History of Protestantism

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Both Wycliffe and Hus preached against indulgences.^[3][4] Hus wrote his Six Errors, fixed to the door of his church, in which he criticized corruption of the clergy^[5] and touched on other topics which under the later Luther became the key to the Reformation. After the Battle of White Mountain, persecuted Hussites established minor churches such as the Unity of the Brethren (and its international branch Moravian Church).

Those early reformers influenced

In the course of this religious upheaval, the

War of the Three Kingdoms affected the British Isles.^{[citation needed}

]

While the

United States of America. In the middle 17th century, Pietism became an important influence in Lutheranism.^{[citation needed}

]

The

mainline denominations during the Age of Enlightenment.^{[citation needed}

]

In the 20th century, Protestantism was becoming increasingly fragmented with

post-Christian Europe.^{[citation needed}

]

In the 21st century, Protestantism continues to divide, while simultaneously expanding on a worldwide scale largely due to rising

Pentecostal movements.^{[citation needed}

]

Historical maps

Europe

• 
  Distribution of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in Central Europe on the eve of the Thirty Years' War (1618)

  Crypto-Protestants

  are not shown.
• 
  Approximate spread of Protestantism after the Reformation, and following the Counter-Reformation.

  Crypto-Protestants

  are not shown.
• 
  Approximate spread of Protestantism at the Reformation's peak. Islam is marked in red.

  Crypto-papists, and Crypto-Muslims

  are not shown.
• 
  The Protestant Reformation at its peak
• 
  After the Counter-Reformation.

  Crypto-Protestants

  are not shown.
• 
  After the

  Crypto-Protestants

  are not shown.
• 
  Modern spread after the

  Expulsions of Germans

World

• 
  Countries by percentage of Protestants in 1545.
• 
  Countries by percentage of Protestants in 1710.
• 
  Countries by percentage of Protestants in 1938.
• 
  Countries by percentage of Protestants in 2010.
• 
  Protestant majority countries in 1938.
• 
  Protestant majority countries in 2010.

Origins

Protestants generally trace to the 16th century their separation from the Catholic Church. Mainstream Protestantism began with the

Huguenot

wars. These also spread later to other parts of Europe.

Roots

Main article: Proto-Protestantism

See also: Bohemian Reformation

In the 9th century Claudius of Turin foreshadowed many Protestant views, and had a fanatical zeal for iconoclasm. Claudius of Turin denied the power of the papacy, and the role of good works in salvation, thus believing in faith alone.^[13][14][15] Gottschalk of Orbais was another 9th century theologian, who taught double predestination and grace oriented views of salvation, mirroring the doctrine of faith alone.^[16][17][18] Gottschalk was defended by Ratramnus, who denied transubstantiation and whose writings influenced some reformers.^[19]

Unrest due to the

University of Prague (Hus had been influenced by Wycliffe). The Catholic Church officially concluded debate over Hus' teachings at the Council of Constance (1414–1417). The conclave condemned Jan Hus, who was executed by burning in spite of a promise of safe-conduct. At the command of Pope Martin V, Wycliffe's body was exhumed and burned as a heretic

twelve years after his burial.

John Wycliffe.

Peter Waldo.

The

schism and the Hussite Wars in Bohemia.^[20]

Following the breakdown of monastic institutions and

German mysticism). Historians would generally assume that the failure to reform (too many vested interests; lack of coordination in the reforming coalition) would eventually lead to a greater upheaval or even revolution, since the system must eventually be adjusted or disintegrate, and the failure of the Conciliar movement helped lead to the Protestant Reformation in Europe. These frustrated reformist movements ranged from nominalism, devotio moderna (modern devotion), to humanism occurring in conjunction with economic, political and demographic forces that contributed to a growing disaffection with the wealth and power of the elite clergy, sensitizing the population to the financial and moral corruption of the secular Renaissance

church.

