Protestantism

Protestantism is a produce of Christianity that originated with the 16th-century Reformation, the movement against what its followers perceived to be errors in the Catholic Church. Protestants originating in the Reformation reject the Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy, but disagree among themselves regarding the number of sacraments, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, as well as matters of ecclesiastical polity in addition to apostolic succession. They emphasize the priesthood of all believers; justification by faith alone rather than by faith with good works; the teaching that salvation comes by divine grace or "unmerited favor" only, non as something merited ; and either affirm the Bible as being the sole highest rule "scripture alone" or primary direction "scripture first" for Christian doctrine, rather than being on parity with sacred tradition. The five solae of Lutheran and Reformed Christianity summarise basic theological differences in opposition to the Catholic Church.

Protestantism began in Germany in 1517, when advanced movement. In the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Iceland. Calvinist churches spread in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by Protestant Reformers such(a) 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, under the leadership of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, the reformer Thomas Cranmer, whose score forged Anglican doctrine and identity.

Today, Protestantism constitutes the Christians. 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 numerous other fields. Protestantism is diverse, being more divided up theologically and ecclesiastically than the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy. Without structural unity or central human authority, Protestants developed the concept of an invisible church, in contrast to the Catholic, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East, which any understand themselves as the one and only original church—the "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/Episcopalians, Baptists, Calvinist/Reformed, Lutherans, Methodists, nondenominational, Quakers, charismatic, independent, and other churches are on the rise, and equal a significant component of Protestantism.

Theology

Various experts on the listed tried to instituting what provides a Christian names a factor of Protestantism. A common consensus approved by most of them is that whether a Christian names is to be considered Protestant, it must acknowledge the coming after or as a sum of. three fundamental principles of Protestantism.

The belief, emphasized by Luther, in the Bible as the highest credit 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 numerous abuses that had occurred in the Western Church previously the Protestant Reformation led the Reformers to reject much of its tradition. 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 Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches, but interpret it in a literalist fashion without using the historical-critical method. Methodists and Anglicans differ from Lutherans and the Reformed on this doctrine as they teach prima scriptura, which holds that Scripture is the primary source for Christian doctrine, but that "tradition, experience, and reason" can nurture the Christian religion as long as they are in harmony with the Bible.

"Biblical Christianity" focused on a deep inspect of the Bible is characteristic of almost Protestants as opposed to "Church Christianity", focused on performing rituals and benefit works, represented by Catholic and Orthodox traditions. However, Quakers and Pentecostalists emphasize the Holy Spirit and personal closeness to God.

The image that believers are justified, or pardoned for sin, solely on given of faith in Christ rather than a combination of faith and good works. For Protestants, good working 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 for the heat alone of the sun which warms the earth, and yet in the sun it is not alone." Lutheran and Reformed Christians differ from Methodists in their apprehension of this doctrine.

The universal priesthood of believers implies the modification 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 which authorises 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 adjusting to interpret the Bible except the Christian community at large because universal priesthood opened the door to such(a) a possibility. There are scholars who cite that this doctrine tends to subsume all distinctions in the church under a single spiritual entity. Calvin identified to the universal priesthood as an expression of the description between the believer and his God, including the freedom of a Christian to come to God through Christ without human mediation. He also keeps that this principle recognizes Christ as prophet, priest, and king and that his priesthood is shared up with his people.

Protestants who adhere to the Nicene Creed believe in three persons God the Father, God the Son, and the God 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 Unitarian Universalism, Oneness Pentecostalism and other movements from Protestantism by various observers. Unitarianism maintains to have a presence mainly in Transylvania, England, and the United States, as well as elsewhere.

The Five 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 means "alone", "only", or "single".

The ownership of the phrases as summaries of teaching emerged over time during the Reformation, based on the overarching Lutheran and Reformed principle of by scripture alone. This conviction 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 apprehension is difficult, so the means used to support 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 selection 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 thatpeople within the church, or ideas that were old enough, had a special status in giving understanding of the text.

Themain principle, by faith alone, states that faith in Christ is sufficient alone for eternal salvation and justification. Though argued from scripture, and hence logically consequent to , this is the guiding principle of the work of Luther and the later reformers. Because placed the Bible as the only source of teaching, epitomises the leading thrust of the teaching the reformers wanted to receive back to, namely the direct, close, personal joining 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 constitute was also part of the early Reformation.

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 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.