Reclaiming Apostolic Humility: The Roots of Protestant Reform
Although Christian doctrine by its very nature exalts humility, its ideals often diverged from the practical life of church institutions, which provided the grounds for the emergence of Protestant movements. Protestants, first and foremost, saw in the Catholic tradition deviations from the original, apostolic faith. They argued that it was precisely through the process of "layering" church practices and the accumulation of formal rituals that the essence of true humility intrinsic to Christianity was lost. In this context, Protestantism was conceived as a return to the genuine foundation of faith, to apostolic Christianity which, according to the reformers, better reflected the call for sincere inner truth and an understanding of one’s place.Thus, despite the fact that the doctrine of humility occupies a central place in Christian ethics, the historical development of the Catholic Church led to the emergence of practices and structures which, in the eyes of Protestant reformers, contradicted these ideals. The Reformation became a reaction against the observable discrepancies between professed Christian values and the actual life of the church, thereby explaining the rise of Protestant movements.Supporting citation(s):"Furthermore, Protestantism was motivated at its inception and continues to take pride in the fact that, by perceiving undeniable distortions of apostolic Christianity in Catholicism, it sought to return precisely to the latter and eliminate all subsequent layers and ancillary deviations." (source: link txt)"What, then, is Christian humility? First of all, it is, of course, a sense of truth – primarily the truth about oneself. Truth, however, never belittles or diminishes; it uplifts and purifies... Humility is ultimately an understanding of one’s place, of one’s abilities and limitations..." (source: link txt)