Comparing Christian Humanism And The Protestant Reformation

Protestant Reformation: (Also known as the Reformation) is when Martin Luther rebelled against the church by writing a book called “The Ninety-Five Theses.” Luther began to question and criticise the selling of indulgences, he insisted that the pope had no authority over purgatory and the Catholic doctrine of the Merits of the saints. This changed most of Western Europe.

Christian humanism is an intellectual movement in Northern Europe that combined the interest in the classics of the Italian Renaissance with an interest in the sources of early Christianity. It helped pave the way to the protestant reformation by bringing the focus of old Christianity back into modern Christianity, which was a protestant ideal. Erasmus paved the way for Luther’s break with Rome and Catholicism by writing the Handbook of Christian Knight, stating his belief that Christianity should show people how to live good lives on a daily basis, not just to provide believes for them to be saved. This belief was shown also by Luther, it being his belief that a common man should be sanctioned to interpret the bible in his or her own way.

Both the reformation and the “Age of Discovery” had large effects on society, culture, and politics throughout the 1500s. The reformation started in the early 1500s as the church was looking for a new identity. This new identity was thought as the people at the time wondering what exactly God wants from us to be able to be saved and go to heaven. There were two main religious ideas born in this time frame. Those were Lutherism and Calvinism.

INTRODUCTION The Reformation is a significant development within a religious tradition. During the 16th century, many changes occurred in European society as well as the Church. These were mainly due to the Protestant Reformation, English Reformation and Catholic Reformation. The Protestant Reformation was initiated by Martin Luther around 1517, in Germany.

In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation, which was the name given to the religious reform movement that separated the western Christian church into two different groups: Catholics and Protestant. Even though political and social influences were strongly present, the principal reason behind this movement was religious background. Around the second half of the fifteenth century, in European countries located in the north of the Alps, a movement called northern Renaissance humanism or Christian humanism was spread by the new Classical learning of the Italian Renaissance. This movement had as a major goal the reform of Christendom. The Christian humanists argued that human beings had the ability to reason and improve

The protestant reformation had originated in Germany with Martin Luther being one of the key contributors to this movement. Although originating in Germany the Protestant reformation had quickly spread throughout Europe. In the beginning Luther only wanted to have his many questions concerning the Roman Catholic churches divine authority answer but, when he did not get them he tried to make the church change and when the church would not change he left is behind and demanded religious change for all(BishopPg.3) or (Barick Ayil pg 13)As stated in “The Reformation and Society In sixteenth-Century Europe” "anticlericalism and antipapalism were nevertheless bound to flourish in a society which endowed churchmen with excessive power and wealth.”

Humanism was the study of Greek and Roman language and literature to educate one’s self and improve one’s reasoning. During the Middle Ages the church was looked upon as the absolute power, and many felt as if it was the end all be all in terms of God and salvation. Because of its high status, not many people questioned the Church. However, this all changed during the Renaissance. As discussed in document 5, the church basically only existed for money. They did this by selling indulgences and collecting money from the wealthy. People saw the corruption within the church and many were not happy. Martin Luther, a German monk and religious reformer, is thought to have started the Protestant Reformation. One of Luther’s boldest acts against the Church was translating the Bible into German. He did this so people did not have to rely on the Church’s interpretation of the Bible. This meant people could listen to God’s word and form their own opinions, something not previously possible during the Middle Ages. Document 2 provides a clear view to the difference of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Jacob Burchhardt compared the distinctness of the Renaissance to how Greeks were distinct from barbarians. The Humanism Reformation clearly separates the Renaissance and the Middle Ages, as does the revival of learning and scientific

The reformation is a name referring to a time of change in religious practices across Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. The reformation came after the rise in humanism. As well as coming after the social change that began in the European Renaissance of the 14th century. After the drastic shifts initiated in European society by the Black Death, the Church and the papacy became more corrupt. It's officials more secular, political, and focused on wealth.

As humanism increasingly became prominent in the 16th century, it became a stepping stone for many events such as the renaissance, the rise of the nation state, and also gave way to the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther’s reformation was a revolutionary movement that challenged the Catholic church, sparked religious upheaval throughout Europe, and reshaped religious, social, and political ideologies of society at the time. Luther illustrated the concept of Lutheranism in three documents: Ninety-Five Theses (1517), Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), and Against Catholicism (1535).