The outcome of the

Louis XI of France (1461–1483), the "spider king", sought to remove all constitutional restrictions on the exercise of their authority. In England, France, and Spain

the move toward centralization begun in the thirteenth century was carried to a successful conclusion.

But as recovery and prosperity progressed, enabling the population to reach its former levels in the late 15th and 16th centuries, the combination of a newly-abundant labor supply and improved productivity, was a mixed blessing for many segments of Western European society. Despite tradition, landlords started to exclude peasants from "common lands". With trade stimulated, landowners increasingly moved away from the manorial economy. Woollen manufacturing greatly expanded in France, Germany, and the Netherlands and new textile industries began to develop.

The invention of movable type led to Protestant zeal for translating the Bible and getting it into the hands of the laity.

The "humanism" of the Renaissance period stimulated unprecedented academic ferment, and a concern for academic freedom. Ongoing, earnest theoretical debates occurred in the universities about the nature of the church, and the source and extent of the authority of the papacy, of councils, and of princes.

16th century

Protests against Rome began in earnest when

95 Theses

. Information was also widely disseminated in manuscript form, as well as by cheap prints and woodcuts amongst the poorer sections of society.

Parallel to events in Germany, a movement began in Switzerland under the leadership of

Anabaptists. Other Protestant movements grew up along lines of mysticism or humanism (cf. Erasmus

), sometimes breaking from Rome or from the Protestants, or forming outside of the churches.

After this first stage of the Reformation, following the excommunication of Luther and condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope, the work and writings of John Calvin were influential in establishing a loose consensus among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland, Hungary, Germany and elsewhere.

The Reformation foundations engaged with

Florian Geier, a knight from Giebelstadt

who joined the peasants in the outrage against the Catholic hierarchy.

The political separation of the

Henry VIII, beginning in 1529 and completed in 1536, brought England alongside this broad Reformed movement. However, religious changes in the English national church proceeded more conservatively than elsewhere in Europe. Reformers in the Church of England alternated, for centuries, between sympathies for Catholic traditions and Protestantism, forging a stable compromise between adherence to ancient tradition and Protestantism, which is now sometimes called the via media.^[21]

Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli are considered Magisterial Reformers because their reform movements were supported by ruling authorities or "magistrates". Frederick the Wise not only supported Luther, who was a professor at the university he founded, but also protected him by hiding Luther in Wartburg Castle in Eisenach. Zwingli and Calvin were supported by the city councils in Zürich and Geneva. Since the term "magister" also means "teacher", the Magisterial Reformation is also characterized by an emphasis on the authority of a teacher. This is made evident in the prominence of Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli as leaders of the reform movements in their respective areas of ministry.

Because of their authority, they were often criticized by Radical Reformers as being too much like the Roman Popes. For example, Radical Reformer Andreas von Bodenstein Karlstadt referred to the Wittenberg theologians as the "new papists".^[22]

Impact of humanism

The frustrated reformism of the humanists, ushered in by the Renaissance, contributed to a growing impatience among reformers. Erasmus and later figures like Martin Luther and Zwingli would emerge from this debate and eventually contribute to another major schism of Christendom. The crisis of theology beginning with William of Ockham in the fourteenth century was occurring in conjunction with the new burgher discontent. Since the breakdown of the philosophical foundations of scholasticism, the new nominalism did not bode well for an institutional church legitimized as an intermediary between man and God. New thinking favored the notion that no religious doctrine can be supported by philosophical arguments, eroding the old alliance between reason and faith of the medieval period laid out by Thomas Aquinas.

