Protestantism

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The American Colonies

Many of these smaller, more radical sects fled persecution by immigrating to America, beginning with the Puritans. They were followed to New England by Congregationalists and Baptists. The middle colonies were settled by a diversity of sects, particularly Lutherans, Mennonites, and Anabaptists. In the southern colonies the Church of England was made the established church.

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Wars and Orthodoxy

The early history of Protestantism was marked by warfare in which political motives were entwined with religious ones. In Germany, the religious wars of the 16th century and the Thirty Years’ War in the 17th century were bitter and devastating. In France, the Calvinist Huguenots fought a bloody civil war with the Roman Catholics, culminating in the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day in 1572, in which many Huguenot leaders were killed. The Huguenots were granted toleration by the Edict of Nantes (1598), but most of them were forced to emigrate when it was revoked by Louis XIV in 1685. In England, the civil war between Parliament and monarchy largely corresponded to the division between the Puritans and the Anglicans. After the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Thirty Years’ War, Protestantism entered into a period of consolidation. On the European continent the 17th century was a period in which Protestant orthodoxy was carefully defined and systematically expounded. This tendency has subsequently been called Protestant Scholasticism, by analogy with the systematic Catholic theology of the Middle Ages. Its emphasis was on the authority of the Bible and on rigorous logic.

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Pietism

By the 1670s in Germany a movement called Pietism developed in reaction to the intellectualism of orthodoxy. Under the leadership of German pastor Philipp Jakob Spener, people began to meet in small groups in private homes to study the Bible and pray. Pietism stressed individual conversion and a simple, active piety rather than the acceptance of correct theological propositions. It spread throughout Germany and to Scandinavia and America.

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Rationalism

The influence of scientific thought and the Enlightenment (see Enlightenment, Age of) on Protestant theology was reflected in rationalism, a tendency that appeared in the late 17th and 18th centuries. It was anticipated by several earlier movements, including Arminianism, which denied the Calvinist doctrine of unconditional predestination, and Latitudinarianism, a tolerant, antidogmatic tendency that arose within the Church of England during the 17th century. Rationalism introduced a critical spirit into theology by insisting that traditional beliefs be examined in the light of reason and science. By stressing broad agreement on the major tenets of religion rather than the fine points of theology, it tended to undermine the rigid orthodoxies that had developed earlier in the 17th century. The purest expression of the rationalist tendency was Deism, a philosophical religion that rejected revelation, miracles, and the specific dogmatic teachings of any church.

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Another form of Protestant rationalism that became influential in the 18th century was Unitarianism. It had originated in the 16th century on the Continent, where it was called Socinianism, after its founder, Italian reformer Fausto Socinus. After the Toleration Act of 1689, Unitarianism was openly professed in England, and during the 18th century it began to gain adherents in New England, as well. Unitarians denied the doctrines of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus Christ, stressing instead his ethical teachings and example.

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Methodism and Revivalism

The reaction against intellectual and formalistic tendencies in Protestantism that had produced Pietism continued in the 18th century, with the emergence of several popular movements that made a direct appeal to emotional religious experience. In England, the reaction took the form of Methodism, founded by John Wesley and Charles Wesley, who were influenced by both Pietism and Arminianism. Stressing conversion and a concern for the poor, they preached to large outdoor meetings throughout Britain and brought about a revival of religious fervor among the British working classes, who had been alienated by the prevailing formalism and rationalism of the Church of England. Because of official disapproval, the movement eventually separated from the Anglican Church and became one of the nonconformist denominations.

In the American colonies, English evangelist George Whitefield and other itinerant ministers preached at large open-air religious revivals and inspired the first Great Awakening, a general revival of religious enthusiasm.