Protestant eformation occurred as a reaction to the increasing encroachment of the Catholic Church on the political, social, and economic affairs of Europeans. Although the Protestant eformation had a strong theological and doctrinal component, it would evolve into a major turning point in history that transcended religion. The Protestant eformation was essentially a protest made in order to reform the heart of Christianity.
It began when Martin Luther nailed 95 theses, or statements, on the door of a Church in Wittenberg, Germany. These assertions held in part that the Pope did not have absolute authority over interpreting the will or word of God. People -- ordinary believers -- could read the Bible and therefore interpret the Truth for themselves. Moreover, Luther "maintained that justification (salvation) was granted by faith alone; good works and the sacraments were not necessary in order to be saved," ("Protestant eformation," n.d.). The Protestant doctrine that emerged…...
mlaReferences
Kirsch, J.P. (1911). The Reformation. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved November 17, 2012 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12700b.htm
"Protestant Reformation," (n.d.). Retrieved online: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1136.html
Protestant eformation
Western civilization has thrived for centuries, with the combined power and influence of the State and the Catholic Church. History up to the 16th century had witnessed a flourishing society influenced and ultimately, governed, by the principles and tenets of Catholicism. Inevitably, the Catholic way of life is the social way of life during these times. But the Church's stronghold over the society had been plagued with numerous incidents of corruption and abuse of power in the society. The Church has become so powerful that its representatives, bound to live holy lives and to serve God, were actually the ones committing and perpetuating these acts of corruption and abuse of power. It is inevitable, then, that a crack would appear in the solid foundation that linked State, Church, and Society. It is during this prevalence and proliferation of corruption in the Church that its faithful congregation decided to incite…...
mlaReferences
Collins, R. (1994). The Four Sociological Traditions. NY: Oxford University Press.
Howard, R. (2005). "The double bind of the Protestant Reformation: the birth of fundamentalism and the necessity of pluralism." Journal of Church and State, Vol. 47, No.1.
Reformation
Protestant Reformation
For most of the 1000 years after the fall of the estern Roman Empire, the Catholic Church was the only centralized authority in estern Europe. hile kingdoms rose and fell, the Church remained and was the only religious authority in Europe. But beginning in the 15th century, people began to question the authority of the Catholic Church and specifically the Pope. hat followed was a turning point in the history of estern Europe and the Catholic Church's position in society.
The Protestant Reformation actually began with John ycliffe, who first attacked corruption in the Church, "including the sale of indulgences, pilgrimages, the excessive veneration of saints, and the low moral and intellectual standards of ordained priests." ("Protestant Reformation") ycliffe's followers, called Lollards, continued his protests after his death in 1482, and were certainly an influence on Martin Luther. Generally attributed with beginning the actual Reformation, Martin Luther was a German…...
mlaWorks Cited
Herring, George. An Introduction to the History of Christianity. Washington Square,
NY: New York UP, 2006. Print.
Mullet, Michael. Martin Luther. London: Routledge, 2004. Print
"Protestant Reformation." Theopedia, an Encyclopedia of Biblical Christianity. Web.
The sale provoked Martin Luther to write his famous 95 theses that signaled the start of the Protestant eformation. ("Protestantism" 2006; "The eformation" 2004)
Even before the 16th century reform movement, several attempts had been made to challenge the authority of the Church but the dissent was successfully suppressed. However, by the 16th century, a number of political and social factors made the conditions in Europe ripe for the success of the reformation movement launched by Martin Luther. By then, both the Holy oman Empire and the pope were declining in power and were faced with potent threat from the Ottoman Empire; the invention of the printing press in the 15th century made rapid distribution of dissenting opinion possible; and finally, the rise of secular learning and nationalism in Europe had made the population receptive to the ideas of Protestantism. ("Protestantism" 2006)
eference
Protestantism." (2006). Article in Encyclopedia Encarta Online. etrieved on…...
mlaReference
Protestantism." (2006). Article in Encyclopedia Encarta Online. Retrieved on October 17, 2006 at http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761555703
The Reformation." (2004). Le Poulet Gauch. Retrieved on October 17, 2006 at http://www.lepg.org/religion.htm
However, a large portion of Luther's Ninety Five Theses focused on theological issues ranging from a critique of Marianism to a rejection of the sacraments. The critique of Catholic ritual and theology was remarkable considering the scope of the Church's power over religious doctrine.
