The Basics
Protestantism is a sect of Christianity. They believe that God created the universe and endowed man with a soul, but that man sinned and broke this original harmony. God enacted a plan to rescue man from this chaos. He revealed Himself to Moses and established laws and practices to keep the chosen people on the right path. When the time of fulfillment came, God sent down His Son (who is Himself God) to preach, to be crucified, to die, to resurrect, and then return to Heaven. He then sent the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Divine Trinity, to empower His followers to know and love God, and to convert the world.
Those who faithfully follow Christ will be “saved” through the redemptive power of His sacrifice. They will go to Heaven, God’s own dwelling place, to be with Him for eternity. Those who reject Christ will not receive a share in His redemptive power, left instead with the consequences of their own actions – disorder, evil, self-centeredness, and separation from God – Hell.
Protestants “protested” certain aspects of the authority of the Catholic Church. Due to being outside the doctrinal authority of the Catholic bishops, there are thousands upon thousands of Protestant churches, each with their own leaders, traditions, histories, and doctrines.
The History
In 325, Emperor Constantine called together all the bishops of the Christian Churches to settle a debate. There was a good deal of confusion surrounding some Christians who taught that Christ was not God incarnate, but a created being. The bishops did convene, and ruled that this idea, Arianism, was heretical and could not be held by the faithful. Following that first council, many others convened and ruled on matters of doctrine, such as the Trinity, Christ’s deity, Christ’s humanity, the nature of grace, and more.
These rulings were considered binding upon all the faithful until a doctrinal disagreement erupted between the east and the west over whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Son, or solely the Father. This disagreement (and others) culminated in the Roman Pope and the Eastern Patriarch excommunicating each other. To this day, the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church remain separated, both claiming the other is schismatic.
In the early 1500’s, a German Catholic priest named Martin Luther became disenchanted by the worldliness of the Roman Church. Among many issues, his biggest was the selling of indulgences. An “indulgence” is an act which remits the penalty of a venial (lesser) sin. For example, Imagine a man stole $5 from his friend. He could make restitution to his friend by returning the $5, and he could make restitution to God (indulgence) by donating an extra $5, or fasting, or praying. Unfortunately, many in the Catholic hierarchy took the opportunity to codify and accept donations as indulgences, effectively “selling” indulgences to the faithful and creating an “economy of forgiveness” centered on barter and marketing schemes.
Martin Luther was appalled, and went further than to just reject the ugly manifestation of greed in front of him. Instead, he rejected the entire concepts of (1) infallible ecumenical authority and (2) penance for the remittance of sins. Five “solas” codified his new ideas, the first two pertaining to these topics. Sola Scriptura means that “scripture alone” is infallible, not the Pope and the council of bishops (the magisterium). Sola Fide means that “faith alone” is the cause of salvation, without the cooperation of penance, such as indulgences. Between introducing these ideas into public conversation and translating the Bible such that Germans of multiple dialects could all read it (though he was not the first to translate the Bible to vernacular), Luther began the Protestant Reformation.
Reformed Ideas
Following excommunication from Catholicism, Luther started his own church – the Lutherans. While he maintained most of the Catholic traditions (despite rejecting their infallible nature), sola scriptura and sola fide began a much broader questioning of authority. Christianity became ever-more decentralized as dozens of new churches started based on different premises and doctrines. Though many were esoteric, a few major doctrines (beyond the solas) uniformly changed:
(1) The role of the sacraments. The Catholic Church taught that Baptism and confession are necessary for salvation. But the Protestants generally reject this on the premise that faith alone is necessary for salvation.
(2) The role of the priesthood. The Catholic Church teaches that the ministerial priesthood offers the faithful Christ’s substantial presence through the sacraments. But Protestants reject the idea of the sacraments as substantial contact with Christ, so the ministerial priesthood does not exist. Instead, Protestant leaders are more like counselors.
(3) The nature of predestination. The Catholic Church teaches that salvation is a mysterious cooperative effort between God’s gift of grace and human free will. But the Protestants reject the salvific nature of good works and teach that salvation is “purely” the action of God. On one extreme, Calvinists teach that God creates certain men specifically to deprive them of grace, permit them to sin, and consequently damn them. On the other, the universalists teach that God will save all men, regardless of their choices.
(4) The nature of relationship with Christ. The Catholic Church emphasizes the role of the body in salvation – good works, sharing Christ’s physical body (the Eucharist), and penance. But the Protestants emphasize the role of the soul more than the body – faith alone, Christ’s word, and trust.
Conclusion
Protestantism is an amalgamation of Christian churches separate from the teaching authority of the Catholic or Orthodox churches. Today, about 12% of the world is Protestant.
My analysis of Protestantism will be focused on sola scriptura (here).
You can follow the hyperlinks above or navigate to the critiques using the menu.