 conclusions of
the Synod of Dort they were resisted by the
English bishops.
They largely adopted Sabbatarianism in the
17th century, and were influenced by millennialism.
They formed, and identified with various religious
groups advocating greater purity of worship
and doctrine, as well as personal and group
piety.
Puritans adopted a Reformed theology, but
they also took note of radical criticisms
of Zwingli in Zurich and Calvin in Geneva.
In church polity, some advocated for separation
from all other Christians, in favor of autonomous
gathered churches.
These separatist and independent strands of
Puritanism became prominent in the 1640s,
when the supporters of a Presbyterian polity
in the Westminster Assembly were unable to
forge a new English national church.
Nonconforming Protestants along with the Protestant
refugees from continental Europe were the
primary founders of the United States of America.
=== Neo-orthodoxy and Paleo-orthodoxy ===
A non-fundamentalist rejection of liberal
Christianity, associated primarily with Karl
Barth and Jürgen Moltmann, neo-orthodoxy
sought to counter-act the tendency of liberal
theology to make theological accommodations
to modern scientific perspectives.
Sometimes called "Crisis theology", according
to the influence of philosophical existentialism
on some important segments of the movement;
also, somewhat confusingly, sometimes called
neo-evangelicalism.
Paleo-orthodoxy is a movement similar in some
respects to neo-evangelicalism but emphasizing
the ancient Christian consensus of the undivided
church of the first millennium AD, including
in particular the early creeds and church
councils as a means of properly understanding
the scriptures.
This movement is cross-denominational and
the most notable exponent in the movement
is United Methodist theologian Thomas Oden.
=== Christian fundamentalism ===
In reaction to liberal Bible critique, fundamentalism
arose in the 20th century, primarily in the
United States, among those denominations most
affected by Evangelicalism.
Fundamentalist theology tends to stress Biblical
inerrancy and Biblical literalism.
Toward the end of the 20th century, some have
tended to confuse evangelicalism and fundamentalism;
however, the labels represent very distinct
differences of approach that both groups are
diligent to maintain, although because of
fundamentalism's dramatically smaller size
it often gets classified simply as an ultra-conservative
branch of evangelicalism.
=== Modernism and liberalism ===
Modernism and liberalism do not constitute
rigorous and well-defined schools of theology,
but are rather an inclination by some writers
and teachers to integrate Christian thought
into the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment.
New understandings of history and the natural
sciences of the day led directly to new approaches
to theology.
Its opposition to the fundamentalist teaching
resulted in religious debates, such as the
Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy within
the Presbyterian Church in the United States
of America in the 1920s.
== Protestant culture ==
Although the Reformation was a religious movement,
it also had a strong impact on all other aspects
of life: marriage and family, education, the
humanities and sciences, the political and
social order, the economy, and the arts.
Protestant churches reject the idea of a celibate
priesthood and thus allow their clergy to
marry.
Many of their families contributed to the
development of intellectual elites in their
countries.
Since about 1950, women have entered the ministry,
and some have assumed leading positions (e.g.
bishops), in most Protestant churches.
As the Reformers wanted all members of the
church to be able to read the Bible, education
on all levels got a strong boost.
By the middle of the eighteenth century, the
literacy rate in England was about 60 per
cent, in Scotland 65 per cent, and in Sweden
eight of ten men and women were able to read
and to write.
Colleges and universities were founded.
For example, the Puritans who established
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628 founded Harvard
College only eight years later.
About a dozen other colleges followed in the
18th century, including Yale (1701).
Pennsylvania also became a centre of learning.Members
of mainline Protestant denominations have
played leadership roles in many aspects of
American life, including politics, business,
science, the arts, and education.
They founded most of the country's leading
institutes of higher education.
=== Thought and work ethic ===
The Protestant concept of God and man allows
believers to use all their God-given faculties,
including the power of reason.
That means that they are allowed to explore
God's creation and, according to Genesis 2:15,
make use of it in a responsible and sustainable
way.
Thus a cultural climate was created that greatly
enhanced the development of the humanities
and the sciences.
Another consequence of the Protestant understanding
of man is that the believers, in gratitude
for their election and redemption in Christ,
are to follow God's commandments.
Industry, frugality, calling, discipline,
and a strong sense of responsibility are at
the heart of their moral code.
In particular, Calvin rejected luxury.
