Presbyterianism Essay, Research Paper

The full Protestant reformation began with the work of Martin Luther, a German monastic who had inquiries about the Roman Catholic Church. He asked a

priest about his jobs and the priest told him to look for the reply

within the bible. Martin Luther looked in the bible and realized all the

problems that were traveling on in the Church. Knowing its jobs Luther

nailed a papers with the jobs entitled the 95 Thesiss. His papers

started the whole Protestant reformation.

There were many people who contributed to the reformation. John Calvin was one of these subscribers. Calvin was raised as a humanist and believed

that people, the person, and non simply the male monarchs and bishops, should

hold a portion in political and spiritual policy devising. Calvin was

responsible for the form of church authorities known as Presbyterianism.

Calvin believed in the absolute sovereignty of God and he denied that homo

existences were capable of free will, and he elaborated a philosophy of

predestination that God elects certain people to salvation, while rejecting

others and consigning them to ageless damnation. ( isoa.net ) Presbyterianism

organized a distinguishable church authorities independent of civil authorities, in

order to let church functionaries to work for societal reform. ( thinkquest.org )

Presbyterianism, itself, is a system of faith and political relations. It is a

system of church authorities by presbyteries of curates and seniors. No

higher rank than that of presbyter or senior was recognized, and all seniors

were ecclesiastically of equal rank. Each Presbyterian fold was

governed by its session of seniors, each session was subsidiary to

provincial presbyteries, and these were, in their bend, subsidiary to the

General Assembly of the Church. ( brown.edu ) In Presbyterianism the oldest

people in the fold held the highest rank. The thought of

Presbyterianism spread with the find of new land and more people

desiring to hold freedom of faith.

The First American Presbyterian churches were founded by English settlers

on Long Island, New York, and in New England during the 1640s. Four major

divisions have occurred in American Presbyterianism. The first arose during

the 1740 s over the resurgence of the first Great Awakening ; the 2nd

occurred during the 1830 s due to slavery in the United States, theological

issues, and the behavior of missional work ; the 3rd took topographic point in 1861

because of the American Civil War ; and the 4th was during the 1920s and

1930s at the extremum of the contention between fundamentalism and

modernism. ( isoa.net )

Presbyterian churches were non like the Roman Catholic Church in the sense of Holy Eucharist. The Roman Catholic Church was really rigorous with its services.

Presbyterian worship has ever allowed for considerable flexibleness in

signifiers and patterns, but it is based on Calvin & # 8217 ; s definition of the indispensable

features of the church being the faithful announcement of the Gospel

and the jubilation of the sacraments. In the United States accent was

originally placed on the discourse as the centre of worship ; Holy Eucharist was

practically absent, and the Lord & # 8217 ; s Supper was celebrated merely on occasion.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s services began to include a greater

usage of Holy Eucharist and a more regular jubilation of the Lord & # 8217 ; s

Supper ( isoa.net ) .