Protestant History/schism

The argument

In 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther published 95 Theses—a text that criticized certain acts of the Pope and protested some of the practices and priorities of the Roman Catholic church. However, the Protestant movement did not officially begin until 1529. It was during this year that the "Protestation" was published by German princes who wanted the freedom to choose the faith of their territory. This led to what was called the Reformation which spread across northern Europe, and into the UK by the mid reign of Henry VIII. The beginning of the Protestant Reformation was attended by an outburst of iconoclasm. Iconoclasm is the removal of statues and images from churches. Protestants, believing that Roman Catholics had largely wandered from the centrality of the Bible, removed what they saw as distracting and superstitious paintings, statues, and other images that had been substituted for God's word. Protestants called an individual interpretation of Scripture and religious freedom. There are many thousands of protestant sub-denominations. The main sub-groups are Baptist, Lutheran, Anglicanism, Methodism and Reformists. These in turn each have hundreds of breakaway groups

Premises

Counter-arguments

A framing objection notes that this entry narrates the Reformation's history and organisational splits — Luther, the 1529 Protestation, iconoclasm, the many denominations — but says little about what Protestants actually believe. The defining theological distinctives are largely absent. Those distinctives — the 'solas' (scripture, faith and grace alone), justification by faith alone, and the priesthood of all believers — are precisely what set Protestant belief apart from Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. 'Individual interpretation of Scripture and religious freedom' gestures at one theme but omits the core doctrines, so as an account of belief the passage reads more as a history of the movement than a statement of its faith.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The entry narrates the Reformation's history and schisms rather than what Protestants believe; the defining distinctives (the 'solas' — scripture, faith and grace alone; justification by faith) are largely absent. [Rejecting P2] 'Individual interpretation of Scripture and religious freedom' captures one theme but omits core doctrines (the priesthood of all believers, sola scriptura) that actually distinguish Protestant belief. [Rejecting P3] Some historical details are loosely rendered, so as an account of Protestant belief the passage is more a history of the movement than a statement of its faith.