Catholicism to Christianity: What Was Reformed and Why Catholicism and Christianity, the religion of the Reformation, are similar in the God that they worship and in principles that are held. However, Christianity took the doctrines of the Catholic church and made belief in God a more personal experience in order for the believer to connect with God like one would with a friend or a father. Christianity's doctrine of solus Christus, justification by faith alone, and the priesthood of believers, lead to the ability to connect on a deeper level with God. In Catholicism, forgiveness could be granted by the Pope. He was also the mediator between Christ and his people and Christ's vicar. This means that the Pope was close to a necessity for the Catholic faith. The Pope presented requests and repentances to God and was his representative on earth, being a Christ like figure to the people. With this title and role he had a surplus of power. On the other hand, in Christianity, solus Christus means only Christ has authority to forgive and render salvation. …show more content…
More rewards would be given and less time would be spent in purgatory was given to those who did good works and gazed upon relics. But in Christianity, justification was by faith, meaning salvation was achieved by grace through faith alone. The main difference was that Roman Catholics believe that to be accepted into heaven, one must have done good works in their life. On the other hand, Christians believed that through their faith, if they truly believed, then their actions would mirror their beliefs. So for Catholics, doing good works was a necessity and something they had to be intentional about. But in Christianity, good works are a natural part of faith, desiring to follow as God commands and it was a reflection of the faith that the Christian