The Protestant Evangelical Movement Analysis

The protestant information is one of the most significant historical heritages the religious community value. The event of this transformation was violent and interesting at the same time. Religious institutions that exist today are the result of the war and transformation of people’s ideology. The history and the reason behind the formation are well documented and analyzed based on the events. The explanation behind the reformation is detailed and expansive enough to provide the reader a wider perspective on the origins of Christian churches. People can now understand how their ancestors have transformed their world today and their religious believes. Also the inspiration of the reformation is well noted and the ideology of the European people was taken into consideration. The article outlines from the history of the churches, the resistance of the Catholic Church on reforms and the violence that resultant from the resistance.

“Conservative evangelicals who had returned to the Democratic Party in 1976 now defected back to the Republican Party, solidifying a trend in the making.” The Religious Right had effectively crystallized a general trend in the electorate. After the election of 1980, the Religious Right became “synonymous with the GOP in popular imagination” and socially conservative values became synonymous with the conservative movement. Despite the dissolution of the organizations that comprised the Religious Right later in the 1980s, its influence on conservatism in America had solidified and, until this day, has remained a decisive factor in both local and national

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.

From an economical standpoint, the Protestant Reformation greatly influenced the modern world. For example, the Protestant Reformation took advantage of the recently invented printing press. It helped to spread the use of vernacular and ideas, improved literacy, and increased nationalism. As a result, the amount of books and knowledge available skyrocketed. In 1500, there were 40000 books where in 1600 there were over 200 million.

Although the Protestant Reformers (i.e., Luther, and Zwingli) challenged the Roman Catholic Church to return to Scripture as the primary source of Christian theology, members of other groups believed Luther and Zwingli failed to include the New Testament teachings on the difference between the church and society. As a result, a group of Protestant radicals led by Georg Blaurock and Conrad Grebel founded a new congregation that became known as the Anabaptist. The split occurred when the radicals could not convince Zwingli to agree with their views on the connection between the civic community and the religious community. Consequently, the Anabaptist and later the Mennonites expanded on the Protestant Reformation. In

Martin Luther, born into the Catholic Church in 1483, is considered to be the father of Protestantism. 1 Luther was a devout man who dedicated himself to the study of the bible; in addition to being a Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Wittenberg, he was also a priest and a monk. He spent a lot of his time focusing on what one could do to earn eternal salvation as it was written about in the Bible. This was especially troubling to him given the actions of his colleagues at the University of Wittenberg and his fellow priests and monks. He felt the actions of many of those in the Church that he loved were both immoral and corrupt, and especially in the midst of his own struggles with the idea of salvation, these actions troubled him deeply. 2

Though several people have attempted to define this movement, the most broadly accepted definition was crafted by British historian David Bebbington. In his book Evangelicalism in Modern Britain (1989) he noted four distinctive, or characterizations, about evangelicals which have well-described the movement all along its 400-plus-year history and throughout all the denominations and global regions where it is found: “conversions, the belief that lives need to be changed; activism, the expression of the gospel in effort; Biblicism, a particular regard for the Bible and what may be called crusaderism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross” (Bebbington, 1989, p. 3). Please note that “powerful Republican voting bloc in the U.S.” is not one of the distinctive. “Evangelical” is first and foremost a historically theological, Christian

Evangelicalism did not evolve or operate in a space. It is essential to consider the ways in which members of this group participated in and changed their culture, and, conversely, to assess how its social context provided both the ideas which evangelicalism adopted or transformed and those which it actively rejected or resisted. As movements that came of age during the first half of the nineteenth century, Evangelical Protestantism can be understood most clearly in the political, economic, and religious contexts of post-revolutionary American society. Although the movement would come to effect profound changes in its society it was very much in a sense that the culture had grown ripe for its emergence. The tension between

The Protestant Reformation would not have been made possible without the printing press. This innovation allowed ideas to spread further and quicker at rate that was never seen before. Prior to Gutenberg’s invention, the Clergymen held a powerful monopoly over the purchase of books. In spite of that, the press made books cheaper, allowing anyone and everyone to have access to them. As a result, people began to interpret books on their own and have their own independant thoughts which often opposed those of the Church. This was a huge threat to the Church, and as the popularity of the innovation grew, more people distanced themselves from the Church. In addition, the expansion of the University system helped increase the literacy rates because everyone was curious to read these books and gain knowledge from what they were saying. The printing press gave Martin Luther, the most influential figure at the time, a huge advantage.

The first picture shows a church that is full of paintings and sculptures, this is a photo of the Catholic Church. In the Catholic Church they worshiped relics and used many statues and other pieces of art. Along with the use of relics, the Catholic Church used the bible to teach and preach about God, whereas the protestant Church did not. The second picture is of a church that is mostly empty, this shows the protestant church, because they did not use relics and they focused on their relations with god.

Evangelicals are at the forefront of the most important movements in the country; including ‘The Christian Rights’ and ‘The Anti-Slavery’. However, debates about ‘The Christian Rights’ have become central to current political conservation and thinking. This political movement has characterized evangelical American in general, simply because the evangelicals held the Christian rights’characteristics, this idea is well described in the words of Noll who opined that:

Following the Evangelical reform movements on the European continent against the Roman Catholic Church, England also experienced its own reform movements and reformists. During the fifteenth century and the early sixteenth century, the English monarchy was Catholic, and thus opposed to reform, prosecuting evangelicals as heretics. In the first half of the reign of Henry VIII, the second Tudor monarch, this pattern continued under the administration of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey as Lord Chancellor, and later with Sir Thomas More in that same office (Marshall 31). However, in 1526, Henry VIII was in love with Anne Boleyn, and the delay of Pope Clement VII to grant him an annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon set in motion the events

Living in a post Christian world presents a number of challenges or, depending on one’s perspective, opportunities, for the evangelical church. Many Christian terms, once considered common vernacular, have become abstruse or even obsolete to the ordinary person. Christians, especially those holding positions of leadership in churches, now find themselves in need of answers to theological questions that forego the use of theological language. Few theological concepts rival, in difficulty of understanding, that of a Triune God. Concerning the Trinity, J.I. Packer insists that it is “perhaps the most difficult thought that the human mind has ever been asked to handle.” Understanding then, who the individual members of the Trinity are is a complicated task. Furthermore, explaining that truth to a new believer in today’s context can seem daunting. Father and Son are concepts that most individuals can relate to on some level. However, in today’s culture, Spirit can mean a myriad of things.

Christian practice e.g., Leviticus 14:8, (Fairchild, 2012). Baptism was also used to initiate converts to Judaism, and the Essenes, contemporaries of Jesus, practiced a daily ritual of bathing. Sharing the bread and wine is held to remember Christ's first coming, anticipate his second coming, and create a unity, or communion, of believers. The male role in the Christian religion is to be the head of his home (Fairchild, 2012). The woman’s role is to be loved and to be a helpmate to her husband (Fairchild, 2012). The activities of strong, capable women have broken many barriers to the full participation of women in the life of the Church, and women now serve as influential leaders, ministers, theologians, and even bishops in some communities.

There were new organizations made in in response to the spread of Protestantism. Some were focused on spiritual growth and good works and invited both priests (clerics) and lay people. Some were strictly religious societies only open to clerics. The Society of Jesuits spread Catholic beliefs and created Catholic schools. Another response was military expeditions. Catholic kings and princes wanted to have the territory of Protestant monarchs. King Phillip II led a campaign against Protestants in the Low Countries and England. He launched 122 ships to invade England but lost. Lastly, was the reformation of the Catholic Church. The council saw the problems with the church like indulgences. The council defined things like original sin and the number