Christianity Vs Protestant Reformation

The 16th century was a period characterized by the revolutionary ideas and innovations that developed during the Renaissance. As these new ways of thinking flourished, the church, which had been overbearingly omnipresent in the Middle Ages, began to lose its influence, and its methods of practicing faith were questioned. Eventually, a spiritual revolution grew from the realization that the church hierarchy was focused more on their own monetary and personal gain, than on preaching God’s truth. The Reformation was a series of rebellious movements that strived to revive the morals of early Christianity and resulted in the division of the Christendom, which heavily influenced multiple aspects of Western and modern society. By the mid-17th century, both the Christian and Protestant Reformations had

Focusing on their own personal relationship with God, the Protestants “developed the inner self-assurance and assertiveness that marks the modern individual” (Perry 203). Unlike Christians, who relied on the clergy to reach salvation, a prominent outlook of the Reformation maintained that God chooses whether an individual is worthy to get to heaven and that events during one 's life won’t affect this outcome. This way of thinking also “may have contributed to the development of the capitalist spirit, which underlies modern economic life” (Perry 203). Protestants believed that poverty was God’s way of dealing punishment to those who deserved it, while wealth was a sign that a person was destined to reach salvation. Therefore, while Christianity discouraged excessive materialism, the Reformation encouraged productivity and motivated the business class to flourish. In the modern age, these tendencies remain prevalent and shape the competitive nature of today’s