Therefore, craftsmen, industrialists, and
other businessmen were able to reinvest the
greater part of their profits in the most
efficient machinery and the most modern production
methods that were based on progress in the
sciences and technology.
As a result, productivity grew, which led
to increased profits and enabled employers
to pay higher wages.
In this way, the economy, the sciences, and
technology reinforced each other.
The chance to participate in the economic
success of technological inventions was a
strong incentive to both inventors and investors.
The Protestant work ethic was an important
force behind the unplanned and uncoordinated
mass action that influenced the development
of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution.
This idea is also known as the "Protestant
ethic thesis."However, eminent historian Fernand
Braudel (d.
1985), a leader of the important Annales School
wrote: "all historians have opposed this tenuous
theory [the Protestant Ethic] , although they
have not managed to be rid of it once and
for all.
Yet it is clearly false.
The northern countries took over the place
that earlier had been so long and brilliantly
been occupied by the old capitalist centers
of the Mediterranean.
They invented nothing, either in technology
or business management."
Social scientist Rodney Stark moreover comments
that "during their critical period of economic
development, these northern centers of capitalism
were Catholic, not Protestant—the Reformation
still lay well into the future," while British
historian Hugh Trevor-Roper (d.
2003) said, "The idea that large-scale industrial
capitalism was ideologically impossible before
the Reformation is exploded by the simple
fact that it existed."In a factor analysis
of the latest wave of World Values Survey
data, Arno Tausch (Corvinus University of
Budapest) found that Protestantism emerges
to be very close to combining religion and
the traditions of liberalism.
The Global Value Development Index, calculated
by Tausch, relies on the World Values Survey
dimensions such as trust in the state of law,
no support for shadow economy, postmaterial
activism, support for democracy, a non-acceptance
of violence, xenophobia and racism, trust
in transnational capital and Universities,
confidence in the market economy, supporting
gender justice, and engaging in environmental
activism, etc.Episcopalians and Presbyterians,
as well as other WASPs, tend to be considerably
wealthier and better educated (having graduate
and post-graduate degrees per capita) than
most other religious groups in United States,
and are disproportionately represented in
the upper reaches of American business, law
and politics, especially the Republican Party.
Numbers of the most wealthy and affluent American
families as the Vanderbilts and the Astors,
Rockefeller, Du Pont, Roosevelt, Forbes, Whitneys,
the Morgans and Harrimans are Mainline Protestant
families.
=== Science ===
Protestantism has had an important influence
on science.
According to the Merton Thesis, there was
a positive correlation between the rise of
English Puritanism and German Pietism on the
one hand and early experimental science on
the other.
The Merton Thesis has two separate parts:
Firstly, it presents a theory that science
changes due to an accumulation of observations
and improvement in experimental technique
and methodology; secondly, it puts forward
the argument that the popularity of science
in 17th-century England and the religious
demography of the Royal Society (English scientists
of that time were predominantly Puritans or
other Protestants) can be explained by a correlation
between Protestantism and the scientific values.
Merton focused on English Puritanism and German
Pietism as having been responsible for the
development of the scientific revolution of
the 17th and 18th centuries.
He explained that the connection between religious
affiliation and interest in science was the
result of a significant synergy between the
ascetic Protestant values and those of modern
science.
Protestant values encouraged scientific research
by allowing science to identify God's influence
on the world—his creation—and thus providing
a religious justification for scientific research.According
to Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the
United States by Harriet Zuckerman, a review
of American Nobel prizes awarded between 1901
and 1972, 72% of American Nobel Prize laureates
identified a Protestant background.
Overall, 84.2% of all the Nobel Prizes awarded
to Americans in Chemistry, 60% in Medicine,
and 58.6% in Physics between 1901 and 1972
were won by Protestants.
According to 100 Years of Nobel Prize (2005),
a review of Nobel prizes awarded between 1901
and 2000, 65.4% of Nobel Prize Laureates,
have identified Christianity in its various
forms as their religious preference (423 prizes).
While 32% have identified with Protestantism
in its various forms (208 prizes), although
Protestant comprise 11.6% to 13% of the world's
population.
=== Government ===
In the Middle Ages, the Church and the worldly
authorities were closely related.
Martin Luther separated the religious and
the worldly realms in principle (doctrine
of the two kingdoms).
