Saturday, November 10, 2007


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Protestantism encompasses the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated with the doctrines of the Reformation. The term is derived from the Protestatio delivered by a minority of delegates against the (1529) Diet of Speyer, which passed legislation opposed by the Lutherans. Since that time, the term has been used in many different senses, but not as the official title of any church until it was assumed in 1783 by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, the American branch of the Anglican Communion. Most broadly, Protestantism is Western Christianity that is not subject to papal authority.

Major Groupings
The Reformation came about through a number of factors, both political and theological. The Holy Roman Empire was by the 1500s, made up of approximately 300 states and imperial cities, each to some degree self-governing, most under a feudal lord - a prince, duke, margrave, etc. The 1521 Edict of Worms originally forbade Lutheran teachings, the status of which within the Catholic Church was still unclear, within the Holy Roman Empire. However, the 1526 session of the Diet, the imperial parliament, gave each ruler within the empire the power to decide the religion of his subjects according to the principle of Cuius regio, eius religio, allowing a local lord to forbid Lutheranism and enforce Catholicism, or forbid Catholicism and enforce Lutheranism.
In 1529, Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Speyer revised this policy again and declared that until there was clarification of the Catholic Church's position from another council all further new religious developments in the empire would remain forbidden:
"Those that until now have followed the Edict of Worms should continue to do so [ i.e., where Lutheranism has been forbidden, it remains forbidden]. In the areas where this has been deviated from, there shall be no further new developments and no-one shall be refused Mass [i.e., where Lutheranism has been permitted, Catholicism must be at least permitted]. Finally, the sects which contradict the sacrament of the true body and blood, shall absolutely not be tolerated, no more than the Anabaptists [i.e., anything beyond Lutheranism or Catholicism is outlawed everywhere]."
The name protestant is derived from the Latin protestatio meaning declaration which Martin Luther made when he and his supporters dissented "from the decision of the Diet of Spires (1529), which reaffirmed the edict of the Diet of Worms against the Reformation (in contrast to Reformed churches), while the common historical designation (evangelical) for all churches originating from the Reformation is a term that, in the United States, is used to refer to specifically conservative Protestant churches. Some Western, non-Catholic, groups are labelled as Protestant (such as the Religious Society of Friends), despite the reality that they recognize no historical connection to Luther, Calvin, or the Catholic Church.
In England, before the Oxford movement of the 19th century,the word "Protestant" later came to be used to refer to the established Church of England. Protestants who were not members of the Church of England are further delineated as non-conformists.

Origins

Main article: Five solas Basic theological tenets of the Reformation

Main articles: Real Presence and Lord's Supper Real Presence in the Lord's Supper
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. To the contrary, the visible unity of the catholic Church was an important and essential doctrine of the Reformation. The Magisterial Reformers, such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli, believed that they were reforming a corrupt and heretical Catholic Church. Each of them took very seriously the charges of schism and innovation, denying these charges and maintaining that it was the medieval Roman Catholic Church that had left them. Because of this the fundamental Unity of the Catholic Church remained a very important doctrine in the churches of the Reformation. Dr. James Walker wrote in "The Theology of Theologians of Scotland":
The visible church, in the idea of the Scottish theologians, is catholic. You have not an indefinite number of Parochial, or Congregational, or National churches, constituting, as it were, so many ecclesiastical individualities, but one great spiritual republic, of which these various organizations form a part. The visible church is not a genus, so to speak, with so many species under it. It is thus you may think of the State, but the visible church is a totum integrale, it is an empire. The churches of the various nationalities constitute the provinces of this empire; and though they are so far independent of each other, yet they are so one, that membership in one is membership in all, and separation from one is separation from all... This conception of the church, of which, in at least some aspects, we have practically so much lost sight, had a firm hold of the Scottish theologians of the seventeenth century.