Of course, Luther was excommunicated and began his own Christian sect that later blossomed into a diverse set of Protestant denominations. The consequences of the sixteenth century Reformation include a diversification of Christianity. The religion had been relatively monolithic, even after the Great Schism. ithin the Holy Roman Empire, only the Pope was vested with supreme ecclesiastic authority. Martin Luther and other reformers harshly criticized the authority of the Pope, representing a radical revolution in the European consciousness. In many ways the Reformation was an ideological precursor to political revolutions like those in France as well as the New orld.
The trend in critical thinking and self-determination…...
mlaWorks Cited
The Protestant Reformation." Retrieved Mar 6, 2009 at http://history.hanover.edu/early/prot.html
Reformation Europe." Internet Modern History Sourcebook. Retrieved Mar 6, 2009 at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook02.html#Protestant%20Reformation
Documents 8 and 9 show how gender roles and norms were shifting towards a more egalitarian society. However, the Reformation also meant targeting the Jews as scapegoats. Twenty years after Martin Luther wrote "That Jesus was Born a Jew," he wrote one of the most significant anti-Semitic texts in the history of Europe. "Concerning the Jews and their Lies" (Document 14) calls for the mass burning of synagogues, death threats on rabbis, and refers to the Jews as "poisonous bitter worms" and "burdens." Document 15 indicates that the Nazis used this very document as part of its propaganda campaign.
Luther's propaganda campaign targeted the Jews, while paradoxically championing for individual rights and freedoms. Luther questions the authority of the Catholic Church in all religious matters, instead calling for a direct personal connection with Christ and scripture in Document 6. Luther also criticizes the Church's command over the interpretation of scripture…...
Finally, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca is quite unique but still has parallels in both Judaism and Christianity. For example, many Catholics flock to the Vatican for Easter or for local churches and cathedrals throughout Europe for their historical meaning or for their connection with certain saints. Similarly, many Jews feel that they must visit Israel at least once in their lifetime, just as the Muslims believe it is their duty to visit Mecca.
8. Medieval Islam and Christianity demonstrate remarkable parallels. Although Muslim scholars developed a more advanced system of mathematics than the Catholics did, and their academic sophistication can be easily said to trump that of the Catholic Church, the two religions both exuded political and military might. Their tolerance of other religions was weak, although the Moors in Spain did permit admirable leeway for the Jews when the Jews would have been more severely persecuted under Catholic…...
" (Bernard, 333). Such statements seem to be explicit justifications for the stripping of the monasteries; they imply that Henry was not a pawn to the policies instituted by Cromwell but, instead, he found his own obscure religious beliefs to be one of the major contributors to decisions regarding the new Church of England.
Bernard also argues that rather than wholly rejecting both Catholicism and Lutheranism, Henry VIII wished to reinstitute the form of Catholicism that existed at its onset, following the first councils convened under Constantine. Historically, after seeing the holy cross on the battlefield and seizing control, Constantine signed the Edict of Milan, which ended Christian persecution. He also organized the Council of Nicaea, which created a Christian orthodoxy and established an organized Church backed by the state. As a result Christianity flourished during his reign, and the seeds of monastic orders and faiths were sown. This harkening to…...
mlaWorks Cited
Bernard, G.W. "The Making of Religious Policy." The Historical Journal, 41, 2, 1998. Pages, 321-349.
Brigden, Susan. New Worlds, Lost Worlds. New York: Viking, 2000.
Cowie, Leonard. 1986. The Black Death and Peasants' Revolt. London: Wayland Publishers.
Dickens, A.G. The English Reformation. London B.T. Batsford, 1964.
Double lind of the Protestant Reformation: The irth of Fundamentalism and the Necessity of Pluralism" presents a useful and interesting argument. This article appears in the Journal of Church and State, a periodical directed at those affiliated with religious and political issues. Howard's thiesis, at first glance is slightly confusing but as it becomes more clear as the article progresses.