The believers were obliged to use reason to
govern the worldly sphere in an orderly and
peaceful way.
Luther's doctrine of the priesthood of all
believers upgraded the role of laymen in the
church considerably.
The members of a congregation had the right
to elect a minister and, if necessary, to
vote for his dismissal (Treatise On the right
and authority of a Christian assembly or congregation
to judge all doctrines and to call, install
and dismiss teachers, as testified in Scripture;
1523).
Calvin strengthened this basically democratic
approach by including elected laymen (church
elders, presbyters) in his representative
church government.
The Huguenots added regional synods and a
national synod, whose members were elected
by the congregations, to Calvin's system of
church self-government.
This system was taken over by the other reformed
churches.Politically, Calvin favoured a mixture
of aristocracy and democracy.
He appreciated the advantages of democracy:
"It is an invaluable gift, if God allows a
people to freely elect its own authorities
and overlords."
Calvin also thought that earthly rulers lose
their divine right and must be put down when
they rise up against God.
To further protect the rights of ordinary
people, Calvin suggested separating political
powers in a system of checks and balances
(separation of powers).
Thus he and his followers resisted political
absolutism and paved the way for the rise
of modern democracy.
Besides England, the Netherlands were, under
Calvinist leadership, the freest country in
Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
It granted asylum to philosophers like Baruch
Spinoza and Pierre Bayle.
Hugo Grotius was able to teach his natural-law
theory and a relatively liberal interpretation
of the Bible.Consistent with Calvin's political
ideas, Protestants created both the English
and the American democracies.
In seventeenth-century England, the most important
persons and events in this process were the
English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell, John Milton,
John Locke, the Glorious Revolution, the English
Bill of Rights, and the Act of Settlement.
Later, the British took their democratic ideals
to their colonies, e.g. Australia, New Zealand,
and India.
In North America, Plymouth Colony (Pilgrim
Fathers; 1620) and Massachusetts Bay Colony
(1628) practised democratic self-rule and
separation of powers.
These Congregationalists were convinced that
the democratic form of government was the
will of God.
The Mayflower Compact was a social contract.
=== Rights and liberty ===
Protestants also took the initiative in advocating
for religious freedom.
Freedom of conscience had high priority on
the theological, philosophical, and political
agendas since Luther refused to recant his
beliefs before the Diet of the Holy Roman
Empire at Worms (1521).
In his view, faith was a free work of the
Holy Spirit and could, therefore, not be forced
on a person.
The persecuted Anabaptists and Huguenots demanded
freedom of conscience, and they practised
separation of church and state.
In the early seventeenth century, Baptists
like John Smyth and Thomas Helwys published
tracts in defense of religious freedom.
Their thinking influenced John Milton and
John Locke's stance on tolerance.
Under the leadership of Baptist Roger Williams,
Congregationalist Thomas Hooker, and Quaker
William Penn, respectively, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, and Pennsylvania combined democratic
constitutions with freedom of religion.
These colonies became safe havens for persecuted
religious minorities, including Jews.
The United States Declaration of Independence,
the United States Constitution, and the American
Bill of Rights with its fundamental human
rights made this tradition permanent by giving
it a legal and political framework.
The great majority of American Protestants,
both clergy and laity, strongly supported
the independence movement.
All major Protestant churches were represented
in the First and Second Continental Congresses.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
the American democracy became a model for
numerous other countries and regions throughout
the world (e.g., Latin America, Japan, and
Germany).
The strongest link between the American and
French Revolutions was Marquis de Lafayette,
an ardent supporter of the American constitutional
principles.
The French Declaration of the Rights of Man
and of the Citizen was mainly based on Lafayette's
draft of this document.
The United Nations Declaration and Universal
Declaration of Human Rights also echo the
American constitutional tradition.Democracy,
social-contract theory, separation of powers,
religious freedom, separation of church and
state – these achievements of the Reformation
and early Protestantism were elaborated on
and popularized by Enlightenment thinkers.
Some of the philosophers of the English, Scottish,
German, and Swiss Enlightenment – Thomas
Hobbes, John Locke, John Toland, David Hume,
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Christian Wolff,
Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau – had
Protestant backgrounds.
For example, John Locke, whose political thought
was based on "a set of Protestant Christian
assumptions", derived the equality of all
humans, including the equality of the genders
("Adam and Eve"), from Genesis 1, 26–28.
