THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION: RELIGIOUS INTERPRETIVE AUTHORITY AND THE TRANSITION TO MODERNITY

Abstract

This academic article analyses the Protestant Reformation through the dimension of authority over the exposition of doctrine and the definition of belief, which had formerly belonged to the Church. The author asks how that authority changed, and how the change bears on Europe's entry into the modern world. Drawing on historical documents and relevant scholarship, the study analyses the movement led by Martin Luther through the question of who holds the right to determine the meaning of sin, repentance, absolution, and salvation.
It finds that Luther's objection began with the sale of indulgences and then widened into a challenge to the Roman Catholic Church's monopoly over the interpretation of Scripture. Protestants held Scripture to be the supreme standard against which teaching must be tested, yet those who expounded that standard were the theologians and the Protestant churches, while the party that determined which exposition would hold force was the territorial state.
This shift relates to three features of early modern Europe: territorial rulers took a greater role in determining religion and ordering society; vernacular translation of the Bible together with the printing press broadened reading and textual scrutiny; and the emergence of multiple churches produced religious diversity. Although this diversity gave rise to conflict and religious war, in the longer term it pressed European society to seek a framework for living together. The Protestant Reformation was therefore one of the conditions under which the relationship between religion, the state, knowledge, and the believer was transformed, alongside Europe's entry into the early modern world. The Reformation did not bring religious authority to an end. Part of that authority passed to the Protestant churches, and part became bound up with the territorial state. The author proposes a comparative study of Buddhism in Thai society, and a study of communication technology and interpretive authority, comparing the printing press with social media