Protestantism

Definition

Protestantism is the branch of Christianity descending from the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, a movement that broke with the Roman Catholic Church over the authority of Scripture and the way a sinner is justified before God.¹ The theology that resulted “has its roots in the teachings of three prominent Reformers: Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, and John Calvin.”² Along with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, it is commonly counted as one of Christianity’s three major branches, though it is not a single church but a family of denominations sharing a common origin and, to varying degrees, a common set of convictions.

Historical Origin

Protestantism began in 1517, when Martin Luther challenged the sale of indulgences, and spread through much of Western Europe over the following century as the Protestant Reformation, producing separate Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican church traditions rather than a single reformed Rome.¹

Distinguishing Convictions

Despite its internal diversity, Protestantism has held a common core of convictions, often summarized as the Five Solas. Chief among them is sola Scriptura: “Scripture alone, because it is God’s word, is our inerrant, sufficient, and final authority for the church.”³ Protestants have also held that a sinner is justified “by grace alone (sola gratia) through faith alone (sola fide) on the basis of Christ’s work alone (solus Christus),” with no place left for human merit.⁴

Protestant Families

Only the general families of Protestant denominations are given here, since individual denominations number in the thousands.

• Anabaptist and Baptist
• Anglican / Episcopalian
• Calvinist / Reformed and Presbyterian
• Lutheran
• Methodist / Wesleyan and the Holiness movement
• Pentecostal and Charismatic
• Quakerism

Related Doctrines

• Protestant Reformation
• Five Solas
• Sola Scriptura
• Justification
• Roman Catholicism
• Eastern Orthodoxy

References

1. Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume, ed. John Bolt (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), chap. 2, “The History and Literature of Dogmatic Theology.” ↩ ↩²

2. Aaron Thomas O’Kelley, “Three Prominent Reformers on Justification,” in “A Historical-Theological Critique of the New Perspective on Paul” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2010), 69-132, at 72. ↩

3. Matthew Barrett, God’s Word Alone: The Authority of Scripture, Five Solas Series (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2016), 23, quoted in Alex Charles Tibbott, “Introduction,” in “De Impassibilitate Et Satisfactione: An Examination of the Methodological Implications of Trinitarian Classical Theism for the Doctrine of the Atonement” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2024), 1-12, at 5-6. ↩

4. Matthew Michael Barrett, “Monergism in the Calvinist Tradition,” in “Reclaiming Monergism: The Case for Sovereign Grace in Effectual Calling and Regeneration” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2011), 21-87, at 44. ↩