Catholicism
Unlike mainstream Evangelical (Lutheran), Reformed (Zwinglian and Calvinist) Protestant movements, the Radical Reformation, which had no state sponsorship, generally abandoned the idea of the "Church Visible" as distinct from the "Church Invisible." For them, the Church only consisted of the tiny community of believers, who accepted Jesus Christ by adult baptism, called "believer's baptism". Others believed that the Church could not be defined as anything more than a single congregation meeting together for worship at one time in a single place. The Radical Reformation thus did not believe that the Magisterial Reformation had gone far enough. For example, radical reformer Andreas von Bodenstein Karlstadt referred to the Lutheran theologians at Wittenberg as the 'new papists.' It was exactly because the Reformation still strongly defended the visible unity of the Catholic Church that they were criticized by the Radical Reformers and vice versa.

Radical Reformation
See the articles Lay, Ordained and Priesthood of all believers
Whereas Catholics look to the Church for authority, Protestants look to the Bible for authority.

Authority
Many Protestant churches practice similar rituals to Catholicism—chiefly baptism, communion, and matrimony—frequently varying or de-formalizing the rites (although this is not the case in some Lutheran and Anglican parishes).

Within the Church
Radical - Anabaptist and peace churches

Lutheran - doctrine of the two kingdoms
Reformed
Anglican Secular authority
Protestants can be differentiated according to how they have been influenced by important movements since the magisterial Reformation and the Puritan Reformation in England. Some of these movements have a common lineage, sometimes directly spawning later movements in the same groups.

Protestants Later development

Main articles: Pietism and Methodism Pietism and Methodist movement

Main article: Evangelicalism Evangelicalism

Main article: Pentecostalism Pentecostalism

Main article: Liberal Christianity Modernism

Main article: Christian fundamentalismMichael Patrick MacDonald Fundamentalism

Main article: Neo-orthodoxy Neo-orthodoxy

Main article: Neo-evangelicalism Neo-evangelicalism

Main article: Paleo-orthodoxy Paleo-Orthodoxy

Main article: Christian ecumenism Ecumenism
Protestants often refer to specific Protestant churches and groups as denominations to imply that they are differently named parts of the whole church. This "invisible unity" is assumed to be imperfectly displayed, visibly: some denominations are less accepting of others, 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. The actual number of distinct denominations is hard to calculate, but has been estimated to be over thirty thousand. Various ecumenical movements have attempted cooperation or reorganization of Protestant churches, according to various models of union, but divisions continue to outpace unions. Most denominations share common beliefs in the major aspects of the Christian faith, while differing in many secondary doctrines. There are "over 33,000 denominations in 238 countries" and every year there is a net increase of around 270 to 300 denominations. According to David Barrett's study (1970), there are 8,196 denominations within Protestantism.

Denominations
Only general families are listed here (due to the above-stated mulititude of denominations); some of these groups do not consider themselves as part of the Protestant movement, but are generally viewed as such by scholars and the public at large:

Anabaptist
Anglican / Episcopalian
African Methodist Episcopal
Baptist
Christian and Missionary Alliance
Evangelicalism
Lutheran
Methodist / Wesleyan and the Holiness movement
Pentecostal and Charismatic
Quakerism
Reformed/Congregational /Presbyterian
Restoration movement
Adventists
Non-denominational
Waldensians Families of denominations

Main article: Protestants by country Notable Protestant religious figures

Jan Hus, Czech reformist/dissident; burned to death by Roman Catholic Church authorities for unrepentant and persistent heresy. Fifteenth century

Jacobus Arminius, Dutch theologian, founder of school of thought known as Arminianism
Heinrich Bullinger, successor of Zwingli, leading reformed theologian
John Calvin, French theologian, Reformer and resident of Geneva, Switzerland, he founded the school of theology known as Calvinism
Elizabeth I, English Queen known for reforming the national religion of England
Abraomas Kulvietis, jurist and a professor at Königsberg Albertina University, as well as a Reformer of the Lithuanian church.
John Knox, Scottish Calvinist reformer,
Martin Luther, German religious reformer, theologian, founder of the Lutheran church in Germany, founder of Lutheranism
Philipp Melanchthon, early Lutheran leader
Menno Simons, founder of Mennonitism
Huldrych Zwingli, founder of Swiss reformed tradition
John Smyth, founder of the Baptist denomination
Martynas Mažvydas was the author and the editor of the first printed book in the Lithuanian language. First Lithuanian Protestant Archdeacon of Ragainė. Sixteenth century

