(Ebook) Protestantism: From a Catholic Perspective by Dr. Cyprian Blamires ISBN 9781860824326, 1860824323

(Ebook) Protestantism: From a Catholic Perspective by Dr. Cyprian Blamires ISBN 9781860824326, 1860824323

It is easier to say who Protestants are than what Protestantism is. The term‘Protestant’ was applied historically to persons belonging to one of severalrival European movements of thought and practice with one thing at least incommon: they all preached or assumed that it was possible - and indeeddesirable - for true followers of Christ to abandon their traditionalallegiance to the Bishops of Rome as successors to St Peter. Over the tencenturies of the Church’s history prior to the sixteenth century ProtestantReformation there had been only one major global division in Christendom– that between West and East. This corresponded roughly speaking to themodern fault line between Catholicism in western Europe and the OrthodoxChurches in the east. During the Middle Ages there were numerous tensionswithin the western church and some of these involved movements that werecondemned by the authorities of the Church as heretical (eg. theAlbigensians, also known as Cathars). But it was not until the sixteenthcentury that very significant territorial areas, communities and individualsin western Europe were taken by their secular rulers, partly under theinfluence of Protestant preachers, completely outside the obedience of thebishops of Rome. This was one major effect of the movement of religiousthought and practice now known as the Protestant Reformation.Since then of course Protestantism has spread far beyond the confinesof Europe and all over the globe. However, in practice a Protestant todaymay still be defined very broadly either as a European Christian outsideboth the Roman and the Orthodox obedience, or as a member of one of thedenominations or movements in other parts of the world whose roots are tobe found (however remotely) in the Reformation movement in westernEurope. Not all of those who fit this description are happy to be labelled‘Protestant’ however, as we shall see later on.