The History of the Protestant Ethic of Protestantism

The principle and spirit of protest represented by Protestantism can be traced back to some of the Reformation pioneers of the late 14th century. The English Wycliffites and Lollards, the Hussite movement in Bohemia, and the adherents of G. Savonarola in Italy sowed the seeds of reformed ideas over a wide area of Europe. in the 1620s, Martin Luther initiated the Reformation movement in Germany, which soon became a prairie fire throughout the whole of Germany. In Switzerland, the reform activities of U. Zwingli and J. Calvin further expanded and deepened the influence of Protestantism. King Henry VIII of England, for political reasons, carried out the Reformation from top to bottom; with the assistance of Cranmer, he formed a Protestant church with a distinctive form, in order to get rid of the papal authority. By the middle of the 16th century, the three main Protestant denominations, namely, the Lutheran Church founded by Martin Luther, the Reformed Church founded by Calvin, and the Anglican Church, which was the state religion of England, had appeared in Europe and rivaled the Roman Catholic Church. In the course of their formation, the three denominations were supported and protected by the secular regimes or lords of the independent states of the peoples in which they were located. After a long and complicated "war of religion", according to the principle of "religion follows the state" confirmed by some of the ensuing peace treaties, such as the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the distribution pattern of Protestantism in the countries of Western Europe was basically formed. Basically, the pattern of distribution of Protestantism in Western Europe was formed. The Lutheran Church was distributed in most of Germany and the Nordic countries, including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, etc.; the Reformed Church was in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and Scotland; and the Anglican Church was mainly in England. The number of believers of the three main denominations accounted for the vast majority of Protestants at that time, and therefore they are also called the mainstream Protestant denominations.

Between the end of the 16th century and the 17th century, the three main Protestant denominations were basically settled in their church organization and worship services. The formulation and exposition of doctrines, after a long period of debate, also gradually formed a system. Protestant theorists, based in some European universities, were keen to produce a large number of theological works, but the contents were full of tedious arguments and testimonies, losing the vigor of the protesting spirit of the early days of the Reformation. This period was later called the period of Protestant Scripturalism. In the middle of the 17th century, the Puritan movement in England demanded a Calvinistic reform of the conservative Anglican state church, which had become a banner of bourgeois revolution and pushed the Protestant movement one step further, resulting in the emergence of a number of new and independent sects that broke away from the state church, such as Presbyterianism, the Congregationalist Church, Baptist Church, and the Society of Friends in England, etc. The Puritan movement was later spread by immigrants to the United States and the United Kingdom. The Puritan movement was later spread to the Americas by immigrants, resulting in the development of Protestantism as the most influential denomination in North America. In Germany, the Pietist movement represented by Spennell echoed the Puritan movement, advocating personal devotional life and preaching work, and organizing charitable works. The University of Halle, founded by Frank and others, became the center of Pietism in Germany, which had an important influence on the later development of Protestantism. In the 18th century, the bourgeoisie achieved total victory in Europe. The manifestation of this in thought and culture was the reverence for reason and freedom, and the critical attitude toward all old systems, so it was called the Enlightenment period. During this period, a number of philosophers appeared in Protestantism, such as Leibniz, Lessing and Kant in Germany, and Locke, Berkeley and Hume in Britain. They used the philosophy of rationalism to make new arguments and interpretations of Christian faith and theology. They advocated the principles of free thought and tolerance, and attempted to make some reconciliation between faith and reason, such as naturalism and extensive theism in England, rationalist theology in Germany, and Arminianism in the Netherlands. All of these had a significant impact on the development of Protestant theology in the 19th century. During this period, some new denominations also emerged, such as the Wesleyan Church founded by the Wesleyan brothers in England. Prior to this, the Moravian Brethren, which traces its roots to the Hussite movement of the 15th century, had a new development under the advocacy of pro-Chendorff. These sects, which valued the spiritual life of the believers and were more liberal and flexible in organization and ritual, later spread to North America and grew considerably.

Protestantism in 19th-century Europe, under the impact of Enlightenment rationalism, saw some new trends. Influenced by Kant's critical philosophy and Schelling's romanticism, Schleiermacher viewed religion as a product of feeling and emphasized the importance of personal religious experience. He has been called the father of modern Protestant theology. A little later, fed by Hegel's philosophy of history, a group of theologians emerged, such as Bauer and Strauss centering on the University of Dubingen, to offer new interpretations of traditional beliefs and the history of the development of early Christianity. The Dubingen School played a major role in the development of biblical evangelism. Ricardo put forward the slogan "Back to Kant" and made moral values the defense of Christianity. Under his influence, the giants of liberal theology, such as Harnack and Trench, emerged. Liberal theology emphasized the value and freedom of human beings. On the premise of preserving moral values, it advocated the reconciliation of religion and science, faith and reason, and social reforms, replacing revolution with improvement. Some others, in the wave of social revolution, attempted to combine Christian faith and ethical thinking with social reform, such as Morris and Kingsley in Britain, who put forward "Christian socialism", and Rauschenbusch and others in the United States, who put forward the idea of "social gospel". The idea of "social gospel" was put forward in the United States by Rauschenbusch and others.

The various crises in the Western world in the 20th century, especially the two world wars, put liberal theology in a desperate situation. In its place came the neo-orthodox theology of Barth and Brunel. It emphasized the depravity and sinfulness of man, and declared that history could never be reversed by human hands, and that mankind could only be saved by denying himself, submitting completely to God's will, and using "God's word" as the basis for judgment. This, it claimed, was a return to the orthodoxy of Luther and Calvin, and a return to the truth of the gospel of Augustine and Paul. The dominance of liberal theology after World War II was replaced by neo-orthodox theology. On the other hand, there was also an anti-rationalist trend in American Protestantism in the early twentieth century, called fundamentalism, which countered the modernism that reconciled faith and reason. Fundamentalism asserted that traditional doctrines such as the virgin birth of Jesus, the physical resurrection, the substitutionary atonement of the cross, the return of Christ, and the absolute infallibility of every word of the Bible must be accepted as the basic tenets of the faith. The rise of fundamentalists has plunged American Protestantism into a long and bitter controversy and has led to the splitting of some denominations. In addition, some fundamentalist sects combined with charismatic or revivalist sects that encouraged religious fanaticism, and there was a "religious revival" in Europe and America, which promoted the development of the missionary movement. After the Second World War, the traditional doctrines and social ethics of Protestantism were impacted by secularism, skepticism, and various social trends and problems, and the mainstream sects declined, with the number of believers dwindling, while many new small sects appeared. at the beginning of the twentieth century, some Protestant churches initiated the Ecumenical Movement in an attempt to harmonize relations and strengthen cooperation in Christendom, and the Orthodox Church supported it. The Orthodox Church also expressed its support. This movement, with the World Council of Churches of Christ as its main representative, failed to form a strong nucleus for half a century. The Catholic Church and a number of Protestant non-mainstream churches with large numbers of believers have so far not participated. Protestantism is now moving towards pluralism and secularization and has shown a tendency to re-divide into combinations.