Library: Christian Studies by Credo Reference: Protestantism

Protestant Terms

Angel: Topic Page
Bodiless, immortal spirit, limited in knowledge and power, accepted in the traditional belief of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and other religions.
Apologetics: Topic Page
Philosophical writings that attempt to refute attacks on the Christian faith. Apologists include St Justin, Origen, St Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Blaise Pascal, and Joseph Butler.
Baptism: Topic Page
Immersion in or sprinkling with water as a religious rite of initiation.
Cross: Topic Page
Widely used symbol. In various forms, it can be found in such diverse cultures as those of ancient India, Egypt, and pre-Columbian North America. It also is found in the megalithic monuments of Western Europe.
Eschatology: Topic Page
Doctrines of the end of time. Christian eschatology concerns the end of this Earth and of time; the resurrection of the dead; the Antichrist; the return of Jesus Christ to overthrow the Antichrist; and the culmination of history with the destruction of this world.
Fasting: Topic Page
The practice of voluntarily going without food. It can be undertaken as a religious observance, a sign of mourning, a political protest (hunger strike), or for slimming purposes.
Free will: Topic Page
The power of making choices without the constraint of fate or some other uncontrollable force, regarded as a human characteristic.
Logos: Topic Page
In Greek and Hebrew metaphysics, the unifying principle of the world. The central idea of the Logos is that it links God and man, hence any system in which the Logos plays a part is monistic.
Predestination: Topic Page
In theology, doctrine that asserts that God predestines from eternity the salvation of certain souls. So-called double predestination, as in Calvinism, is the added assertion that God also foreordains certain souls to damnation.
Religion: Topic Page
A system of thought, feeling, and action that is shared by a group and that gives the members an object of devotion; a code of behavior by which individuals may judge the personal and social consequences of their actions; and a frame of reference by which individuals may relate to their group and their universe.
Resurrection
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Arising again from death to life. The emergence of Jesus from the tomb to live on earth again for 40 days as told in the Gospels has been from the beginning the central fact of Christian experience and a cardinal feature of Christian doctrine.
Satan: Topic Page
Traditional opponent of God and humanity in Judaism and Christianity. In Scripture and literature the role of the opponent is given many names, such as Apolyon, Beelzebub, Semihazah, Azazel, Belial, and Sammael.
Sin: Topic Page
Transgression of the will of God or the gods, as revealed in the moral code laid down by a particular religion.
Soul: Topic Page
The vital, immaterial, life principle, generally conceived as existing within humans and sometimes within all living things, inanimate objects, and the universe as a whole. Religion and philosophy have long been concerned with the nature of the soul in their attempts to understand existence and the meaning of life.
Worship: Topic Page
Adoration and service of God or gods. This service involves reverence, awe, and wonder, and may take many different forms.

Historical Sects

Huguenots: Topic Page
French Protestants, followers of John Calvin. The term is derived from the German Eidgenossen, meaning sworn companions or confederates.
Puritanism
From Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology ‘Puritanism’ is a term used to denote a movement, or movements, within the Anglican Church of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The term was coined in the sixteenth century as a pejorative to refer to those Anglican Protestants who had over-scrupulous consciences in matters of theology and practice
Orange Order: Topic Page
In Northern Ireland, solely Protestant organization founded in County Armagh in 1795 in opposition to the Defenders, a Catholic secret society.
Plymouth Brethren: Topic Page
Group of Christian believers originating in the early 19th cent. in Ireland and spreading from there to the Continent (especially Switzerland), the British dominions, and the United States.
Anabaptists
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Name applied, originally in scorn, to certain Protestant sects holding that infant baptism is not authorized in Scripture and that baptism should be administered to believers only. A convert if baptized in infancy must be baptized again as an adult.

Sects & Divisions

Amish: Topic Page
Member of a Christian group originally based on the Mennonite Church, found today in the USA and Canada. The Amish are distinctive for their adherence to pre-20th-century dress and a simple lifestyle.
Anglican Communion: Topic Page
The body of churches in all parts of the world that are in communion with the Church of England (see England, Church of). The communion is composed of regional churches, provinces, and separate dioceses bound together by mutual loyalty as expressed in the Lambeth Conference of 1930.
Baptists: Topic Page
Denomination of Protestant Christians holding a distinctive belief with regard to the ordinance of baptism. Since 1644 the name has been applied to those who maintain that baptism should be administered to none but believers and that immersion is the only mode of administering baptism indicated in the New Testament.
Church of England: Topic Page
Established form of Christianity in England, a member of the Anglican communion. It was dissociated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 under Henry VIII; the British monarch is still the supreme head of the Church of England today. The service book until November 2000 was the Book of Common Prayer. It is now Common Worship.
Episcopal Church: Topic Page
Anglican church of the United States. Its separate existence as an American ecclesiastical body with its own episcopate began in 1789.
Fundamentalism: Topic Page
In Protestantism, religious movement that arose among conservative members of various Protestant denominations early in the 20th cent., with the object of maintaining traditional interpretations of the Bible and of the doctrines of the Christian faith in the face of Darwinian evolution, secularism, and the emergence of liberal theology.
Lutheranism: Topic Page
Branch of Protestantism that arose as a result of the Reformation, whose religious faith is based on the principles of Martin Luther, although he opposed such a designation.
Mennonites: Topic Page
Descendants of the Dutch and Swiss evangelical Anabaptists of the 16th century.
Methodism
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
The doctrines, polity, and worship of those Protestant Christian denominations that have developed from the movement started in England by the teaching of John Wesley.
Pentecostalism: Topic Page
Worldwide 20th-century Christian movement that emphasizes the experience of Spirit baptism, generally evidenced by speaking in tongues (glossolalia). The name derives from Pentecost, the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks, which falls on the fiftieth day after Passover.
Reformed Church: Topic Page
Protestant denomination founded in colonial times by settlers from the Netherlands and formerly known as the Dutch Reformed Church. The Reformed Church in Holland emerged in the 16th cent., after Calvinism gained influence in the northern provinces of the Netherlands.
Salvation Army: Topic Page
Protestant denomination and international nonsectarian Christian organization for evangelical and philanthropic work.
Seventh-Day Adventist
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Member of the Protestant religious sect of the same name. It originated in the USA in the fervent expectation of Christ's Second Coming, or advent, that swept across New York State following William Miller's prophecy that Christ would return on 22 October 1844.
Presbyterian Church
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
In the United States, the United Presbyterian Church of North America was constituted (1858) by the union of the Associate Presbyterian Church with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.