Christianity In The 1500s

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Religion, for some, describes beliefs and practices about existence, nature, and worship of God or gods. It also sets morals for use in providing order in society. In every society, there are cultures that share similar beliefs, customs, practices, and behavior. Society and culture go hand in hand as they are bound together by specific beliefs, customs and behaviors. Many cultures are identified by religion (the religion is the center that holds culture together). Relationships, marriages, birth and death, for example, are common elements in culture that often hold religious significance. Looking specifically at Christianity in Europe, it can be seen that the Reformation in the 1500s had allowed Christianity to grow and mutate in unpredictable…show more content…
During this time, Christianity was going through a process of change by integrating cultural, political and theological factors, in ways that have never been seen before (Cameron 1). These events were referred to as a Reformation that had transformed Europe in every facet from politics to economics and even religion. With the modern advances in these societies, it lead people and nations past a need for faith, and towards a more enlightened and secular mode of life. The Reformation was also a movement that divided European Christianity into Catholic and Protestant traditions (Cameron 1). More specifically, it became the basis for the founding of Protestantism as a denomination of Christianity. Furthermore, the Reformation has said to have challenged the status quo of Christianity as relations among different denominations and governments took on a variety of forms-often times chaotic and violent (Jenkins 53). It had begun as a…show more content…
Instead it offered a new notion interpreted by individual consciences (Jenkins 54). More specifically, it allowed Christianity to be practiced privately rather than a vast institutionalized community (Jenkins 54). It had started by trying to free individuals from the dominance of the church and encouraged them to question the authority of the Pope. The Reformation had also allowed different denominations to attract more people to its fold and focused on educating more youth to its teachings (Wallace 67). For instance, today there are Bibles translated in many different languages, therefore allowing larger groups of people access to the Bible. Furthermore, many individuals, including Luther and Calvin, had contributed to the development of individualism. They had challenged the intellectual traditions within the Catholic Church and tried to strengthen Catholicism and re-casted Christianity based on their own individual interpretations. Luther and Calvin provided their own interpretations of the Scriptures and notions of how they felt the Church should be run. As these were attempts to try to reunite Christianity to its original traditions, it can be seen today that it had been a failed effort. Hence, we see Christianity divided into many different
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