Essay --

The Protestant Reformation and Its Impact on European Society Martin Luther was born in 1483 in Eiselben, Germany. He originally intended to pursue a career in law, but changed his path to theology after surviving a dangerous lightning storm. As a monk, he wrestled with his conflicting views in faith. During his time in an Augustinian monastery, he began to develop a belief that God was cruel for requiring him to devote so much effort into living a pious life. Luther soon began to believe that God was directly connected with people and that actions did not lead to salvation. During his lifetime, a philosophy known as Renaissance Humanism had been developing. It called for researching the original sources of records as well as empowering all humans. He established his theological beliefs by studying the Bible directly instead of following Catholic tradition. The act of going back to the source of information was part of Humanist philosophy. Luther then translated the source of The Bible into vernacular, which went along with another Humanist ide a of educating the common person. Luther became a professor in Wittenberg, Germany in 1508. There he attempted to institute Humanist philosophy as the basis of academics instead of the Medieval Scholasticism, which was the established teaching style of the time. Scholasticism was set up by the Church as a teaching style for Universities around 400 years prior and eventually became an attempt to reconcile Christian doctrine and ancient Greek philosophy. Luther ultimately became critical of many of the traditions in the Church and his objections spread throughout Europe, starting with his 95 Theses in 1517. Although he originally was only interested in intellectual discussion, Luther became ... ...he Anabaptists represented a more extreme side of the Reformation. Among their views were adult baptism and separation of church and state. The Anabaptists were persecuted by both Catholics and other Protestants, though they survived in Northern Germany and the Netherlands. These many divisions in Christianity likely would not have formed if Luther did not raise his questions against the Church. Science in Europe could develop more easily as people were not as restricted by the Church’s authority. The Catholic Church was not against science, but it had adopted old Greek methods, which were reconciled with Christianity by Aquinas, to become the accepted philosophy of the Church. This paradigm was part of the traditional Scholasticism method of critical thought and, because it was the established teaching and learning style of the Church, few desired to go against it.