To its supporters, the Protestant Reformation represented a necessary
correction and long-overdue renewal of the Christian faith, liberating it
from its imprisonment to the transient medieval intellectual and social
order and preparing it for new challenges as western Europe emerged
from the feudalism of the Middle Ages. Christianity was being born all
over again, with a new potency and capacity to engage with an emerging
new world order.
Yet from its outset, the movement was seen by its opponents as a
menacing development, opening the way to religious mayhem, social
disintegration, and political chaos. It was not simply that Protestantism
seemed to revise, corrupt, or abandon some of the traditional beliefs
and practices of the Christian faith. Something far more significant—
and ultimately much more dangerous—lay beneath the surface of the
Protestant criticisms of the medieval church. At its heart, the emergence
and growth of Protestantism concerned one of the most fundamental
questions that can confront any religion: Who has the authority
to define its faith? Institutions or individuals? Who has the right to
interpret its foundational document, the Bible?3
Protestantism took its stand on the right of individuals to interpret
the Bible for themselves rather than be forced to submit to “official”
interpretations handed down by popes or other centralized religious
authorities. For Martin Luther, perhaps the most significant of the
first generation of Protestant leaders, the traditional authority of
clerical institutions had led to the degradation and distortion of the
Christian faith. Renewal and reformation were urgently needed. And
if the medieval church would not put its own house in order, reform
would have to come from its grass roots—from the laity. Luther’s
radical doctrine of the “priesthood of all believers” empowered individual
believers. It was a radical, dangerous idea that bypassed the idea
that a centralized authority had the right to interpret the Bible. There
was no centralized authority, no clerical monopoly on biblical interpretation.
A radical reshaping of Christianity was inevitable, precisely
because the restraints on change had suddenly—seemingly irreversibly—
been removed.
The outbreak of the Peasants’ War in 1525 brought home to Luther
that this new approach was dangerous and ultimately uncontrollable. If
every individual was able to interpret the Bible as he pleased, the outcome
could only be anarchy and radical religious individualism. Too
late, Luther tried to rein in the movement by emphasizing the importance
of authorized religious leaders, such as himself, and institutions in
the interpretation of the Bible. But who, his critics asked, had “authorized”
these so-called authorities? Was not the essence of Luther’s
dangerous new idea that there was no such centralized authority? That
all Christians had the right to interpret the Bible as they saw fit?
In the end, not even the personal authority of Luther could redirect
this religious revolution, which anxious governments sought to tame
and domesticate. By its very nature, Protestantism had created space for
entrepreneurial individuals to redirect and redefine Christianity. It was
a dangerous idea, yet it was an understanding of the essence of the
Christian faith that possessed an unprecedented capacity to adapt to
local circumstances. From the outset, Protestantism was a religion designed
for global adaptation and transplantation.
This book sets out to tell the story of the origins and development of
this radical form of Christianity, not to record the past but to understand
the present and anticipate the future. It is a subject of immense historical,
intellectual, and social importance. The English Civil War of the seventeenth
century was ultimately a battle for the soul of Protestantism, as
rival visions of what it meant to be Protestant collided, with disastrous
results. Yet not only has Protestantism survived the first five hundred
years of its existence, but it seems poised for further growth and adaptation
in the twenty-first century. As religion once again comes to play a
significant role in world affairs, an understanding of the complexities of
this great religious power becomes progressively more important.
Although this book makes use of the best historical scholarship, it is
not yet another chronicle of the development of Protestantism. Rather,
it is an interpretative history of the movement that sets out to clarify the
identity and inner dynamics of Protestantism through its historical
manifestations. Whereas many older studies thought of Protestantism as
being analogous to a seed, capable of development and growth along
predetermined lines, the evidence presented in this analysis suggests that
this model is inadequate and misleading. To use an alternative biological
imagery, Protestantism turns out to be more like a micro-organism:
capable of rapid mutation and adaptation in response to changing environments,
while still maintaining continuity with its earlier forms. This
insight gives a new importance to critical historical analysis: what does
the historical development and transformation of the movement tell us
about its genetic makeup—and hence its possible future forms?
This study is written at a highly significant time in the history of
Protestantism. Throughout its existence, the United States of America
has been a predominantly Protestant nation. Many of the developments
that have shaped the modern religious world can be traced back to
American influence. Yet a series of recent studies have suggested that
the era of the Protestant majority in the United States is coming to an
end, possibly within the next few years.4 With such a seismic development
now imminent, the time is clearly right to explore the past, present,
and future of this movement and to ask where its epicenters will lie
in the twenty-first century and what forms it will take.
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