The major individualistic reform movements that revolted against medieval scholasticism and the institutions that underpinned it were

observantine tradition. In Germany, "the modern way" or devotionalism caught on in the universities, requiring a redefinition of God, who was no longer a rational governing principle but an arbitrary, unknowable will that cannot be limited. God was now a ruler, and religion would be more fervent and emotional. Thus, the ensuing revival of Augustinian theology, stating that man cannot be saved by his own efforts but only by the grace of God, would erode the legitimacy of the rigid institutions of the church meant to provide a channel for man to do good works and get into heaven. Humanism, however, was more of an educational reform movement with origins in the Renaissance's revival of classical learning and thought. A revolt against Aristotelian logic, it placed great emphasis on reforming individuals through eloquence as opposed to reason. The European Renaissance laid the foundation for the Northern humanists in its reinforcement of the traditional use of Latin

as the great unifying language of European culture.

The polarization of the scholarly community in Germany over the

Phillip Melancthon

to teach at the University in Wittenberg.

Humanism's intellectual anti-clericalism would profoundly influence Luther. The increasingly well-educated middle sectors of Northern Germany, namely the educated community and city dwellers would turn to Luther's rethinking of religion to conceptualize their discontent according to the cultural medium of the era. The great rise of the burghers, the desire to run their new businesses free of institutional barriers or outmoded cultural practices, contributed to the appeal of humanist individualism. To many, papal institutions were rigid, especially regarding their views on just price and usury. In the North, burghers and monarchs were united in their frustration for not paying any taxes to the nation, but collecting taxes from subjects and sending the revenues disproportionately to the Pope in Italy.

These trends heightened demands for significant reform and revitalization along with anticlericalism. New thinkers began noticing the divide between the priests and the flock. The clergy, for instance, were not always well-educated. Parish priests often did not know

St. Peter's Basilica was too much of an excess by the secular Renaissance

church, prompting high-pressure indulgences that rendered the clergy establishments even more disliked in the cities.

Luther borrowed from the humanists the sense of individualism, that each man can be his own priest (an attitude likely to find popular support considering the rapid rise of an educated urban middle class in the North), and that the only true authority is the

Franciscan epistemology. Luther did not consistently identify with one camp or another for nearly his whole career. Instead, when debating he tactically took positions allying himself with one camp or the other on issues as it suited his overall purpose during debates. It was especially his intention to guard against the threat he feared the voluntarism of the increasingly popular schola moderna posed to the doctrine of justification

.

Lutherans and the Holy Roman Empire

Luther affirmed a theology of the

Sacramental Union, In the sacramental union the consecrated bread is united with the body of Christ and the consecrated wine is united with the blood of Christ by virtue of Christ's original institution with the result that anyone eating and drinking these "elements"—the consecrated bread and wine—really eats and drinks the physical body and blood of Christ as well. Luther wrote about this on multiple occasions, such as in his 1526 The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ—Against the Fanatics and his 1528 Confession Concerning Christ's Supper. In the 1530 Augsburg Confession, the Lutheran position as stated in Article X: Of the Lord’s Supper earned the Catholic response in the Confutatio Augustana that "The tenth article gives no offense in its words."^[23]

although later on the Council of Trent would codify transubstantiation as it is taught today and reject the sacramental union.

Crypto-Calvinists

who would otherwise have been outlawed as open Calvinism was not allowed. These Variata differed with respect to Article X of the Augsburg Confession in order to accommodate the Reformed churches.

At the

Zwingli. Agreement was achieved on fourteen points out of fifteen, the exception being the nature of the Eucharist.^[24]

Similarly, Zwingli would further repudiate ritualism rather than affiliate with the more conservative Luther.

Another setback for the Reformation came in Brandenburg. The Elector of Brandenburg,

Prince-Bishop of Ratzeburg

.

Though Charles V fought the Reformation, it is no coincidence that the reign of his nationalistic predecessor Maximilian I saw the beginning of the movement. While the centralized states of western Europe had reached accords with the Vatican permitting them to draw on the rich property of the church for government expenditures, enabling them to form state churches that were greatly autonomous of Rome, similar moves on behalf of the Empire were unsuccessful so long as princes and prince bishops fought reforms to drop the pretension of the secular universal empire.

