Protestantism Defined
TimeWatch Editorial
September 28, 2016
On March 4, 2016 in our Editorial entitled “Protestant America” we quoted an article written by Joseph Bottum, entitled “The Death of Protestant America” published August 2008 on the First Things Website. In that article Mr. Bottum says the following:
“America was Methodist, once upon a time—Methodist, or Baptist, or Presbyterian, or Congregationalist, or Episcopalian. Which makes it all the stranger that, somewhere around 1975, the main stream of Protestantism ran dry. In truth, there are still plenty of Methodists around. Baptists and Presbyterians, too—Lutherans, Episcopalians, and all the rest; millions of believing Christians, who remain serious and devout. For that matter, you can still find, soldiering on, some of the institutions they established in their Mainline glory days: But those institutions are corpses, even if they don’t quite realize that they’re dead. The great confluence of Protestantism has dwindled to a trickle over the past thirty years, and the Great Church of America has come to an end. Joseph Bottum, “The Death of Protestant America” August 2008
But what is this “Protestantism” which has run dry? How is it truly defined? Is there a clear understanding of the word? Is there a particular function that it describes? How is that standard applied? Too often we engage in the use of terminology without first seeking to apply a particular application to the function. J.A Wylie in Volume one of his “History of Protestantism” in the very first chapter on page two seeks to define the term.
“It is true, no doubt, that Protestantism, strictly viewed, is simply a principle. It is not a policy. It is not an empire, having its fleets and armies, its officers and tribunals, wherewith to extend its dominion and make its authority be obeyed. It is not even a Church with its hierarchies, and synods and edicts; it is simply a principle. But it is the greatest of all principles. It is a creative power. Its plastic influence is all-embracing. It penetrates into the heart and renews the individual. It goes down to the depths and, by its omnipotent but noiseless energy, vivifies and regenerates society. It thus becomes the creator of all that is true, and lovely, and great; the founder of free kingdoms, and the mother of pure churches. The globe itself it claims as a stage not too wide for the manifestation of its beneficent action; and the whole domain of terrestrial affairs it deems a sphere not too vast to fill with its spirit, and rule by its law.”J.A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism, Vol 1, Chapter 1, page 2
Rev. C. A. Salmond, M.A., Edinburgh published a detailed biography of Dr. J. A. Wylie in The Free Church Monthly, August 1, 1890. The Free Encyclopedia also gives a compressed version of his biography. James Aitken Wylie (1808-1890) was a Scottish historian of religion and Presbyterian minister. He was a prolific writer and is most famous for writing The History of Protestantism. He became sub-editor of the Edinburgh Witness in 1846. In 1852, after joining the Free Church of Scotland, Wylie edited their Free Church Record until 1860. He published his book The Papacy: its History, Dogmas, Genius, and Prospects in 1851, winning a prize of a hundred guineas from the Evangelical Alliance. The Protestant Institute appointed him Lecturer on Popery in 1860. He continued in this role until his death in 1890, publishing in 1888 his work The Papacy is the Antichrist. Dr. Wylie continues to establish the concept of the principle of Protestantism. Listen to what he says:
“Whence came this principle? The name Protestantism is very recent: the thing itself is very ancient. The term Protestantism is scarcely older than 300 years. It dates from the Protest which the Lutheran princes gave in to the Diet of Spires in 1529. Restricted to its historical signification, Protestantism is purely negative. It only defines the attitude taken up, at a great historical era, by one party in Christendom with reference to another party. But had this been all, Protestantism would have had no history. Had it been purely negative, it would have begun and ended with the men who assembled at the German town in the year already specified. The new world that has come out of it is the proof that at the bottom of this protest was a great principle which it has pleased Providence to fertilize, and make the seed of those grand, beneficent, and enduring achievements which have made the past three centuries in many respects the most eventful and wonderful in history.” J.A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism, Vol 1, Chapter 1, page 2
The phrase “has pleased providence to fertilize” is indeed descriptive of the blessings that have accompanied the early Protestant movement. Dr. Wylie continues to describe the objective and legacy of that movement.
“The men who handed in this protest did not wish to create a mere void. If they disowned the creed and threw off the yoke of Rome, it was that they might plant a purer faith and restore the government of a higher Law. They replaced the authority of the Infallibility with the authority of the Word of God. The long and dismal obscuration of centuries they dispelled, that the twin stars of liberty and knowledge might shine forth, and that, conscience being unbound, the intellect might awake from its deepsleepiness, and human society, renewing its youth, might, after its halt of a thousand years, resume its march towards its high goal.” J.A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism, Vol 1, Chapter 1, page 2
Finally, Dr. Wylie produces the strongest definition available that clearly identifies the objective of the Protestant movement.
“We repeat our question—Whence came this principle? And we ask our readers to mark well our answer, for it is the key-note to the whole of our vast subject, and places us, at the very outset, at the springs of that long narration on which we are now entering. Protestantism is a principle which has its origin outside human society: it is a Divine graft on the intellectual and moral nature of man, whereby new vitalities and forces are introduced into it, and the human stem yields henceforth a nobler fruit. It is the descent of a heaven-born influence which allies itself with all the instincts and powers of the individual, with all the laws and cravings of society, and which, quickening both the individual and the social being into a new life, and directing their efforts to nobler objects, permits the highest development of which humanity is capable, and the fullest possible accomplishment of all its grand ends. In a word, Protestantism is revived Christianity.” J. A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism, Vol 1, Chapter 1, page 2
Clearly then, Protestantism is not dead. It is held and defended by those who keep the Commandments of God and have the Faith of Jesus.
Cameron A. Bowen
