Protestantism

Protestant (Baptist) Communion wine

Protestantism is one of the main branches of Christianity. It originated in the 16h -century Reformation by rejecting the authority of the Roman Catholic pope and instead emphasizing the role of grace and the authority of the Scriptures

Protestantism was created by a schism with the Catholic Church. By the 16th century, when the Reformation occurred, the Roman Catholic Church had become corrupted and bogged down by bureaucracy and ritual. Purists, who became Protestants, believed in traditional standards, and felt that the meaning of Christ's suffering and teachings had become lost in all the Catholic Church’s rituals. Many rituals of the time were performed without any true feeling and some like indulgences appeared to have used to mainly make money. Reformers such as Martin Luther wanted to return to a simpler form of the religion. [Source: Encyclopedia.com]

For such reformers, the Bible was the central authority, not the people who ran the church. They protested against practices such as selling indulgences. Luther along with others — like John Calvin (1509–1564), Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531), and John Knox (c. 1514–1572) — believed in the idea of "justification by faith alone." In other words, for these reformers faith was not simply a matter of accepting Christian doctrine and doing good works, but of actually and personally experiencing the presence of God. Good works do not necessarily lead to salvation, but they do follow from someone who already has faith.

Websites and Resources World Council of Churches, main world body for mainline Protestant churches oikoumene.org ; Wikipedia article on Protestantism Wikipedia ; Internet Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC on Baptists bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity ; BBC on Methodists bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity ; Christian Answers christiananswers.net ; Christian Classics Ethereal Library www.ccel.org ; Sacred Texts website sacred-texts.com ; Christian Denominations: Christianity.com christianity.com/church/denominations ; Christianity Comparison Charts religionfacts.com ; Difference between Christian Denominations Quoracom

Protestant Numbers

Protestantism is the second largest Christian denomination. A Pew Forum study in 2012 study estimated Christianity was the largest faith in the world with 2.2 billion adherents or 31.5 percent of the world’s population, with Roman Catholics making up 48 percent of that total, Protestants — including Anglicans and non-denominational churches — at 37 percent and Orthodox, which members of Greek and Russian Orthodox church,,at 12 percent. [Source: AFP, December 20, 2011; Tom Heneghan, Reuters, December 18, 2012; Wikipedia, 2024]

About 36.7 percent of all Christians are Protestant and 11.9 percent Orthodox, according to the Pew study. The report's findings, posted on the Pew Research Center's website (www.pewforum.org) were primarily based on a country-by-country analysis of about 2,400 data sources, including censuses and population surveys. In a report at the start of this year, the center estimated the world's Muslim population at 1.6 billion — a figure it said was projected to grow by about 35 percent to 2.2 billion by 2030.” =*=

Martin Luther and Moses

Nigeria now has more than twice as many Protestants as Germany, the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation. In Latin America, Pentecostalism has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the dominant faith in many regions.

According to Pew, In many cases however, censuses and surveys do not contain detailed information on denominational and religious movement affiliations. Christian organizations remain in many cases the only source of information on the size of global movements within Christianity(such as evangelicalism and pentecostalism) and on Protestant denominational families (such as Baptists and Methodists). The figures in this report on pentecostal, charismatic and evangelical Christians and on Protestant denominational families were commissioned by the Pew Forum from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass., whose researchers generated estimates based in large part on figures provided by Christian organizations around the world. Readers should bear in mind that these breakdowns were derived differently from the overall Christian population estimates.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther (1483-1546) is credited with starting the Reformation, reforming Christianity, changing Catholicism and dividing Europe. Describing his own life, Luther wrote: "I am the son of a peasant and the grandson and great-grandson. My father wanted to make me into a burgomaster [mayor]. I became a monk and put off the brown beret. My father didn't like it, and then I got into the Pope's hair and married an apostate nun. Who could have read that in the stars." [Source: Merle Severy, National Geographic, October 1983; Otto Friedrich, Smithsonian magazine]

In 1517 Luther was an obscure Augustinian monk who challenged the Catholic church, at that time "the most unifying force in Europe.” In addition to discontent with the Catholic church, Europe was experiencing economic unrest as a result of the injustices of feudalism. Usually when presented with people like Luther, the church ignored them or had them executed as a heretic. Luther did not intend to be a revolutionary, rather he was man who was so appalled by the impious acts of the church, which he thought was very unchristian, that he could not remain quiet.

Peter Schjeldahl wrote in The New Yorker: “Luther was born in Saxony in 1483, the son of a well-to-do mining entrepreneur. He studied law, but later wrote that a terrifying experience during a thunderstorm, in 1505, led him to enter a monastery. He became a priest in 1507 and a theology professor in 1512. Nevertheless, he was racked by doubts about God and about his own mind and heart. That qualified him, in Kierkegaard’s words, three centuries later, as “disciplined in all secrecy by fear and trembling and much spiritual trial for venturing the extraordinary in God’s name.” But Kierkegaard noted a flaw: Luther was ambitious, and to gain converts he effectively excused them from the inner struggle that gave his beliefs their meaning. W. H. Auden picked up the theme in a sonnet, “Luther”: “ ‘The Just shall live by Faith . . .’ he cried in dread. / And men and women of the world were glad, / Who’d never cared or trembled in their lives.” [Source: Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, November 14, 2016]

History of Protestantism

Michael J. McClymond wrote in the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”: Martin Luther may have done more than anyone else to shape the development of modern Christianity. Luther began as a faithful monk and loyal member of the church, but his emphasis on the priority of grace and the authority of the Bible provoked a series of revolutionary changes that transformed the map of Europe and forever altered theology, politics, economics, art, literature, and family life. [Source: Michael J. McClymond, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]

Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531) and John Calvin (1509–64) were second-generation reformers in the Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva, respectively, and their Reformed version of Protestantism had influence in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, North America, and South Africa. Menno Simons (1496–1561) was among the best-known and most irenic figures in the Radical Reformation, and his followers are known to this day as Mennonites.