Protestant Reformation

Main article:

Protestant Reformation

The authority of the Catholic Church has been constantly challenged during centuries, both in theory with Hus and Wycliffe and in practice during the Investiture Controversy of the 11th and 12th centuries. Arnulf (bishop of Orléans)^[25] in the 10th century became the first person on record to call a pope the Antichrist, a charge that was repeated by the Waldensians and also Luther when he burned the very papal bull, Exsurge Domine which commanded him to burn his own books. Necessary groundwork had thus been laid long before Luther^[3] with significant earlier attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church – such as those of Peter Waldo and John Wycliffe. First change of religion in an entire country came with Jan Hus, executed in 1415, whose successors became the chief force^[26] in the Kingdom of Bohemia for several centuries. Both Wycliffe and Hus preached against indulgences,^[3][4] criticized corruption of the clergy^[5] and opened other topics which under the later Luther became the key to Reformation. The movements based on these early reform movements, such are also considered Protestant today, although their origins date back to more than 100 years before Luther. In particular, the Waldensians who survived the Counter-Reformation affiliated with the Reformed Church (which is more commonly known to be Protestant), and still do today.

In the early 16th century, the church was confronted with the challenge posed by Martin Luther to the traditional teaching on the church's doctrinal authority and to many of its practices as well. The seeming inability of Pope Leo X (1513–1521) and those popes who succeeded him to comprehend the significance of the threat that Luther posed – or, indeed, the alienation of many Christians by the corruption that had spread throughout the church – was a major factor in the rapid growth of the Protestant Reformation. By the time the need for a vigorous, reforming papal leadership was recognized, much of northern Europe had already converted to Protestantism.

Bohemia

Main article: Bohemian Reformation

See also:

Comenius

The Hussites were a Christian movement in the Kingdom of Bohemia following the teachings of Czech reformer Jan Hus.

Czech reformer and university professor Jan Hus (c. 1369–1415) became the best-known representative of the Bohemian Reformation and one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. Jan Hus was declared heretic and executed – burned at stake – at the Council of Constance in 1415 where he arrived voluntarily to defend his teachings.

Hussites, a predominantly religious movement, were propelled by social issues and strengthened Czech national awareness. In 1417, two years after the execution of Jan Hus, the Czech reformation quickly became the chief force in the country.

Ultraquism, a Hussite movement). Bohemia later also elected one Protestant king (George of Poděbrady

).

After the

Habsburgs took control of the region, the Hussite churches were prohibited and the kingdom partially recatholicized. Even later Lutheranism

gained a substantial following, after being permitted by the Habsburgs with the continued persecution of the Czech native Hussite churches. Many Hussites thus declared themselves Lutherans.

Two churches with Hussite roots are now second and third biggest churches in the predominantly agnostic country: Czech Brethren (which gave origin to the international church known as the Moravian Church) and Czechoslovak Hussite Church.

Germany

Main article: Martin Luther

Further information: History of Lutheranism

Martin Luther was a

Protestant Reformation.^[32]

Luther taught that salvation is a free gift of God and received only through true faith in Jesus as redeemer from sin. His theology challenged the authority of the papacy by adducing the Bible as the only infallible source of Christian doctrine^[33] and countering "sacerdotalism" in the doctrine that all baptized Christians are a universal priesthood.^[34]

Albert of Mainz and Magdeburg procured the services of Johann Tetzel

to sell the indulgences in his diocese.

Luther's refusal to retract his writings in confrontation with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the

King James Bible.^[36] His hymns inspired the development of congregational singing within Christianity.^[37] His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage within Protestantism.^[38]

In 1516–1517,

St Peter's Basilica in Rome.^[39] Roman Catholic theology stated that faith alone, whether fiduciary or dogmatic, cannot justify man;^[40] and that only such faith as is active in charity and good works (fides caritate formata) can justify man.^[41]

These good works could be obtained by donating money to the church.

On 31 October 1517, Luther wrote to

The 95 Theses

Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel that "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs,"[42] insisting that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances.