As all persons were created equally free,
all governments needed "the consent of the
governed."Also, other human rights were advocated
for by some Protestants.
For example, torture was abolished in Prussia
in 1740, slavery in Britain in 1834 and in
the United States in 1865 (William Wilberforce,
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln – against
Southern Protestants).
Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf were among
the first thinkers who made significant contributions
to international law.
The Geneva Convention, an important part of
humanitarian international law, was largely
the work of Henry Dunant, a reformed pietist.
He also founded the Red Cross.
=== Social teaching ===
Protestants have founded hospitals, homes
for disabled or elderly people, educational
institutions, organizations that give aid
to developing countries, and other social
welfare agencies.
In the nineteenth century, throughout the
Anglo-American world, numerous dedicated members
of all Protestant denominations were active
in social reform movements such as the abolition
of slavery, prison reforms, and woman suffrage.
As an answer to the "social question" of the
nineteenth century, Germany under Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck introduced insurance programs
that led the way to the welfare state (health
insurance, accident insurance, disability
insurance, old-age pensions).
To Bismarck this was "practical Christianity".
These programs, too, were copied by many other
nations, particularly in the Western world.
=== Arts ===
The arts have been strongly inspired by Protestant
beliefs.
Martin Luther, Paul Gerhardt, George Wither,
Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, William Cowper,
and many other authors and composers created
well-known church hymns.
Musicians like Heinrich Schütz, Johann Sebastian
Bach, George Frideric Handel, Henry Purcell,
Johannes Brahms, Philipp Nicolai and Felix
Mendelssohn composed great works of music.
Prominent painters with Protestant background
were, for example, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein
the Younger, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucas
Cranach the Younger, Rembrandt, and Vincent
van Gogh.
World literature was enriched by the works
of Edmund Spenser, John Milton, John Bunyan,
John Donne, John Dryden, Daniel Defoe, William
Wordsworth, Jonathan Swift, Johann Wolfgang
Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Edgar Allan Poe, Matthew Arnold,
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Theodor Fontane, Washington
Irving, Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson,
Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Thomas Stearns Eliot, John Galsworthy,
Thomas Mann, William Faulkner, John Updike,
and many others.
== Catholic responses ==
The view of the Roman Catholic Church is that
Protestant denominations cannot be considered
churches but rather that they are ecclesial
communities or specific faith-believing communities
because their ordinances and doctrines are
not historically the same as the Catholic
sacraments and dogmas, and the Protestant
communities have no sacramental ministerial
priesthood and therefore lack true apostolic
succession.
According to Bishop Hilarion (Alfeyev) the
Eastern Orthodox Church shares the same view
on the subject.Contrary to how the Protestant
Reformers were often characterized, the concept
of a catholic or universal Church was not
brushed aside during the Protestant Reformation.
On the contrary, the visible unity of the
catholic or universal church was seen by the
Protestant reformers as an important and essential
doctrine of the Reformation.
The Magisterial reformers, such as Martin
Luther, John Calvin, and Huldrych Zwingli,
believed that they were reforming the Roman
Catholic Church, which they viewed as having
become corrupted.
Each of them took very seriously the charges
of schism and innovation, denying these charges
and maintaining that it was the Roman Catholic
Church that had left them.
In order to justify their departure from the
Roman Catholic Church, Protestants often posited
a new argument, saying that there was no real
visible Church with divine authority, only
a spiritual, invisible, and hidden church—this
notion began in the early days of the Protestant
Reformation.
Wherever the Magisterial Reformation, which
received support from the ruling authorities,
took place, the result was a reformed national
Protestant church envisioned to be a part
of the whole invisible church, but disagreeing,
in certain important points of doctrine and
doctrine-linked practice, with what had until
then been considered the normative reference
point on such matters, namely the Papacy and
central authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Reformed churches thus believed in some
form of Catholicity, founded on their doctrines
of the five solas and a visible ecclesiastical
organization based on the 14th- and 15th-century
Conciliar movement, rejecting the papacy and
papal infallibility in favor of ecumenical
councils, but rejecting the latest ecumenical
council, the Council of Trent.
Religious unity therefore became not one of
doctrine and identity but one of invisible
character, wherein the unity was one of faith
in Jesus Christ, not common identity, doctrine,
belief, and collaborative action.
