Source: Elwell, W. A., editor. 1984. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker. pp. 888-890.
In its broadest sense Protestantism denotes the whole movement within Christianity that originated in the sixteenth century Reformation and later focused in the main traditions of Reformed church life, Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist/Presbyterian), and Anglican-Episcopalian (although Anglicanism par excellence claims to be both Catholic and Protestant), at Speyer in 1529 in dissenting from a clamptional, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and many others, down to modern African Independent churches).
The term derives from the "protestation" submitted by a minority of Lutheran and Reformed authorities at the German Imperial Diet at Speyer in 1529 in dissenting from a clampdown on religious renewal. The "protestation" was at once objection, appeal, and affirmation. It asked urgently, "What is the true and holy Church?" and asserted: "There is no sure preaching or doctrine but that which abides by the Word of God. According to God's command no other doctrine should be preached. Each text of the holy and divine Scriptures should be elucidated and explained by other texts. This Holy Book is in all things necessary for the Christian; it shines clearly in its own light, and is found to enlighten the darkness. We are determined by God's grace and aid to abide by God's Word alone, the holy gospel contained in the biblical books of the Old and New Testaments. This Word alone should be preached, and nothing that is contrary to it. It is the only truth. It is the sure rule of all Christian doctrine and conduct. It can never fail or deceive us."
Lutherans and other advocates of reform thus became known as Protestants. The English word originally had the force of "resolute confession, solemn declaration," standing for gospel truth against Roman corruption. "Essentially Protestantism is an appeal to God in Christ, to Holy Scripture and to the primitive Church, against all degeneration and apostasy." The narrowing of "Protestant" to mean anti- or non-Roman has led some to prefer "Evangelical" (though in continental Europe this normally designates Lutherans) and "Reformed" (more commonly used of Calvinist Presbyterians).
Fundamental Principles. The fundamental principles of sixteenth century Protestantism included the following:
Soli Deo Gloria: the justification of God's wisdom and power against papal usurpation and manmade religion, honoring God's sovereign transcendence and providential predestination.
Sola Gratia: redemption as God's free gift accomplished by Christ's saving death and resurrection. This was articulated chiefly in Pauline terms as justification by faith alone, as in the Augsburg Confession: "We cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God by our own merits, works or satisfactions, but receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, when we believe that Christ suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us." Assurance of salvation is therefore a mark of Protestant faith, grounded in the promise of the gospel and released from all pursuit of merit.
Sola Scriptura: the freedom of Scripture to rule as God's word in the church, disentangled from papal and ecclesiastical magisterium and tradition. Scripture is the sole source of Christian revelation. Although tradition may aid its interpretation, its true (i.e., spiritual) meaning is its natural (i.e., literal) sense, not an allegorical one.
The Church as the Believing People of God: constituted not by hierarchy, succession, or institution, but God's election and calling in Christ through the gospel. In the words of the Augsburg Confession, it is "the assembly of all believers among whom the gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the gospel." The sacraments appointed by Christ are two only, baptism and the Lord's Supper, and may be spoken of as "visible words," reflecting the primacy of preaching in Protestant conviction.
The Priesthood of All Believers: the privileged freedom of all the baptized to stand before God in Christ "without patented human intermediaries" and their calling to be bearers of judgment and grace as "little Christs" to their neighbors. Pastor and preacher differ from other Christians by function and appointment, not spiritual status. (Later Protestantism has forgotten this perhaps more than any other foundation principle.)
The Sanctity of All Callings or Vocations: the rejection of medieval distinctions between secular and sacred or "religious" (i.e., monastic) with the depreciation of the former, and the recognition of all ways of life as divine vocations. "The works of monk and priest in God's sight are in no way whatever superior to a farmer laboring in the field, or a woman looking after her home" (Luther). None is intrinsically more Christian than any other, an insight obscured by phrases such as "the holy ministry."