Howard argues" that the movement of authority from the sacred Latin on the tongues of priests to the printed pages in the European vernaculars simultaneously generated the fundamentalist impulse and the necessity of the pluralism that this impulse seeks to constrain" (p.1). This complicated argument is simplified by understanding the particular words that seem to have more than one meaning. Understanding that this article is written by a man of Christian faith helps give context to his position. The fundamentalist impulse that is being described, in my opinion, is the…...
mlaBibliography
Howard, R. (2005). The double bind of the protestant reformation: the birth of fundamentalism and the necessity of pluralism. Journal of Church and State, 47, p 91-108. Retrieved from http://rghoward.com/research/howdoub.pdf
Wycliffe and Hus
The Protestant Reformation was not an event that sprang full-grown upon Europe like Athena out of the head of Zeus; the seeds of the Reformation had in fact been sewn years before Luther or Zwingli or Calvin or Knox came onto the scene. Two of the foremost seeders of "reform" were John Wycliffe and Jan Hus. This paper will discuss the lives, writings and activities of these two men and show they facilitated the setting of the stage for the later Protestant Reformers of the 16th century.
Wycliffe was the English Catholic priest who set the foremost stage for the Reformation when in the latter half of the 14th century he penned two enormous works: On Divine Dominion and On Civil Dominion while stationed in England. There were a number of thrusts to his argument in both works -- such as the idea that the Church should divest itself…...
mlaBibliography
Atwood, Craig. The Theology of the Czech Brethren from Hus to Comenius. PA:
Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009.
Fudge, Thomas. Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia. NY: I.
B. Tauris, 2010.
Peacemaking throughout HistoryThe course objectives were covered by analyzing the peacemaking processes and movements throughout history. The five course objectives were:1. analyze how historical narratives have marginalized peacemaking;2. explain the meanings of negative peace and positive peace and describe specific historical examples of each;3. identify and describe individuals and groups in the past and in the present who have advanced efforts at peacemaking;4. identify, describe, and evaluate methods of peacemaking followed by individuals and groups in the past and in the present;5. explain the influence of peacemaking to themes of continuity and change across historical periods from antiquity to the present.This essay will explain how the course material addressed each of these objectives, summarize their meaning and provide two examples for each one.Historical NarrativesMarginalization of peacemaking by way of historical narratives means that peace movements and people or groups who promote peace efforts have been undermined by viewpoints and worldviews…...
mlaReferences
The Anthology (pp.24-33) on early Christianity and peace Chapter 1: The Perception of Peace and War. (n.d.).
Clancy, K. (2017). Survival of the friendliest. Retrieved from http://nautil.us/issue/46/balance/survival-of-the-friendliest
Howlett, C. F. (1983). Nicholas Murray Butler\\\\\\'s crusade for a warless world. The Wisconsin Magazine of History, 99-120.
Essay Topic Examples
Examining the Ideological Foundations: Renaissance Humanism vs. Reformation Theology
In this essay, the writer would compare and contrast the intellectual underpinnings of the Renaissance, characterized by a revival of classical learning and humanism, with the theological challenges of the rotestant Reformation, which sought to reform the corruption in the Catholic Church and led to a new emphasis on personal faith and scriptural authority. The comparison can explore how both movements placed a focus on the individual but diverged in their view of religious authority and knowledge.
The Impact of the rinting ress: Information Dissemination During Renaissance and Reformation
This essay would detail how the invention of the…...
mlaPrimary Sources
Luther, Martin. Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences. 1517. Translated by Adolph Spaeth et al., 1888. Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/274. Accessed 5 Apr. 2023.
Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. Translated by Gaston du C. de Vere, 1550. Modern Library, 2006.Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Translated by Henry Beveridge, 1845. Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12195. Accessed 5 Apr. 2023.Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni. Oration on the Dignity of Man. 1486. Translated by A. Robert Caponigri, Regnery Gateway, 1956.Erasmus, Desiderius. The Praise of Folly. Translated by John Wilson, 1668. Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9370. Accessed 5 Apr. 2023.
92). Pope Innocent X lamented the procedure, of course -- for it served to subvert the truths which the oman Church strove to propagate.
Thus, the modern world was built not upon the majesty of kings and religion, but upon treaties and revolutionary ideals. The philosophical fruit of Protestantism would spring up in the age of omantic/Enlightenment doctrine, which would produce the American and French evolutions. "Liberty, equality, fraternity" would be the modern world's ethos -- in theory. However, capitalist ethics would undermine the romantic ideology. Imperialism -- for gold, God, and glory at the end of the medieval world -- would be based, in the modern world, upon sheer greed (as a principle). America defined this principle well with the notion of "manifest destiny," which by the end of the 19th century was expanded beyond the American frontier to encompass the whole globe.
The new Imperialism of America (and other…...
mlaReference List
Elliot, J.H. (2009). Spain, Europe and the Wider World: 1500-1800. Yale Universtiy
Press.
