Disadvantages Of The Protestant Reformation

On the other side of the Great Schism is the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation occurred during the early sixteenth century. Religious reformers such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Henry the eighth all challenged the ideas, vision, and authority of the Catholic Church. This lead to years of war and persecution, but ultimately the development of the Protestant sect of Christianity. The philosophy behind Protestantism is holding the Christian ideals without practicing or abiding by Catholic doctrine, especially the rule and legitimacy of the Pope. The Encyclopedia of Religion summarizes this best stating, “The easiest way to put a boundary around Protestantism is to deal with it negatively and say that it is the form of Western …show more content…
Across the spectrum, Protestant practice is all God-centric. Next to God or where the relationship with God is drawn from is scripture. One parallel to Catholic tradition is Protestant scripture. The scripture for both Catholicism and Protestantism is the Bible. The rest of the unifying characteristics of Protestant religions can be encompassed in the five solas of the Protestant Reformation. The five solas are the central doctrine taught in contrast to that of Roman Catholicism. These solas include Sola Fide, by faith alone; Sola Scriptura, by Scripture alone; Solus Christus, through Christ alone; Sola Gratia, by grace alone; and Soli Deo Gloria, glory to God alone. These ideas were never decided upon formally, but throughout the sixteenth century, reformers expressed these phrases in their writings either implicitly or explicitly. One distinction of Protestantism is that the authority of the Bible is primary to all other creeds or forms of polity. Throughout the development and transformation of Protestantism there has been room for criticism and reformation. This accounts for the vast number offshoots under the umbrella of