Religion During the Renaissance During the Renaissance, people increasingly began to see the world from a human-centered perspective. This had a powerful impact upon religion. Increasingly, people were paying more attention to this life rather than the afterlife.

Christian Humanism was a Renaissance movement that combined a revived interest in the nature of humanity with the Christian faith. It impacted art, changed the focus of religious scholarship, shaped personal spirituality, and helped encourage the Protestant Reformation.

Obvious cases include the Protestant Reformation, the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), the confrontation with the Ottoman Empire, and the development of a transatlantic vs. a Mediterranean economy, but Renaissance culture as a whole was permeated by violence, competition, invectives, and vehement debates of all sorts.

William Tyndale used Erasmus’ 1522 edition of the Greek text when he made the first translation of the New Testament into English.

The primary texts for the Renaissance were the works of Greek and Roman writers. For the Reformation, however, only one text mattered: the Bible. All the major Protestant Reformers from Luther on insisted on translating the Bible into the language of the common people.

In A.D. 301-304, the Roman Emperor Diocletian burned thousands of copies of the Bible, commanded that all Bibles be destroyed and decreed that any home with a Bible in it should be burned.

Martin Luther

lutheranism was the first protestant faith.

Other Protestantism Many Protestants consider intercessory prayers to the saints to be idolatry, since an application of divine worship that should be given only to God himself is being given to other believers, dead or alive. Within some Protestant traditions, “saint” is also used to refer to any born-again Christian.

Major Protestant Reformers, wishing to reaffirm the unique mediatory role of Jesus Christ, denied the intercessory role of the saints and viewed the communion of saints as all believers in Christ.

Protestants do not believe in Purgatory. Some Protestants believe there is no such place as Hell, only levels of Heaven. Some Evangelical Protestants believe in the resurrection of the body and the idea that everyone will be raised on the Day of Judgement to be judged by God.

A. Protestants do not use the rosary or prayer beads because the Bible says to not do vain repetition.

Thomas Thompson cites protestant views on the Apostolic letter on the Rosary. The three voices quoted hereafter highlight the importance of rediscovering the rosary for all Christians. The rosary leads into the mystery of God; the Luminous Mysteries, more specifically, are a spiritual pathway into God’s own light.