Before I get into answering the question, I thought it would be right to give a little information about The Protestant Reformation which happened from 1517-1648. The Protestant Reformation was started by Martin Luther (1483-1546), who was a Theologian in the sixteenth century. A Theologian is defined as “the study of religious faith, practice, and experience; the study of God and God’s relation to the world.” Martin Luther had submitted a note which contained the 95 Theses that was written in Latin on October 31, 1915, and left on the door of the Castle Church also known as Schlosskirche Wittenberg. Luther questioned some of the ways and the gratifications of the Roman Catholicism, which resulted in individuals to separate from the Roman Catholic Church and branch off to Protestant. (bio.com). Along with Martin Luther there were other individuals from central and northern Europe, which included Henry VIII and also John Calvin. These three were able to question the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church and the way they described how Christianity was supposed to be. They wanted the authority to come from the Bible and not of the popes and such to have that

Through different inspirations, the Protestant Reformation and Age of Enlightenment sought to change the stagnant traditions of European thinking in the 15th and 16th centuries. Began by German priest named Martin Luther in 1517, he was one of the first people to publicly call out the Catholic Church and their bargaining of indulgences by pasting the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg church for everyone to see. The 95 Theses was a short list of the 95 flaws of the Catholic Church revolving around the use of their indulgences. Luther believed that people should not be scammed by the church and pay for fake indulgences for salvation, but rather come to a new understanding of salvation that came through faith alone. The other change of tradition was not getting your source of beliefs from the Catholic Church, but solely the Bible, which was a

Protestant doctrine varied greatly from the doctrines of Catholicism. The main deviance in Protestant doctrine in is the answer of how a person obtains salvation. In Catholic doctrine a person obtains salvation through good works and penance. Luther felt that there is no amount of good works a person could perform to be worth of everlasting salvation. In "Justification by Faith Alone" Luther says, "… I grasp that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith" (Luther 261). Luther's statement means that the way to obtain salvation is to believe and trust Jesus Christ and God (Kagen 357). Also Protestantism emphasized scripture over ritual. Luther attacked the catholic ritual in his “Babylonian Captivity of the Church.” He said that only two of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church were biblical. Those two sacraments are baptism and the Eucharist. The Catholic Church’s policy of selling indulgences was another important part of the Catholic Church Luther attacked. He thought the idea that a person could buy their way to salvation was utterly wrong. He went on to say that the pope was not infallible (Kagen 360). That idea went completely against what the Catholic Church believed. These were some of the ways that Protestant Doctrine differed from Catholic Doctrine.

The Protestant Reformation was a major 16th century European movement aimed initially at reforming the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The Reformation in western and central Europe officially began in 1517 with Martin Luther and his 95 Theses. This was a debate over the Christian religion. At the time there was a difference in power. Roman Catholicism stands with the Pope as central and appointed by God. Luther’s arguments referred to a direct relationship with God and using the local vernacular to speak to the people. Luther’s arguments remove the absolute power from the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church in general. The revenue from the taxes paid to the Church would be reduced with Luther’s ideas, in part because of

Religion has been altered and developed throughout history. Christianity developed based on the Jewish Torah, also known as the Old Testament in the bible. Likewise, Christianity itself has evolved over the centuries. In order to survive, it has had to change and adapt. Not only have many religions and branches of Christianity become extinct over the centuries, but Christianity has also had to merge with the cultures of other religions. For example, Christmas was not originally a Christian holiday. It was once called Yule, a religious festival observed by ancient Germanic people which is now better known as Christmas as it underwent Christianized reformulation, with a tradition of cutting down and decorating trees long before Christ was born. A noteworthy change that I will focus on in this essay is the Catholic Reformation. However, whether this reformation can be simply called the Catholic Reformation is a question that needs to be adressed. The Catholic Reformation, also known as the Counter Reformation, was the period of Catholic revival that began with the Council of Trent and ended at the close of the Thirty Years ' War. The Counter Reformation was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. I believe that the Catholic Reformation would be better described as the Counter Reformation because it was a comprehensive effort composed of four major elements: ecclesiastical or structural reconfiguration, religious orders, spiritual movements, and political

The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era.