Reformation and Counter-Reformation Christian Theology
The Renaissance yielded scholars the ability to read the scriptures in their original languages and this in part stimulated the Reformation, a theological movement that protested the outlawing of their faith at the Second Diet of Speyer. Its main themes were Justification by faith, the Bible as the only source of Christian teaching, and the Priesthood of all believers, and. Important figures include Luther, Melanchthon, Bucer, Zwingli, Calvin, and the Anabaptists. Calvinist theology was developed by successors such as Beza, the English Puritans and Turretin. Lutheran theology entered a period of doctrinal unity with the adoption of the Book of Concord and preserved it through the work of theologians such as Chemnitz and Gerhard.
The Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation spearheaded by the Jesuits under Ignatius Loyola took their theology from the decisions of the Council of Trent and developed Second Scholasticism, which they pitted against Lutheran Scholasticism. The overall result of the Reformation was to highlight distinctions of belief that had previously co-existed uneasily.
The Fall of Constantinople in the East, 1453, led to a significant shift of gravity to the rising state of Russia, the "Third Rome". The Renaissance stimulated a program of reforms by patriarchs of prayer books. A movement called the "Old Believers" consequently resulted and influenced Russian Orthodox Theology in the direction of conservatism and Erastianism.
Read more about this topic: History Of Theology
Famous quotes containing the words reformation, christian and/or theology:
“Go on then in doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword; shew that reformation is more practicable by operating on the mind than on the body of man.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“One memorable addition to the old mythology is due to this era,—the Christian fable. With what pains, and tears, and blood these centuries have woven this and added it to the mythology of mankind! The new Prometheus. With what miraculous consent, and patience, and persistency has this mythus been stamped on the memory of the race! It would seem as if it were in the progress of our mythology to dethrone Jehovah, and crown Christ in his stead.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Only men of moral and mental force, of a patriotic regard for the relationship of the two races, can be of real service as ministers in the South. Less theology and more of human brotherhood, less declamation and more common sense and love for truth, must be the qualifications of the new ministry that shall yet save the race from the evils of false teaching.”
—Fannie Barrier Williams (1855–1944)