Protestant Developments. Protestantism has developed a distinctive ethos in each of the several traditions derived from the Reformation and also within their historical, cultural, and geographical variations. On some issues, such as the manner (not the reality) of Christ's presence in the Supper, Protestants have disagreed from a very early stage, while agreeing in rejecting transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the Mass and insisting that living faith alone feeds upon Christ's flesh and blood. On others, such as church order, diversity of practice has not always involved disagreement in principle. In this and other areas Protestantism's scriptural principle has itself been articulated in different ways, both to sanction the retention of traditions (e.g., episcopacy) not repugnant to Scripture (a typically Lutheran and Anglican approach) and to debar from the church's life anything not explicitly warranted in Scripture (a tendency of Reformed Protestantism implemented most consistently by Puritanism and some derivative traditions). Nothing has so much promoted the disunity of Protestantism as the inroads of post-Enlightenment rationalism and its offspring in theological liberalism and modernism, which have gravely eroded Protestantism's Reformation and biblical foundations.
Another pattern of Reformation in the sixteenth century, generally called Anabaptist or Radical despite its diversity, sought to restore the precise shape of apostolic Christianity. Pentecostalism has a similar aim, along with other movements, including some Baptists and (Plymouth) Brethren. Some African Independent churches have pursued a restorationist approach even to the OT. Although Anabaptism gave birth to no major Protestant tradition (but note the Mennonites), its rejection of the Constantinian state-church and all its works (endorsed unreservedly by all three primary Protestant traditions) became in time the common property of most of Protestantism, especially outside Europe. (E. Troeltsch has stressed the revolutionary significance of later Protestantism's abandonment of its early ideal of all-embracing church-civilization, a reformed Christendom.) The Anabaptist "protestation," though persecuted by the authoritarian Protestants, Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican, is increasingly regarded as a parallel pattern of pristine Protestantism, with perhaps more to contribute to its future than any other pattern.
Despite its divisions the community of Protestantism is still discernible in cross-denominational movements, e.g., missionary expansion, Bible translation, biblical criticism and modern theological study, welfare and relief agencies, and the ecumenical movement itself. Protestants are also held together by common convictions, chief among them the acceptance of the Reformation as an indispensable part of their history. For no Protestants does this exclude a lineage going back to the apostles, but continuity with patristic and medieval Christianity would be variously prized in different Protestant traditions. Protestantism's scriptural principle finds expression in the axiom Ecclesia reformata sed semper reformanda, "a church reformed but always open to further reformation." Subjection to the word of God means that no traditions or institutions, secular or religious, not even Reformation or Protestant ones, can be absolutized. Paul Tillich regarded "the Protestant principle" as "the prophetic judgment against religious pride, ecclesiastical arrogance and secular self-sufficiency and their destructive consequences." This was nobly exemplified in the Barmen Declaration of the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany ("Confessing" here being a good modern synonym of sixteenth century "Protestant"). Intellectually, "the co-operation of uninhibited inquiry and religious faith, of theology and science, is possible only on Protestant territory where all human traditions and institutions stand open both to man's scrutiny and to God's" (J. H. Nichols). Finally, Protestantism seeks to draw its life from the gospel of God's grace in Christ. True to its heritage it can tolerate no do-it-yourself Christianity, no ground for human self-confidence before God's face. It will ultimately always value the Christ of faith more than the church of history.
D. F. WRIGHT
Bibliography. H. Wace, Principles of the Reformation; E. G. Leonard, A History of Protestantism, 2 vols.; W. Pauck, The Heritage of the Reformation; J. Dillenberger and C. Welch, Protestant Christianity Interpreted through Its Development; P. Schaff, A History of the Creeds of Christendom, I, III; R. N. Flew and R. E. Davies, eds., The Catholicity of Protestantism; J. H. Nichols, Primer for Protestants; W. Niesel, Reformed Symbolics: A Comparison of Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism; L. Bouyer, The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism; E. Troeltsch, Protestantism and Progress; P. Tillich, The Protestant Era; C. S. Carter and G. E. A. Weeks, eds., The Protestant Dictionary; J. S. Whale, The Protestant Tradition.