According to Walter Krämer, Götz Trenkler, Gerhard Ritter and Gerhard Prause,

It wasn't until January 1518 that friends of Luther translated the 95 Theses from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied, making the controversy one of the first in history to be aided by the

That autumn, Johann Eck proclaimed the bull in Meissen and other towns. Karl von Miltitz, a papal nuncio, attempted to broker a solution, but Luther, who had sent the Pope a copy of his conciliatory On the Freedom of a Christian (which the Pope refused to read) in October, publicly set fire to the bull and decretals at Wittenberg on 10 December 1520,^[47] an act he defended in Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned and Assertions Concerning All Articles.

As a consequence, Luther was excommunicated by Leo X on 3 January 1521, in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.

In 1534,

Zwingli

Parallel to events in Germany, a movement began in Switzerland under the leadership of

Following the excommunication of Luther and condemnation of the Reformation by the Pope, the work and writings of John Calvin were influential in establishing a loose consensus among various groups in Switzerland, Scotland, Hungary, Germany and elsewhere.

Geneva became the unofficial capital of the Protestant movement, led by the Frenchman,

All of Scandinavia ultimately adopted Lutheranism over the course of the sixteenth century, as the monarchs of Denmark (who also ruled Norway and Iceland) and Sweden (who also ruled Finland) converted to that faith.

In Sweden the Reformation was spearheaded by Gustav Vasa, elected king in 1523. Friction with the pope over the latter's interference in Swedish ecclesiastical affairs led to the discontinuance of any official connection between Sweden and the papacy from 1523.^[53] Four years later, at the Diet of Västerås, the king succeeded in forcing the diet to accept his dominion over the national church. The king was given possession of all church property, church appointments required royal approval, the clergy were subject to the civil law, and the "pure Word of God" was to be preached in the churches and taught in the schools—effectively granting official sanction to Lutheran ideas.^[53] Thus, in 1527 Sweden became the first nation-state to officially adopt Protestantism.^[54]

Under the reign of

The separation of the

In England, the Reformation followed a different course from elsewhere in Europe. There had long been a strong strain of anti-clericalism, and England had already given rise to the

The success of the

The early Puritan movement (late 16th century–17th century) was

The most famous and well-known emigration to America was the migration of the Puritan separatists from the Anglican Church of England, who fled first to Holland, and then later to America, to establish the English colonies of New England, which later became a part of the United States.

These Puritan separatists were also known as "

The Reformation in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along

Protestantism also spread into France, where the Protestants came to be known as "Huguenots."

Though not personally interested in religious reform,

Following the Affair of the Placards, culprits were rounded up, at least a dozen heretics were put to death, and the persecution of Protestants increased.^[56] One of those who fled France at that time was John Calvin, who emigrated to Basel in 1535 before eventually settling in Geneva in 1536. Beyond the reach of the French kings in Geneva, Calvin continued to take an interest in the religious affairs of his native land including the training of ministers for congregations in France.

As the number of Protestants in France increased, the number of heretics in prisons awaiting trial also grew. As an experimental approach to reduce the caseload in Normandy, a special court just for the trial of heretics was established in 1545 in the Parlement de Rouen.^[57][58] When Henry II took the throne in 1547, the persecution of Protestants grew and special courts for the trial of heretics were also established in the Parlement de Paris. These courts came to be known as "La Chambre Ardente" ("the fiery chamber") because of their reputation of meting out death penalties on burning gallows.^[59]

