Protestantism facts for kids

Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses

Protestantism is a form of Christian faith and practice. It began in northern Europe in the early 16th century. At that time, they were against some parts of Roman Catholicism. Together with Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, Protestantism became one of the three greatest forces in Christianity. Protestantism much influenced the culture, beliefs, and economy of the place it became important in.

The word Protestantism had its origin when German princes and free cities at the Diet of Speyer (1529), petitioned or "protested" against the the imperial ban adopted by the Diet against Martin Luther and its stance against the Reformation. Lutherans in Germany began using it. Swiss and French more often used Reformed. The Anglicans use Catholic, Reformed and Protestant, however the Anglican Church is not always regarded as part of Protestantism because it kept most of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church from which it separated.

Martin Luther, a doctor of theology and a monk, said that the church should return to its roots, and give more weight to what is written in the Bible (Sola scriptura). Luther thought that the Church had gone too far away from the original teachings. He published 95 theses on the way the Catholic Church was then. Some say, he stuck them onto the door of the church of Wittenberg, but others say this is not true. The 95 theses were published in 1516 or 1517. With the theses, he started the Protestant Reformation.

Protestant churches with a big following are:

• Lutheran Church
• Calvinist Church
• Baptists
• Pentecostals

Often but not always:

• Anglican Church: Henry VIII split from the Roman Catholic Church. He wanted to divorce from Catherine of Aragon, but the Pope refused to divorce him. King Henry started the Church of England. It is sometimes seen as being the middle way, between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, and that is why is often excluded from Protestantism. This is because, in the English Reformation, the English Church kept the early Catholic ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons, as well as most of the doctrine and liturgy. The critical point which led to the Anglican Church was the outright rejection of the Pope, and so of the Roman Catholic Church as an organisation.

Images for kids

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  Door of the Theses in Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

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  A Lutheran depiction of the Last Supper by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1547

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  Spread of Lollardy in medieval England and medieval Scotland

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  Girolamo Savonarola

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  Wessel Gansfort

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

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  Dissatisfaction with the outcome of a disputation in 1525 prompted Swiss Brethren to part ways with Huldrych Zwingli

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  Glass window in the town church of Wiesloch (Stadtkirche Wiesloch) with Martin Luther and John Calvin commemorating the 1821 union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in the Grand Duchy of Baden

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  Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Church megachurch

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  Hillsong Church Konstanz, Germany, an evangelical charismatic church

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  Jacobus Arminius was a Dutch Reformed theologian, whose views influenced parts of Protestantism. A small Remonstrant community remains in the Netherlands.

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  Karl Barth, often regarded as the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century

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  Columbia University, established by the Church of England

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  Enlightenment philosopher John Locke argued for individual conscience, free from state control

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  St. Peter's Church (1612), the oldest surviving Protestant church in the "New World" (the Americas and certain Atlantic Ocean islands), the first of nine Parish churches established in Bermuda by the Church of England. Bermuda also has the oldest Presbyterian church outside the British Isles, the Church of Scotland's Christ Church (1719).

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  James Springer White and his wife, Ellen G. White founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

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  An Adventist pastor baptizes a young man in Mozambique.

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  Loma Linda University Seventh-day Adventist Church in Loma Linda, California, United States.

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  Dirk Willems saves his pursuer. This act of mercy led to his recapture, after which he was burned at the stake.

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  An Amish family in a horse-drawn square buggy.

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  Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church in rural Goessel, Kansas, United States.

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  Thomas Cranmer, one of the most influential figures in shaping Anglican theology and self-identity.

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  The various editions of the Book of Common Prayer contain the words of structured services of worship in the Anglican Church.

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  British coronations are held in Westminster Abbey, a royal peculiar under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch.

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  Roger Williams was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state.

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  Baptists subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers.

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  The First Baptist Church in America. Baptists are roughly one-third of U.S. Protestants.

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  John Calvin's theological thought influenced a variety of Congregational, Continental Reformed, United, Presbyterian, and other Reformed churches.

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  The Ordination of Elders in a Scottish Kirk, by John Henry Lorimer, 1891.

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  A Congregational church in Cheshire, Connecticut, United States.

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  Friedensthal Moravian Church Christiansted, St Croix, USVI founded in 1755.

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  A Moravian diener serves bread to fellow members of her congregation during the celebration of a lovefest (2015).

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  Luther's rose seal, a symbol of Lutheranism

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  Luther composed hymns still used today, including "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"

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  Altar of the Turku Cathedral, the matrice of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

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  John Wesley, the primary founder of the Methodism.

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  A United Methodist elder celebrating the Eucharist.

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  Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, London.

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  A hymnal of the Free Methodist Church, a Methodist denomination aligned with the holiness movement.

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  A night shelter of The Salvation Army in Geneva, Switzerland.

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  Charles Fox Parham, who associated glossolalia with the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

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  Contemporary Christian worship in Rock Harbor Church, Costa Mesa, United States.

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  A Pentecostal church in Ravensburg, Germany.

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  George Fox was an English dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.

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  William Wilberforce, a British evangelical abolitionist.

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  Billy Graham, a prominent evangelical revivalist, preaching in Duisburg, Germany in 1954.

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  Worship service at Église Nouvelle vie, an evangelical Pentecostal church in Longueuil, Canada.

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  An Evangelical Protestant church in Hämeenlinna, Finland.

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  Philipp Jakob Spener, German pioneer and founder of Pietism.

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  Pietism has been a strong cultural influence in Scandinavia.

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  The Broad and the Narrow Way, a popular German Pietist painting, 1866.

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  John Cotton, who sparked the Antinomian Controversy with his free grace theology.

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  Pilgrim Fathers landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

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  Built in 1681, the Old Ship Church in Hingham, Massachusetts is the oldest church in America in continuous ecclesiastical use.

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  Luther Monument in Worms, which features some of the Reformation's crucial figures.

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  The International Monument to the Reformation in Geneva, Switzerland.

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  The Adoration of the Trinity by Albrecht Dürer.

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  The Crucifixion of Christ by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

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  A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew's Day, Refusing to Shield Himself from Danger by Wearing the Roman Catholic Badge by John Everett Millais.

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  The Return of the Prodigal Son, detail, c. 1669 by Rembrandt.

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  The Church at Auvers, 1890. Musée d'Orsay, Paris. By Vincent van Gogh.

See also

In Spanish: Protestantismo para niños