A Balanced Believers Reform Movement

With the start of the 16th century, many changes have occurred. One of them being, a turning point in european history and religion, the Reformation. The Reformation was an upheaval where people began to question the authority and piety of the Roman Catholic Church and its traditions. Ignited by Martin Luther, and continued by John Calvin and other protestants this break in religion really shook the established power of the Highest Institution. By the year of 1540, Pope Paul III seen that some kind of change within must happen in order to not lose catholicism to protestantism. He decided to spark a counter-reformation, that reformed and bettered the doctrine and the grip the church had on the monarchies of the european society. The first aim the counter-reformation had

Fundamentalism is a strict adherence to a set of ideas or beliefs that are conservative in nature. It is a pejorative term usually associated with religious fanaticism. Usually, this is what comes to mind when there is mention of a fundamentalist. However, in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist starring the protagonist Changez, a Pakistani Princetonian who is a top-ranked employee at a prestigious New York valuation firm, turns out not to be an Islamic fundamentalist, but a reluctant fundamentalist of US Capitalism. Hamid challenges readers to reevaluate their preconceived notions and prejudices of people different from themselves in post 9/11 America by employing the use of motifs, aphorism, and suspense, to create a conflation

The development of new ideas and inventions lead to a spread of ideas which resulted in the protestant reformation and in retaliation to this, the Catholic Church initiated the Counter-Reformation. The Protestant Reformation began because of rapidly changing views on how the world works and the introduction of new inventions such as the printing press. As people began to focus more on the world around them they began expand their view of things. Many scientists opposed agreed upon ideas such as the Earth being the center of the universe. The Catholic Church at the time understood this as blasphemy and excommunicated people from the church. This lead to the creation of protestant denominations.

In this narrative we meet three women who come from different walks of life. Each one of them has a different religion, but they all have one thing in common. That is that they all have children and want to explain to them about their different religions, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks as many children had questions and were left perplexed.

Let us now examine the time of the Reformation, beginning proper in 1519 with Luther’s quarrels with the Roman Catholic church and ending in the eighteenth century with Wesleyanism, the reformation of theology that occurred within the Church of England.

The Reformation affected Europe in many ways, leaving many lasting effects on the people, churches, and government.

The universities of Europe had a major impact on the start and spread of the Catholic Reformation. Both Source B and Source D agree that universities played a major role in the start of the Protestant Reformation and in the further spreading of the Reformation by allowing it to be taught. Both sources, however vary slightly on how they believe universities of Europe contributed to the Reformation. They both agree that the universities and how they responded were directly influential, however they disagree slightly on in what way it influenced the rise of the Reformation.

The New Reformation was an era with new ideas and feud between religions. In the 1500s, England believed in brand new things. Autocrats enforced the eulogized religion. Academies taught religions authorized by autocrats. Failing to comply with the eulogized religions is punishable by confinement, laceration, and death penalty. Complying with the wrong religion has its own risks for privy treasure, laxity, and vitality. Queen Mary accepted the Catholic religion and charred the Protestants alive and victimized them. Queen Elizabeth accepted and allowed Protestantism to be a religion. Queen Elizabeth allowed people to accept the Catholic religion without being persecuted. The Catholics desired to substitute Mary and replace Queen Elizabeth. (Linda Alchins, Religion in Elizabethan England, paragraph # 3). Catholics thinks that

The Reformation took place during the time of the Renaissance. There was a split in the Catholic Church and Protestantism, a new form of Christianity, began. Martin Luther was a monk that began studying the Bible and began wondering about the accuracy of the Catholic Church practices. As he studied the Bible, he began finding many areas where the Catholic Church and the Bible differed. He decided to fully dedicate his life to the Gospel and it's teachings.

The First Great Awakening, was a religious revitalization movement that came through the Atlantic region, and even more so in the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, forever impacting American religion & is widely known as the most important event for American religion during the eighteenth century. The First Great Awakening was inspired by an English Methodist known as George Whitefield along with other ministers, when many people in the rural areas rejected the Enlighted and rational religion that came from the Cosmopolitan pulpits and port cities. George Whitefield began this movement with speaking tours through the colonies (“The Great Awakening”).

Disagreement between Shias and Sunni have been the most important splits in Islamic religion, which are ongoing problems since the 7th century to present-day, conflict in Islamic history has initiated blood spills from generations to generations and is still taking life’s while differences in social and equal opportunities that have taken deep roots in the minds of future leaders.

Lewis does a great job of explaining this particular crisis in Islam; the view that some so-called Islamic leaders are considered apostates in the eyes of many hard liners. The influx of Western culture into the Middle East brings with it this dilemma that many Muslims wrestle with today. The fact that the globalization of economies merging traditional cultures like those in the Middle East with those of infidels divides Muslims who accept it and those who reject

The Muslim world could be united should each sect accept their difference with respect and understanding that there still is only one God. Divine unicity would be better practiced as a force that brought Muslims together without generating conflict that is concerned with the finer political and theological distinctions.

It is Changez’s shifting identity that creates the main interest and tension in the novel. Do you agree?

Although Islam is the second largest religion in the world with a following of 1.8 billion followers, no other religion has faced more scrutiny and hardship in the past decades. This has been caused by media and governments labeling Islam as a whole with their extremist groups like Al Queda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. I even thought that the principals held by these extremist group were more common in Islam than they are. After studying Islam and gaining more information I came to respect this religion more than any other we studied this semester because of its seriousness and unity. The Quran and Hadith provide concrete details and instructions to follow in the faith of Islam. No texts from any other religion are as upfront with their beliefs than these. Muhammad was and continues to be a powerful and understanding leader that has led it to becoming the world’s fastest growing religion. I enjoyed studying the powerfulness of Muhammad and the direct voice of God in the Quran that is sets Islam apart from Judaism and Christianity.