What makes protestant

It organizes the public into nine distinct groups, based on an analysis of their attitudes and values. Even in a polarized era, the survey reveals deep divisions in both partisan coalitions. Use this tool to compare the groups on some key topics and their demographics. Pew Research Center now uses as the last birth year for Millennials in our work. President Michael Dimock explains why. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.

It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Newsletters Donate My Account. Research Topics. In Luther nailed his 95 theses to a door of the nearby Schlosskirche, helping to spark the Protestant Reformation. Yet Reformation Day also brings the temptation of nostalgia.

As Roman Catholic integralists can indulge in fantasies of a recreation of some mythical medieval synthesis, so Protestants can be tempted to think that the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries provide a Nirvana to which we ought return. There are two problems with this.

Such troubles are obvious. But the second problem with Christian nostalgia is that it often looks to the wrong eras for guidance in the present. The real analogs to today are not found in the High Middle Ages or the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Reformation Protestantism occurred within the cultural context of Christendom. For all of the important differences between Luther and Leo X, Calvin and Trent, Catholics and Protestants shared a common assumption that some form of Christianity would provide the dominant culture.

But that is not our world today. In modern society, few have time for Christianity of any flavor. The basic Christian context of our Reformation forefathers is long gone and, if not completely forgotten, utterly despised. We must look to an earlier time for help: Specifically, to the second and third centuries. As in the second century, Christianity is now regarded not simply as absurd, but also as immoral.

We may not be accused of cannibalism and incest, but our sexual ethic and understanding of selfhood are seen as hateful and ignorant. And perhaps for the first time since the third- and fourth-century persecutions of Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian, the terms of civic loyalty and of faithful church membership are becoming mutually exclusive. As ancient Roman Christians had to sacrifice to the emperor or risk being punished as subversive of civil society, so modern Western Christians are beginning to face that choice.

Affirm gay marriage or have your business boycotted. Let your children choose their own gender or have them taken away from you. Maybe we are not quite there yet, but we are too close for comfort and complacency. Anyone who thinks the Trump presidency is anything other than a brief period of slowdown on those issues is fooling himself. Besides providing a trusted, unified voice to guide Catholics, this body also allows the church to make official pronouncements on contemporary issues which Scripture might not directly address.

As Dr. Horrell notes:. While Protestants only view the Scriptures as authoritative, the Catholic Catechism clearly states that Church:.

Both Scripture and tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence. Protestants often express the idea that salvation is by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone. This assertion views justification as specific point upon which God declares that you are righteous—a point where you enter into the Christian life.

In contrast, the Roman Catholic Church views justification as a process, dependent on the grace you receive by participating in the Church—which is seen as a repository of saving grace. Svigel explains the Catholic perspective:.

Svigel explains:. It contains the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. And that becomes the spiritual and physical nourishment. As you partake of it, it becomes part of you, transforms you, and makes you more and more righteous. Martin Luther likened this to the idea of a red-hot iron in a fire—united, but not changed. Bock says:. Jesus Christ surrounds the elements. In this understanding, the elements are symbols which remain ontologically unaffected by the ritual.