Whether you are yourself a Protestant, or even a Christian, you live in a world, and are guided by principles and ideas, shaped by Protestants. Protestants created America and defined its special brand of entrepreneurial diligence. They are resourceful innovators and are making new converts every day in China, Africa, and Latin America. Protestants have set out for all four corners of the globe, embarking on courageous journeys into the unknown to set up new communities and experiment with new systems of government. What unites them all is a passion for God and a vital belief in the principle of self-determination. Protestants have also fought among themselves. If you look at any of the great confrontations of the last five centuries, you will find Protestants defining the debate on both sides.

Above all, they were willing to fight for their beliefs. Some turned to their newly accessible bibles to justify bold acts of political opposition, others to support a new understanding of who they were and what they could and should do. The Civil War as a Theological Crisis (Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War Era) by Noll Paperback. Protestants introduces us to the men and women who defined and redefined this quarrelsome faith. Sold by Everlasting Dream and ships from Amazon Fulfillment. In this engrossing and magisterial work, Alec Ryrie makes the case that whether or not you are yourself a Protestant, you live in a world shaped by Protestants.In this dazzling global history that charts five centuries of innovation and change, Alec Ryrie makes the case that Protestants made the modern world. Above all Protestants have fought for their beliefs, establishing a tradition of principled opposition and civil disobedience that is as alive today as it was 500 years ago. Some turned to their bibles to justify bold acts of political opposition, others to spurn orthodoxies and insight on their God-given rights. In this dazzling history, Alec Ryrie makes the case that we owe many of the rights and freedoms we have cause to take for granted-from free speech to limited government-to our Protestant roots.įired up by their faith, Protestants have embarked on courageous journeys into the unknown like many rebels and refugees who made their way to our shores. The revolution he set in motion toppled governments, upended social norms and transformed millions of people's understanding of their relationship with God. –Jon Meacham, author of American Lion and Thomas Jeffersonįive hundred years ago a stubborn German monk challenged the Pope with a radical vision of what Christianity could be. 'Ryrie writes that his aim 'is to persuade you that we cannot understand the modern age without understanding the dynamic history of Protestant Christianity.' To which I reply: Mission accomplished.' On the 500th anniversary of Luther’s theses, a landmark history of the revolutionary faith that shaped the modern world.

Protestants by alec ryrie