Haaren, J. (1904). Famous Men of the Middle Ages. New York, NY: American Book
Company.
Church
Discuss the Conciliar Movement. What was it and why did it arise? Give an overview of the major councils, key issues, and outcomes. In what ways was it successful? Why did it ultimately fail.
The Conciliar Movement began in the 14th century and included the Council of Pisa (1409), the Council of Constance (1414-1418) where the Conciliarists ruled that they as a collective had more authority than the Pope as head of the Church, and the Council of Basel (1431-1449) which failed to conclude at all. The Church's traditional doctrine regarding the head of the Church and the authority of the Pope was finally confirmed at the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517), but it would be more than 300 years later before the doctrine of Papal Infallibility would be official defined at the First Vatican Council (1870), only to be somewhat undefined and "conciliarism" restored at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
The…...
Luther's thought incited anti-Roman sentiment and thought initially in his native Germany. He strongly influenced sympathetic local princes to confiscate church lands and property and to redistribute these. He urged for the end of the practice of granting indulgences. Through his work, 95 Theses, he questioned the worth and truthfulness of indulgences. The Roman Catholic Church "granted" indulgences to absolve one's sin from a "treasury of merits" of the Church. Luther could not accept the clergy's ability to absolve sin and that it was something, which could be bought. He held that there was no biblical basis for indulgences and that the ible should be the sole basis and center of Christian theology. Outside of the ible, the clergy had no sure and valid foundation for their interpretations (Hermansen).
The foremost Reformation figure after Luther and Huldreich Zwingli, a Swiss pastor, was John Calvin, a French Protestant theologian (Microsoft Encarta…...
mlaBIBLIOGRAPHY
Hermansen, Joel. The European Renaissance and Reformation. AP World History:
Appleton Area School District, 2009. Retrieved on June 5, 2009 from http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/staff/hermansenjoel/Notes/The%20European%20Renaissance%20and
Microsoft Encarta. Reformation. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia: Microsoft
Corporation, 2009. Retrieved on June 5, 2009 from http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761562628/Reformation.html
The Reformation was one of the most significant religious movements in the modern Christian Church. Also known as the Protestant Reformation, it is most highly associated with Martin Luther, who began the Reformation by publishing the Ninety-five Theses in 1517, which lead to a split between the Catholic Church and Luther in 1521 with the Edict of Worms. This Edict officially condemned Luther and was aimed at preventing people who were Catholics, which consisted of most of Europe, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire, from supporting or defending Luther’s ideas.
The....
Certainly! Here are some potential essay topics related to American Colonies:
1. Compare and contrast the motivations for colonization between the Spanish, French, and English settlers in the Americas.
2. Analyze the impact of European diseases on Native American populations during the colonial period.
3. Discuss the role of religion in shaping the development of the American colonies.
4. Explore the economic systems of the American colonies and their impact on the growth of the colonies.
5. Evaluate the impact of the Atlantic slave trade on the development and economy of the American colonies.
6. Examine the relationship between Native American tribes and European colonizers in....
Chapter 1: Ancient Civilizations
The Rise and Fall of the Sumerian City-States
The Indus Valley Civilization: Unraveling the Enigma
The Ancient Egyptian Civilization: Pyramids, Pharaonic Power, and Daily Life
The Minoan and Mycenaean Civilizations: Maritime Masters of the Aegean
The Zhou Dynasty and the Birth of Chinese Civilization
Chapter 2: Classical Civilizations
The Athenian Golden Age: Democracy, Philosophy, and the Arts
The Roman Empire: Conquests, Governance, and the Pax Romana
The Mauryan Empire: From Chandragupta to Ashoka's Legacy
The Hellenistic World: A Syncretic Blend of Greek and Persian Cultures
The Han Dynasty: China's Ascendancy and Technological Innovations
Chapter 3: Medieval Civilizations
The....
The Printing Press and the Dawn of Modernity
Amidst the complexities of history's tapestry, certain events emerge as pivotal catalysts, indelibly shaping the course of human civilization. Among these, the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century stands alone as an epoch-defining innovation. Its profound impact on modernity cannot be overstated, for it not only revolutionized the dissemination of knowledge but also sowed the seeds of countless other societal transformations.
1. The Explosion of Knowledge and Ideas:
Prior to Gutenberg's ingenuity, knowledge was largely confined to the privileged few who possessed access to handwritten manuscripts. The printing press....
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