A large majority of Christians would tell you that the Reformation was one of the major events to occur in shaping our belief system as Protestants. Martin Luther and his God given revelation of justification through faith is the bedrock of twenty first century Christian thought. It is difficult to believe that for hundreds of years Christianity was dominated by a political and ecclesiastical dominance, to the extent that even the basics of our faith, such as salvation, was twisted and skewed into a bargaining tool for financial gain or power. However, God in his grace, revealed himself to a humble monk in Germany, who was hungry for revelation. By the voice and boldness of Martin Luther, we now have a basis for our salvation.
social theory Bibliography Alpert Ph.d., Harry. Emile Durkheim and his Sociology. New York: Russell & Russell Inc. 1961. Challenger, Douglas F. Durkheim Through the Lens of Aristotle. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.. 1994.
INTRODUCTION King Henry VIII was an important figure in helping to kick start the Reformation in England, even though it was not his intent. His break with the Papacy and his constantly changing ideas on how the new Church of England should be run gave the Protestants the foothold they needed to gain popularity in Europe. Although his intentions were purely politically motivated, he started a change in the way the layman viewed the church and how it should be run. THE LIFE OF HENRY VIII Henry VIII was born on June 28, 1491 to the King Henry VII of England and Queen Elizabeth of York. He was the second son and his elder brother Arthur and his bride Catherine of Aragon inherited the throne upon his father’s death.2 In 1502, shortly after ascending the throne, Arthur died, leaving the throne to a young Henry and leaving his new bride a widow.
The Democratization of American Christianity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Calvinism is the theological system of John Calvin who exerted international influence on the development of the doctrine of the Protestant Reformation (Warfield, 2004). Calvin and his followers marked by strong emphasis on the sovereignty of God, the depravity of mankind, and the doctrine of predestination. This system was developed as a biblical Christianity. It has stirred countries such as Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, England and America. Calvinist theology spread rapidly, and became the basis for many protestant denominations.
By this, he meant that the Catholic Church had put so much emphasis on the bible as a central religious authority and imposed it on people to follow its teachings. The other central belief of the Martin Luther document was that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds. This particularly sparked the Protestant Reformation. The ideology of the Catholic Church that faith and not deeds would mean salvation for the believers was widely denounced and most people were of the opinion that both were the way to salvation. Although these two ideologies about the Catholic Church had been advanced before, Martin Luther wrote and presented them at a moment in history that was right for the religious reformation.
It was centered around two central beliefs that the Bible should be and is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only faith and not by works. Martin Luther has had these feelings about these practices for awhile but chose the 95 Theses to start his religious reformation. Resulting from that, this started the division of the Catholic Church, and Luther’s ideas created the religion of Protestantism later resulting in Lutheranism. The 95 Theses and his other writings changed religious and cultural history in the Western hemisphere. His refusal to renounce all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the Pope.
Martin Luther Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 - February 18, 1546) was a Christian theologian, Augustinian monk, professor, pastor, and church reformer whose teachings inspired the Lutheran Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines of Protestant and other Christian traditions. Luther began the Protestant Reformation with the publication of his Ninety-Five Theses on October 31, 1517. In this publication, he attacked the Church's sale of indulgences. He advocated a theology that rested on God's gracious activity in Jesus Christ, rather than in human works. Nearly all Protestants trace their history back to Luther in one way or another.
New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, Inc., 1979. (5)Weber, Max: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958. (6)Algazi, Gadi: Max Weber on Market Relations, Freedom and Coercion. Dept.
[16] Strauss, 193. [17] Martin Luther, "On Governmental Authority," in The Protestant Reformation, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand, (New York: Harper and Row, 1968) 43-44. [18] Luther, 47. [19] Signe Sandsmark, "A Lutheren Perspective on Education," Journal of Education and Christian Belief, 6:2 (2002): 101.