There are Protestants, especially of the Reformed
tradition, that either reject or down-play
the designation Protestant because of the
negative idea that the word invokes in addition
to its primary meaning, preferring the designation
Reformed, Evangelical or even Reformed Catholic
expressive of what they call a Reformed Catholicity
and defending their arguments from the traditional
Protestant confessions.
== Ecumenism ==
The ecumenical movement has had an influence
on mainline churches, beginning at least in
1910 with the Edinburgh Missionary Conference.
Its origins lay in the recognition of the
need for cooperation on the mission field
in Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Since 1948, the World Council of Churches
has been influential, but ineffective in creating
a united church.
There are also ecumenical bodies at regional,
national and local levels across the globe;
but schisms still far outnumber unifications.
One, but not the only expression of the ecumenical
movement, has been the move to form united
churches, such as the Church of South India,
the Church of North India, the US-based United
Church of Christ, the United Church of Canada,
the Uniting Church in Australia and the United
Church of Christ in the Philippines which
have rapidly declining memberships.
There has been a strong engagement of Orthodox
churches in the ecumenical movement, though
the reaction of individual Orthodox theologians
has ranged from tentative approval of the
aim of Christian unity to outright condemnation
of the perceived effect of watering down Orthodox
doctrine.A Protestant baptism is held to be
valid by the Catholic Church if given with
the trinitarian formula and with the intent
to baptize.
However, as the ordination of Protestant ministers
is not recognized due to the lack of apostolic
succession and the disunity from Catholic
Church, all other sacraments (except marriage)
performed by Protestant denominations and
ministers are not recognized as valid.
Therefore, Protestants desiring full communion
with the Catholic Church are not re-baptized
(although they are confirmed) and Protestant
ministers who become Catholics may be ordained
to the priesthood after a period of study.
In 1999, the representatives of Lutheran World
Federation and Catholic Church signed the
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification,
apparently resolving the conflict over the
nature of justification which was at the root
of the Protestant Reformation, although Confessional
Lutherans reject this statement.
This is understandable, since there is no
compelling authority within them.
On 18 July 2006, delegates to the World Methodist
Conference voted unanimously to adopt the
Joint Declaration.
== Spread and demographics ==
There are more than 900 million Protestants
worldwide, among approximately 2.4 billion
Christians.
In 2010, a total of more than 800 million
included 300 million in Sub-Saharan Africa,
260 million in the Americas, 140 million in
Asia-Pacific region, 100 million in Europe
and 2 million in Middle East-North Africa.
Protestants account for nearly forty percent
of Christians worldwide and more than one
tenth of the total human population.
Various estimates put the percentage of Protestants
in relation to the total number of world's
Christians at 33%, 36%, 36.7%, and 40%, while
in relation to the world's population at 11.6%
and 13%.In European countries which were most
profoundly influenced by the Reformation,
Protestantism still remains the most practiced
religion.
These include the Nordic countries and the
United Kingdom.
In other historical Protestant strongholds
such as Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland,
Latvia, Estonia and Hungary, it remains one
of the most popular religions.
Although Czech Republic was the site of one
of the most significant pre-reformation movements,
there are only few Protestant adherents; mainly
due to historical reasons like persecution
of Protestants by the Catholic Habsburgs,
restrictions during the Communist rule, and
also the ongoing secularization.
Over the last several decades, religious practice
has been declining as secularization has increased.
According to a 2012 study about Religiosity
in the European Union in 2012 by Eurobarometer,
Protestants made up 12% of the EU population.
According to Pew Research Center, Protestants
constituted nearly one fifth (or 17.8%) of
the continent's Christian population in 2010.
Clarke and Beyer estimate that Protestants
constituted 15% of all Europeans in 2009,
while Noll claims that less than 12% of them
lived in Europe in 2010.Changes in worldwide
Protestantism over the last century have been
significant.
Since 1900, Protestantism has spread rapidly
in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America.
That caused Protestantism to be called a primarily
non-Western religion.
Much of the growth has occurred after World
War II, when decolonization of Africa and
abolition of various restrictions against
Protestants in Latin American countries occurred.
According to one source, Protestants constituted
respectively 2.5%, 2%, 0.5% of Latin Americans,
Africans and Asians.
In 2000, percentage of Protestants on mentioned
continents was 17%, more than 27% and 5.5%,
respectively.
