Protestantism’s influence in the modern world

Influence on nationalism

Protestantism eventually became the majority faith throughout northwestern Europe and in England and English-speaking America. In the 19th century, missionaries from those areas spread Protestantism throughout the world, establishing, with Roman Catholicism, a presence in Asia and Africa and in largely Catholic Latin America. It is impossible to separate Protestantism from the general history of the North Atlantic nations, especially those in North America, where it was firmly established for centuries and where its churches still play important roles.

Protestantism’s influence on modern nationalism began with its contribution to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, which finally collapsed in 1806. The old corpus Christianum (“Christian body”; i.e., Christian society) did not survive; the presence of Protestantism, which was organized along national lines, spelled doom for the idea of an international, transterritorial unified Christianity under one head. Protestantism’s desire to cultivate literacy and to spread regard for the vernacular served to remove the Latin linguistic bond of older Christendom and to encourage the rise of national boundaries based on languages. All but the radicals valued loyalty to the state, and Protestants often provided an ideological base for each new state as it rose to self-consciousness—as was the case in Prussia and in the United States.

Influence on the arts

Protestant attitudes toward the arts have been ambivalent. For the most part, Reformed Protestants have been uneasy about the arts, fearing that the symbol would be confused with the reality and that the symbol would be idolized and the reality forgotten. Thus Calvin and Zwingli found little room for the visual arts, though Luther showed interest and was a friend of some artists of his time, including Lucas Cranach. Luther also approved of music more than did the Swiss Reformers, though most Protestants encouraged its use. Protestants cite artists such as poet John Milton, painter Rembrandt, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach to demonstrate Protestant aesthetic achievement. What can be called the Protestant “mind” or “spirit” was especially prevalent in music and literature.

Ecumenical concerns

While Protestantism allowed for great variety, not all Protestants were content with division and separation. They were caught between two biblical mandates. One commanded them to seek the truth and reject fellowship with those in error. The other stressed Christian unity as part of the mission of the church (specifically through being witness to one’s faith) and as a foretaste of the eschatological, or fulfilled, life of Christians. The ferment of the 16th century and the doctrinal formulations of the 17th century led to ever-increasing divisions. The 18th-century Enlightenment—which in its British and German forms criticized Protestantism just as its French forms denounced Roman Catholicism—promoted a spirit of consensus. The Enlightenment claimed to value toleration of differences, and its advocates worked for agreement on doctrines based on reason and natural law. Such a tendency inevitably served to minimize doctrinal differences among Protestants.

In the 20th century, however, there was more effort toward producing consensus than in the previous three and a half centuries. The modern ecumenical movement—today thoroughly Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox in its outlook—was initiated and institutionalized on Protestant soil by those who had seen the mission of the church frustrated by competition and division. Beleaguered, huddled together like sheep in a storm, to use a familiar picture, they sought each other’s company.

At the same time, modern transportation and communication techniques effectively reduced the world and made unification of symbols accessible. A new vision of common tasks produced a Protestantism eager for a common statement of belief and often for common action. The ecumenical movement has led to denominational mergers and to conciliar organizations, on both confessional and transconfessional lines.

In the meantime, the growing openness of Roman Catholicism, particularly exemplified in the career of Pope John XXIII (1958–63) and Pope John Paul II (1978–2005), led to new amity and concord between Protestants and Roman Catholics. In the last third of the 20th century both of the old warring parties, without formally repudiating their positions of the 16th century, moved beyond polemic to find common ground. Catholic biblical commentators now speak in what sounds much like Protestant terms of grace and faith. Protestants have a new appreciation for the Roman Catholic view of the interconnectedness of the components of the church. Increasingly, Protestants view the Scriptures as rooted in a tradition and tradition as rooted in the Scriptures. Thus they have a new sympathy for Catholic views of tradition—even as some Catholics criticize unreflective responses to ecclesiastical authority in their own communion. Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians, generally spatially quite separated, have begun to understand each other through agencies and organizations such as the World Council of Churches.

Conclusion

In the latter half of the 20th century many heirs of Protestantism, among them the philosophical theologian Paul Tillich, spoke of “the end of the Protestant era” or of the times as being “post-Protestant.” This does not mean that Protestants wavered in their faith. Tillich, for one, argued that “the Protestant principle” of prophetic criticism had to be included in any authentic expression of church life and that it was a genuine value in the secular world. But these thinkers also believed that the cultural dominance of Protestantism on its own historical soil was waning.

From its origins to the present day, Protestantism has faced numerous challenges. Following the sectarian disputes of the 17th century and the challenge of reason in the 18th, the rise of industrialism and urbanization in the 19th century presented new problems to societies and cultures shaped by traditional Protestantism. Totalitarian forces, particularly in Nazi Germany, absorbed some Protestant emphases and changed them beyond recognition, or they persecuted those Protestants who radically opposed suppression. In the latter part of the 20th century some representatives of mainstream Protestantism became uncertain about its “foreign mission” of expansion in a postcolonialist, anti-imperialist world. The modern appreciation for values in non-Christian religions has led many Protestants to adopt positive attitudes toward these at the expense of the desire to displace them with an expanding Protestantism.

The attractions of modern life, secularization, and a crisis of faith have contributed to a general Christian decline, beginning with a measurable decrease in church membership, first on the European continent in the 19th century and then in England about the turn of the 20th century. Protestantism was not exempt from this phenomenon and was, perhaps, even more severely affected by it. Therefore, while huge majorities of the population are baptized members of established Protestant churches, only a small percentage attend worship services or accept the mandates of the church. The decline in church attendance, the failure of Protestant dogma to continue to define belief, and the lack of excitement among Westerners over divisions among Protestant churches are why some observers have posited the end of the Protestant era.

On the other hand, Protestantism is so deeply integrated into so many elements of Western culture that it can be expected to continue to assert subtle influence. It has experienced revival and decline periodically and now may be going through an extended period of decline. Yet even to speak in these terms betrays a Western provincialism that does not do justice to major trends. Countering all phenomena that provoke discussion of decline are at least two forces. One is the strength of conservative and evangelistic forms of Protestantism: Pentecostalism, Evangelicalism, and Fundamentalism. While historical antecedents of these movements were often world-denying, sectarian, and withdrawn, late 20th-century versions included men and women eager to shape their surrounding culture.

The other compensatory force is the growth of Protestantism in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and many parts of Asia. Some of these new Protestant churches have incorporated traditional indigenous beliefs and practices that have transformed the Protestantism of the missionaries and the European and American churches.