Restorationism

==Protestant Reformation==
[[File:Ulrich-Zwingli-1.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Huldrych Zwingli as depicted by [[Hans Asper]] in an oil portrait from 1531; [[Kunstmuseum Winterthur]].]]
{{Main|Protestant Reformation|Radical Reformation}}

The Protestant Reformation came about through an impulse to repair the Church and return it to what the reformers saw as its original biblical structure, belief, and practice,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/REFORM/LUTHER.HTM | author=Richard Hooker | title=Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian | access-date=2007-03-08 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070323001317/http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/REFORM/LUTHER.HTM | archive-date=2007-03-23 }}</ref> and was motivated by a sense that "the medieval church had allowed its traditions to clutter the way to God with fees and human regulations and thus to subvert the gospel of Christ."<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988">C. Leonard Allen and Richard T. Hughes, "Discovering Our Roots: The Ancestry of the Churches of Christ," Abilene Christian University Press, 1988, {{ISBN|0-89112-006-8}}</ref>{{Rp|21}} At the heart of the Reformation was an emphasis on the principle of "scripture alone" ([[sola scriptura]]).<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|22–23}}  As a result, the authority of church tradition, which had taken practical precedence over scripture, was rejected.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|22}} The Reformation was not a monolithic movement, but consisted of at least three identifiable sub-currents.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|21}}  One was centered in [[Germany]], one was centered in [[Reformation in Switzerland|Switzerland]], and the third was centered in [[English Reformation|England]].<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|21}}  While these movements shared some common concerns, each had its own particular emphasis.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|21}}

The [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] approach can be described as one of "reformation," seeking "to reform and purify the historic, institutional church while at the same time preserving as much of the tradition as possible."<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|21}} The [[Lutheran Church]]es traditionally sees themselves as the "main trunk of the historical Christian Tree" founded by Christ and the Apostles, holding that during the Reformation, at the [[Council of Trent]], the [[Holy See|Church of Rome]] fell away.<ref name="Remensnyder1893">{{cite book |author1=Junius Benjamin Remensnyder |title=The Lutheran Manual |date=1893 |publisher=Boschen & Wefer Company |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rWA3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA12 |language=English}}</ref><ref name="Frey1918">{{cite book|last=Frey|first=H.|title=Is One Church as Good as Another?|volume=37|year=1918|publisher=[[The Lutheran Witness]]|language=English|pages=82–83}}</ref> As such, the [[Augsburg Confession]], the Lutheran confession of faith, teaches that "the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church".<ref name="Ludwig2016">{{cite magazine|title=Luther's Catholic Reformation|last=Ludwig|first=Alan|date=12 September 2016|magazine=[[The Lutheran Witness]]|language=en|quote=When the Lutherans presented the ''Augsburg Confession'' before Emperor Charles V in 1530, they carefully showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils and even the canon law of the Church of Rome. They boldly claim, "This is about the Sum of our Doctrine, in which, as can be seen, there is nothing that varies from the Scriptures, or from the Church Catholic, or from the Church of Rome as known from its writers" (AC XXI Conclusion 1). The underlying thesis of the ''Augsburg Confession'' is that the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church. In fact, it is actually the Church of Rome that has departed from the ancient faith and practice of the catholic church (see AC XXIII 13, XXVIII 72 and other places).}}</ref> When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession to [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]], they explained "that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils".<ref name="Ludwig2016"/>

In contrast, the [[Reformed churches|Reformed]] approach can be described as one of "restoration," seeking "to restore the essence and form of the primitive church based on biblical precedent and example; tradition received scant respect."<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|21}} While [[Martin Luther|Luther]] focused on the question "How can we find forgiveness of sins?", the early Reformed theologians turned to the [[Bible]] for patterns that could be used to replace traditional forms and practices.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|24}} [[Heinrich Bullinger]] and [[Martin Bucer]] in particular emphasized the restoration of biblical patterns.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|29–31}} [[John Calvin]] reflected an intermediate position between that of Luther and Reformed theologians such as [[Huldrych Zwingli|Zwingli]], stressing biblical precedents for church governance, but as a tool to more effectively proclaim the [[gospel]] rather than as ends in themselves.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|291,22}}

Luther opposed efforts to restore "biblical forms and structures,"<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|112}} because he saw human efforts to restore the church as works righteousness.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Models of Restoration"/>{{Rp|638}}  He did seek the "marks of the true church," but was concerned that by focusing on forms and patterns could lead to the belief that by "restoring outward forms alone one has restored the essence."<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|117}} Thus, Luther believed that restoring the gospel was the first step in renewing the church, rather than restoring biblical forms and patterns.<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|118}}  In this sense, Luther can be described as a gospel restorationist, even though his approach was very different from that of other restorationists.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Models of Restoration"/>{{Rp|638}}<ref name="Allen & Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|121}}

Protestant groups have generally accepted history as having some "jurisdiction" in Christian faith and life; the question has been the extent of that jurisdiction.<ref name="Hughes 1988">Richard T. Hughes (editor), ''The American Quest for the Primitive Church'', [[University of Illinois Press]], 1988, 292 pages, {{ISBN|0-252-06029-6}}</ref>{{Rp|5}} A commitment to history and primitivism are not mutually exclusive; while some groups attempt to give full jurisdiction to the primitive church, for others the [[Apostolic Age|apostolic]] "first times" are given only partial jurisdiction.<ref name="Hughes 1988"/>{{Rp|5,6}}

===Church of England and Caroline Divines===

Perhaps the most primitivist minded of the Protestant Reformation era were a group of scholars within the Church of England known as the Caroline Divines, who flourished in the 1600s during the reigns of [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] and [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]. They regularly appealed to the Primitive Church as the basis for their reforms.<ref name="McIlhiney 1975 143–154">{{Cite journal |last=McIlhiney |first=David B. |date=1975 |title=The Protestantism of the Caroline Divines |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42974662 |journal=Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=143–154 |jstor=42974662 |issn=0018-2486}}</ref> Unlike many other Christian Primitivists, the Church of the England and the Caroline Divines did not subject Scriptural interpretation to individual human reason, but rather to the hermeneutical consensus of the Church Fathers, holding to the doctrine of Prima Scriptura as opposed to Sola Scriptura.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Doll |first=Peter |date=1996 |title=The Idea of the Primitive Church in High Church Ecclesiology from Samuel Johnson to J.H. Hobart |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42611756 |journal=Anglican and Episcopal History |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=6–43 |jstor=42611756 |issn=0896-8039}}</ref> Furthermore, they did not hold to the separatist ecclesiology of many primitivist groups, but rather saw themselves as working within the historic established church to return it to its foundation in Scripture and the patristic tradition.<ref name="McIlhiney 1975 143–154"/> Among the Caroline Divines were men like Archbishop William Laud, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, Deacon Nicholas Ferrar and the Little Gidding Community and others.