According to Mark A. Noll, 79% of Anglicans
lived in the United Kingdom in 1910, while
most of the remainder was found in the United
States and across the British Commonwealth.
By 2010, 59% of Anglicans were found in Africa.
In 2010, more Protestants lived in India than
in the UK or Germany, while Protestants in
Brazil accounted for as many people as Protestants
in the UK and Germany combined.
Almost as many lived in each of Nigeria and
China as in all of Europe.
China is home to world's largest Protestant
minority.Protestantism is growing in Africa,
Asia, Latin America, and Oceania, while declining
in Anglo America and Europe, with some exceptions
such as France, where it was eradicated after
the abolition of the Edict of Nantes by the
Edict of Fontainebleau and the following persecution
of Huguenots, but now is claimed to be stable
in number or even growing slightly.
According to some, Russia is another country
to see a Protestant revival.In 2010, the largest
Protestant denominational families were historically
Pentecostal denominations (10.8%), Anglican
(10.6%), Lutheran (9.7%), Baptist (9%), United
and uniting churches (unions of different
denominations) (7.2%), Presbyterian or Reformed
(7%), Methodist (3.4%), Adventist (2.7%),
Congregationalist (0.5%), Brethren (0.5%),
The Salvation Army (0.3%) and Moravian (0.1%).
Other denominations accounted for 38.2% of
Protestants.United States is home to approximately
20% of Protestants.
According to a 2012 study, Protestant share
of U.S. population dropped to 48%, thus ending
its status as religion of the majority for
the first time.
The decline is attributed mainly to the dropping
membership of the Mainline Protestant churches,
while Evangelical Protestant and Black churches
are stable or continue to grow.By 2050, Protestantism
is projected to rise to slightly more than
half of the world's total Christian population.
According to other experts such as Hans J.
Hillerbrand, Protestants will be as numerous
as Catholics.According to Mark Jürgensmeyer
of the University of California, popular Protestantism
is the most dynamic religious movement in
the contemporary world, alongside the resurgent
Islam.
== See also ==
Anti-Catholicism
Criticism of the Catholic Church
Anti-Protestantism
Criticism of Protestantism
The Reformation and its influence on church
architecture
European wars of religion
Protestantism and Islam
=== Tied movements ===
Jehovah's Witnesses
Latter Day Saint movement
Restorationism
Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement
Unitarianism
Universalism
Unitarian Universalism
Oneness Pentecostalism
The New Church/Swedenborgianism
Christadelphians
Messianic Judaism
Islamic ProtestantismFor more movements related
one way or the other, but not considered Protestant,
see List of Christian denominations.
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Cook, Martin L. (1991).
The Open Circle: Confessional Method in Theology.
Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press.
xiv, 130 p. N.B.: Discusses the place of Confessions
of Faith in Protestant theology, especially
in Lutheranism.
ISBN 0-8006-2482-3
Dillenberger, John, and Claude Welch (1988).
Protestant Christianity, Interpreted through
Its Development.
Second ed.
New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. ISBN 0-02-329601-1
Giussani, Luigi (1969), trans.
Damian Bacich (2013).
American Protestant Theology: A Historical
Sketch.
Montreal: McGill-Queens UP.
McGrath, Alister E. (2007).
Christianity's Dangerous Idea.
New York: HarperOne.
Nash, Arnold S., ed. (1951).
Protestant Thought in the Twentieth Century:
Whence & Whither?
New York: Macmillan Co.
Noll, Mark A. (2011).
Protestantism: A Very Short Introduction.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hillerbrand, Hans Joachim (2004).
Encyclopedia of Protestantism: 4-volume set.
Oxford: Routledge.—comprehensive scholarly
coverage on Protestantism worldwide, current
and historical; 2195pp; index in vol 4 is
online
Melton, J, Gordon.
Encyclopedia of Protestantism (Facts On File,
2005), 800 articles in 628pp
Ryrie, Alec Protestants: The Radicals Who
Made the Modern World (Harper Collins, 2017).
Ryrie, Alec "The World's Local Religion" History
Today (Sept 20, 2017) online
== External links ==
"Personal Christian Statement of Faith (Protestant)".
Wikihow.
July 29, 2015.
Protestantism (Encyclopedia.com)
"Protestantism" from the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia
The Historyscoper
World Council of Churches World body for mainline
Protestant churches