The Anabaptists were the most radical members of the Reformation movement. They objected to infant baptism and demanded church and state separation. During the sixteenth and early seventeenth, the Anabaptists were behind dozens of violent uprising. In the 16th century a group of Anabaptists fearing the end of the world was imminent took over the town of Leiden, Netherlands and their leader John was declared a messiah. They abolished money and all books except the Bible and instituted polygamy.

Christian denomination numbers worldwide

The Reformation

The Reformation— more properly called the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation — was a 16th-century religious and political uprising against the authority of the Pope that led to was a schism in Western Christianity. It was initiated by Martin Luther with the publication of the “Ninety-five Theses” in 1517 and continued by Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin and other Protestant Reformers. The Reformation triggered the bloody the Counter-Reformation, which sucked in much of Europe, and lasted until the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. The Reformation led to the division of Western Christianity into different denominations such Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Anabaptist and Unitarian. The Eastern Orthodox Christian church had split off in 1054.

The Reformation began as theological debate over real and perceived Church corruption. Early dissenters included John Wycliffe (1320-84) in England, and john Huss (burned as a heretic in 1415) in Bohemia. Martin Luther was from Germany. Other major players in the Reformation were Huldrych Zwingli of Zurich, John Calvin of Geneva and King Henry VIII of England

The Reformation was aided by the invigorated intellectual freedom of the Renaissance and spirit of nationalism in England, France, Germany and Bohemia. In the 16th century the church was corrupt and blemished by greedy clergy and decadent monks, extracting financial burdens from the laity to pay for their indulgences and ambitions. The General Councils of 15th century failed to reform he church.

Differences between Catholics and Protestants

The Catholic Church stresses hierarchy, community and good works not individualism as is highlighted in Protestantism. The theology of the Catholic church is based in a large part on the ideas of the great 5th century Christian theologian St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas (354-430) ((1224-74). The theology of the Protestant Church is rooted in the theology of these Christian thinkers but is based in a large part on the beliefs of Martin Luther (1483-1546)

There have been were three major schisms in Christianity: 1) the one in the 5th century that split eastern Christendom in two; 2) the one the 11th century that divided the Latin (Catholic) church and the Byzantine church; and 3) the Reformation in the 16th century in which Protestantism arose and split from the Roman Catholic church.

Protestantism differs from Catholicism in that it refutes the Eucharist’s "anticlerical doctrines of unmeditated prayer. The leaders of the Reformation rejected the Catholic “cult of the saints” as pagan superstition. Catholics believe in purgatory, a place for those who have died in a 'state of grace' to serve penance until they are allowed to go to Heaven. Some Protestants argue that purgatory is s one of the most dubious of all Catholic teachings, saying it represents “a medieval invention nowhere to be found in the Bible” and calling it "a denial of the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice", instead representing "a second-chance theology that is abominable."

Protestant Denominations

Lutheranism is the largest branch of the Protestant Church. It grew out of the teachings of Martin Luther. The term "Lutheranism" was first used as a rebuke on papal bull. Luther preferred the term "Evangelical." There are around 100 million Lutherans in the world. About half the population of Germany are Lutherans

Presbyterianism was inspired by the teachings of the Swiss Protestant reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) and his fiery friend John Knox (1505-1572), who took Calvin’s doctrines to Scotland and founded the Presbyterian church there. There around 50 million Presbyterians world wide. Presbyterianism is the established religion in Scotland around 1560

The Baptist Church is the largest non-Catholic religious group in the United States. It has no recognized founder and grew out of the Anabaptist movement on the 16th century. Most Baptists are in the United States. The Baptist churches together form the fifth largest Christian group in the world. One its basic beliefs is that all believers must by full immersed during baptism.

Methodism developed in England out of the teaching of the Anglican clergyman John Wesley (1703-1781). The word "Methodism" was originally applied in a negative way to describe the methodical way Wesley and his followers went about their religious duties. Most Methodists are in the United States. It is the fourth largest Christian Church in England: its history and founder John Wesley and its values. There are Methodist Churches in nearly every country in the world and global membership numbers some 70 million people. The Methodist Church is traditionally known as non-conformist because it does not conform to the rules and authority of the established Church of England. [Source: BBC, July 12, 2011 |::|]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File); “ Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); King James Version of the Bible, gutenberg.org; New International Version (NIV) of The Bible, biblegateway.com; Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ccel.org , Frontline, PBS, Wikipedia, BBC, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Encyclopedia.com, Reuters, Associated Press, Business Insider, AFP, Library of Congress, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2024