Protestantism
Related: Christianity - iconoclasm - religion - capitalism
Engraving of the Iconoclasm from G. Bouttat (1640-1703)
Definition
Protestantism is a movement within Christianity, representing a splitting away from the Roman Catholic Church during the mid-to-late Renaissance in Europe —a period known as the Protestant Reformation.
Commonly considered one of the three major branches of Christianity (along with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy); the term "Protestant" represents a diverse range of theological and social perspectives, churches and related organizations. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism [Feb 2006]
Europe divided
20th century Europe bears the imprint of Reformation. Italy, France, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, the south of Germany, Austria, and Hungary, Poland, and parts of the Balkans in eastern Europe, have continued to be predominantly Catholic. The rest, Scandinavia, England Scotland, Switzerland, the north and east of Germany, and parts of eastern Europe have largely remained Protestant. Belgium is on the border of protestantism and catholicism.
Luther
October 31, 1517: Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg with hammer strokes which echoed throughout all of Europe. This act has been portrayed numerous times thoughout the centuries, and until the 21st century it was accepted as fact. It has become a symbol of the Reformation as nothing else has.
It was like a slap in the face when the catholic Luther researcher, Erwin Iserloh, asserted in 1961 that the nailing of the theses to the door of the Castle Church belonged to the realm of legends. http://www.luther.de/e/tanschl.html
Antwerp, Belgium, 1566: Beeldenstorm/Iconoclasm
Engraving of the Iconoclasm from G. Bouttat (1640-1703)
During the Iconoclasm of August 20, 1566, Protestants destroyed a large part of the valuable interior. When Antwerp came under Protestant administration in 1581, a number of artistic treasures were once again destroyed, removed or sold. Only after 1585, with the restoration of Roman Catholic authority, did tranquility return once more. --http://www.dekathedraal.be/en/tijdlijn/tl_4.htm [Feb 2005]
Some of the Protestant reformers encouraged their followers to destroy Catholic art works by insisting that they were idols. Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin promoted this approach to the adaptation of earlier buildings for Protestant worship. In 1562, some Calvinists destroyed the tomb of St. Irenaeus and the relics inside, which had been under the altar of a church since his martyrdom in 202.
The Netherlands (including Belgium) were hit by a large wave of Protestant iconoclasm in 1566. This is called the Beeldenstorm. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclastic#Reformation_iconoclasm [Feb 2005]
The english translation of beeldenstorm is iconoclasm.
Puritanism
The Puritans were members of a group of radical Protestants which developed in England after the Reformation.Terminology
The word puritan is now applied unevenly to a number of Protestant churches from the late sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. However, Puritans did not, by and large, use the term for themselves, and the word was always a descriptor of a type of religious innovation, rather than a particular church. The closest analogy in the present day to the meaning of "Puritan" in the 17th century would be "fundamentalist": Puritanism was a movement rather than a denomination.That said, the single theological movement most consistently self-described by the term "Puritan" was Calvinist and became the Presbyterian Church. The term was used by the group itself mainly in the sixteenth century. By the middle of the seventeenth century the group had become so divided that "Puritan" was most often used by opponents and detractors of the group, rather than by the practitioners themselves. The practitioners knew themselves as members of particular churches or movements, and not by the simple and nebulous term "Puritan." --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan [Oct 2004]
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904 - 1905) - Max Weber
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The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904 - 1905) - Max Weber [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Book Description
Max Weber's best-known and most controversial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, first published in 1904, remains to this day a powerful and fascinating read. Weber's highly accessible style is just one of many reasons for his continuing popularity. The book contends that the Protestant ethic made possible and encouraged the development of capitalism in the West.
Maximilian Weber (April 21, 1864 – June 14, 1920) was a German political economist and sociologist who is considered one of the founders of the modern, antipositivistic study of sociology and public administration. His major works deal with rationalisation in sociology of religion and government, but he also wrote much in the field of economics. His most popular work is his essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which began his work in the sociology of religion. Weber argued that religion was one of the primary reasons for the different ways the cultures of the Occident and the Orient have developed. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber [Feb 2006]
See also: 1904 - 1905 - capitalism - protestantism - politics - sociology
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