Despite heavy persecution by

French Protestantism, though its appeal increased under persecution, came to acquire a distinctly political character, made all the more obvious by the noble conversions of the 1550s. This had the effect of creating the preconditions for a series of destructive and intermittent conflicts, known as the Wars of Religion. The civil wars were helped along by the sudden death of Henry II in 1559, which saw the beginning of a prolonged period of weakness for the French crown. Atrocity and outrage became the defining characteristic of the time, illustrated at its most intense in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of August 1572, when the Catholic Church annihilated between 30,000 and 100,000 Huguenots across France.^[60] The wars only concluded when Henry IV, himself a former Huguenot, issued the Edict of Nantes, promising official toleration of the Protestant minority, but under highly restricted conditions. Catholicism remained the official state religion, and the fortunes of French Protestants gradually declined over the next century, culminating in Louis XIV's Edict of Fontainebleau—which revoked the Edict of Nantes and made Catholicism the sole legal religion of France. In response to the Edict of Fontainebleau, Frederick William of Brandenburg declared the Edict of Potsdam, giving free passage to French Huguenot refugees, and tax-free status to them for 10 years.

Netherlands

The Reformation in the Netherlands, unlike in many other countries, was not initiated by the rulers of the

Harsh persecution of Protestants by the Spanish government of Philip II contributed to a desire for independence in the provinces, which led to the Eighty Years' War and eventually, the separation of the largely Protestant Dutch Republic from the Catholic-dominated Southern Netherlands, the present-day Belgium.

Hungary

Much of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary adopted Protestantism during the sixteenth century. After the 1526 Battle of Mohács the Hungarian people were disillusioned by the inability of the government to protect them.

The spread of Protestantism in the country was aided by its large ethnic German minority, which could understand and translate the

In the more independent northwest the rulers and priests, protected now by the Habsburg monarchy which had taken up the fight against the Turks, defended the old Catholic faith. They sent Protestants to prison and to the stake wherever they could. Such strong measures fanned the flames of protest.^{[citation needed]} Leaders of the Protestants included Matthias Biro Devai, Michael Sztarai, and Stephen Kis Szegedi.

Protestants likely formed a majority of Hungary's population at the close of the sixteenth century, but Counter-Reformation efforts in the seventeenth century reconverted a majority of the kingdom to Catholicism.^[62] A significant Protestant minority remained, most of it adhering to the Calvinist faith.

In 1558 the

There were a series of other successful and unsuccessful anti-Habsburg, i.e. anti-Austrian, (requiring equal rights and freedom for all Christian religions) uprisings between 1604 and 1711; the uprisings were usually organized from Transylvania. The constrained Habsburg Counter-Reformation efforts in the seventeenth century reconverted the majority of the kingdom to Catholicism.

Nineteenth century

Historian Kenneth Scott Latourette argues that the outlook for Protestantism at the start of the 19th century was discouraging. It was a regional religion based in northwestern Europe, with an outpost in the sparsely settled United States. It was closely allied with government, as in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Prussia, and especially Great Britain. The alliance came at the expense of independence, as the government made the basic policy decisions, down to such details as the salaries of ministers and location of new churches.

The dominant intellectual currents of the Enlightenment promoted rationalism, and most Protestant leaders preached a sort of deism. Intellectually, the new methods of historical and anthropological study undermine automatic acceptance of biblical stories, as did the sciences of geology and biology. Industrialization was a strongly negative factor, as workers who moved to the city seldom joined churches. The gap between the church and the unchurched grew rapidly, and secular forces, based both in socialism and liberalism undermined the prestige of religion.

Despite the negative forces, Protestantism demonstrated a striking vitality by 1900. Shrugging off Enlightenment rationalism, Protestants embraced

The "Great Awakenings" were periods of rapid and dramatic religious revival in American religious history, beginning in the 1730s.

First Great Awakening

The "First Great Awakening" (or sometimes "The Great Awakening") was a wave of religious enthusiasm among Protestants that swept the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact on American religion. It emphasized the traditional Reformed virtues of Godly preaching, rudimentary liturgy, and a deep sense of personal guilt and redemption by Christ Jesus. It resulted from powerful preaching that deeply affected listeners (already church members). Historian Sydney E. Ahlstrom saw it as part of a "great international Protestant upheaval" that also created

Unlike the

Second Great Awakening

In New England, the renewed interest in religion inspired a wave of social activism. In western New York, the spirit of revival encouraged the emergence of the Restoration Movement, the Latter Day Saint movement, Adventism and the Holiness movement. In the west especially—at Cane Ridge, Kentucky and in Tennessee—the revival strengthened the Methodists and the Baptists and introduced into America a new form of religious expression—the Scottish camp meeting.

