St.Mark's Adult Education
Protestantism - Dr. Edith Blumhofer
The notes in purple below are taken directly from the handout that Dr. Blumhofer distributed during her talk. Notes in red are my own interpretation of some of the fascinating tidbits that she discussed during her talk.
What is a Protestant?
- The first formal statement of Protestant belief was the Augsburg Confession (1530).
- Protestants and Catholics shared the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Chalcedonian Creed, and they revered the same Church Fathers, especially Augustine. Protestants objected to specific aspects of Catholic practice, most of which had become formalized only in the past three centures -- worship of saints; communion in one kind; lack of lay access to the Bible; emphasis on meritorious good works; Papal supremacy. (Dr. Blumhofer mentioned that in the early 1200s, a heretical sect began translating the Bible into the vernacular to gain support their own belief system. The local Church leaders found that banning translations by the laity was an effective method of combatting the problem. Since it worked there, it was adopted by the Council of Toulouse in 1229 to combat the large problem of the Albigensians, a group that believed that the there were two equal Creators, one good and one evil.)
- Characteristics (of Protestants)
- Bible as sole source of revealed truth
- Justification by faith along
- Priesthood of all believers
- Emphasis on preaching
- Valuing of general education (Luther's catechism was so effective it was later copied by the Roman Catholic church)
- Congregational participation (usually through hymn singing)
- Married clergy
- After Protestantism spread, the Catholics launched an effort to restore Roman Catholicism to some regions. This was one of the goals of the Jesuits. They were especially successful in Poland.
- After the Enlightenment, Protestants divided over the old certainties of faith as they questioned the literal reading of Scripture; emphasized reason above revealed religion; and championed an interior subjective "religion of the spirit."
- In the 19th century, Protestant liberals celebrated what they called the spirit of Protestantism by which they meant freedom to question and to adapt Christianity to the needs of the times.
- By the 20th century then, some forms of Protestantism were shorn of much of their religious context and became more of an approach to reconciling religion and the world. Protestants were free to question Scripture and teaching, and they were free to adapt new Scientific concepts like Darwinism to interpret their faith.
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