Jacob Albright, founder of the Evangelical Church
Jacob Amman, founder of the Amish church
Francis Asbury, early bishop of American Methodism
Jonathan Edwards, American Puritan theologian, Great Awakening reformist preacher, Calvinist
George Fox, Founder of the Religious Society of Friends
William Penn, Founder of Pennsylvania
Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian considered founder of Liberal Christianity
Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher considered the "Father of Existentialism" and influenced Karl Barth and neo-orthodoxy theology.
Philipp Jakob Spener, "father" of the Pietist movement
Charles Wesley, Anglican priest, Methodist leader, poet, & hymn writer
John Wesley, Anglican priest, founder of the Methodist movement
George Whitefield, Great Awakening reformist preacher
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, renowned for his treatise In Darkest England and the Way Out
Edward Irving, Scottish clergyman, generally (but wrongly) regarded as the founder of the Catholic Apostolic Church
Ellen G. White, James White, Joseph Bates, Uriah Smith, Dr. John Kellogg Pioneers of Seventh-day Adventism
Charles Taze Russel, Judge Rutherford founders of the Watch Tower Bible and tract society, more commonly known as Jehovah's Witnesses.
Mme. Henriette Feller, missionary to Quebec and founder of Feller College.
Nikolaus Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf, Founder and Bishop of the Moravians
August Gottlieb Spangenberg, Leader of American Moravian missions, Bishop, German theologian
Charles P. Chiniquy, Catholic Priest converted to Presbyterian Preacher, Quebec and Illinois
Gustav II Adolf, King of Sweden during the Thirty Years War Seventeenth - nineteenth centuries

Karl Barth, Swiss theologian along with Emil Brunner known for Neo-orthodox theology also known as "Dialectical theology" and "Crisis theology"
Cornelius Van Til, American theologian known for his development of pre-suppositional apologetics
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian, involved in the resistance against Nazism and executed shortly before the end of World War II
Jerry Falwell, American evangelist and political activist
Austin Farrer, Anglican theologian, preacher, and philosopher
Billy Graham, American evangelist
John Stott, Anglican Minister, preacher and author
Nicky Gumbel, Anglican British evangelist
Martin Luther King, Jr.,American Minister, peace and civil rights activist
C. S. Lewis, Anglican novelist, literary scholar, and lay theologian
Aimee Semple McPherson American founder of the Foursquare Church
Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian and ethicist
H. Richard Niebuhr, American theologian and ethicist
Pat Robertson, American charismatic/evangelical leader
Francis A. Schaeffer, Christian apologist
Billy Sunday, American Evangelist
Paul Tillich, Lutheran existentialist theologian
John Howard Yoder, Mennonite theologian and ethicist
James Dobson, American psychologist and conservative activist, founder of Focus on the Family Ministry
Charles Swindoll, American theologian, author, pastor, founder of Insight for Living Twentieth century

Marcus Borg, American Episcopal theologian (Lutheran background)
John B. Cobb, theologian, involved in Process Theology
Franklin Graham, American evangelist (son of Billy Graham)
Stanley Hauerwas, American Christian theologian and ethicist
Ian Paisley, Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster also a senior politician in Northern Ireland, UK
John Shelby Spong, Retired (Episcopal) Bishop of Newark, New Jersey
N.T. Wright, Anglican Bishop of Durham and New Testament scholar
Thomas C. Oden, United Methodist presbyter and theologian
Brian McLaren, "emergent church" guru
William Willimon, United Methodist Bishop and theologian
Edir Macedo, founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God theology of the prosperity.
T. D. Jakes, American televangelist. The Potter's House. Twenty first century

Supporting

Catholic websites on sola scriptura
"Protestantism" from the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia
"Why Only Catholicism Can Make Protestantism Work" by Mark Brumley
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