The Second Great Awakening made its way across the frontier territories, fed by intense longing for a prominent place for God in the life of the new nation, a new liberal attitude toward fresh interpretations of the Bible, and a seemingly contagious experience of zeal for authentic spirituality. As these revivals spread, they gathered converts to Protestant sects of the time. However, the revivals eventually moved freely across denominational lines, with practically identical results, and went farther than ever toward breaking down the allegiances which kept adherents to these denominations loyal to their own. Consequently, the revivals were accompanied by a growing dissatisfaction with Evangelical churches and especially with the doctrine of

Various unaffiliated movements arose that were often

The "Third Great Awakening" was a period of religious activism in American history from the late 1850s to the 1900s. It affected pietistic Protestant denominations and had a strong sense of social activism. It gathered strength from the

Another development in 20th-century Christianity was the rise of the modern

As the more radical implications of the scientific and cultural influences of the Enlightenment began to be felt in Protestant churches, especially in the 19th century, Liberal Christianity, exemplified especially by numerous theologians in Germany in the 19th century, sought to bring the churches alongside of the broad revolution that Modernism represented. In doing so, new critical approaches to the Bible were developed, new attitudes became evident about the role of religion in society, and a new openness to questioning the nearly universally accepted definitions of Christian orthodoxy began to become obvious.

In reaction to these developments, Christian fundamentalism was a movement to reject the radical influences of philosophical humanism, as this was affecting the Christian religion. Especially targeting critical approaches to the interpretation of the Bible, and trying to blockade the inroads made into their churches by atheistic scientific assumptions, the fundamentalists began to appear in various denominations as numerous independent movements of resistance to the drift away from historic Christianity. Over time, the Fundamentalist Evangelical movement has divided into two main wings, with the label Fundamentalist following one branch, while Evangelical has become the preferred banner of the more moderate movement. Although both movements primarily originated in the English speaking world, the majority of Evangelicals now live elsewhere in the world.

A third, but less popular, option than either liberalism or fundamentalism was the

In the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, there has been a marked rise in the

Europe

In Europe there has been a general move away from religious observance and belief in Christian teachings and a move towards secularism. The "secularization of society", attributed to the time of the Enlightenment and its following years, is largely responsible for the spread of secularism. For example, the Gallup International Millennium Survey [1] showed that only about one sixth of Europeans attend regular religious services, less than half gave God "high importance", and only about 40% believe in a "personal God". Nevertheless, the large majority considered that they "belong" to a religious denomination.

The Americas and Australia

In North America, South America and Australia, the other three continents where Christianity is the dominant professed religion, religious observance is higher than in Europe. At the same time, these regions are often seen by other nations as being uptight and "Victorian", in their social mores.^{[citation needed]} In general, the United States leans toward the conservative in comparison to other western nations in its general culture, in part due to the Christian element found primarily in its Midwestern and southern states.

South America, historically Catholic, has experienced a large Evangelical and Pentecostal infusion in the 20th century due to the influx of Christian missionaries from abroad. For example: Brazil, South America's largest country, is the largest Catholic country in the world, and at the same time is the largest Evangelical country in the world (based on population).^{[citation needed]} Some of the largest Christian congregations in the world are found in Brazil.

See also

• Christianity in the 16th century
• Christianity in the 17th century
• Christianity in the 18th century
• Christianity in the 19th century
• Christianity in the 20th century
• Christianity in the 21st century
• Heresy in Christianity#Second millennium
• History of Christianity of the Late Modern era
• History of the Roman Catholic Church
• Revival (religious)
• Timeline of Christianity

Notes

References