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e. There are between 800 million and 1 billion Protestants worldwide, [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [a] among approximately 2.5 billion Christians. [10] [1] [11] [12] [b] In 2010, a total of more than 800 million included 300 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 260 million in the Americas, 140 million in Asia-Pacific region, 100 million in Europe ...
Protestant Countries 2024. United States The United States is home to the largest Protestant population in the world with 160 million Protestants. Approximately 20 percent of the world's population of Protestants is in the United States. America has been one of the Protestant countries since the United States was a colony of the British.
- United States (160 million) About 20% (160 million) of the global Protestants are found in the United States. The large number is directly linked to the early settlement of Protestant Europeans, particularly the British when the United States was a British colony.
- Nigeria (60 million) The African state of Nigeria has approximately 85 million Christians, 60 million of who are Protestant - the largest number in Africa.
- China (58 million) The world’s most populous country, China, has approximately 58 million Protestant Christians. Christianity in China is among the fastest growing in the world, and at a 10% annual growth, it is estimated that by 2030, there will be more Christians in China than in the United States.
- Brazil (41 million) The South American state of Brazil has approximately 185 million Christians representing 90% of the country’s population. Of these, 41 million are Protestant Christians.
There are between 800 million and 1 billion Protestants worldwide, among approximately 2.5 billion Christians. In 2010, a total of more than 800 million included 300 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 260 million in the Americas, 140 million in Asia-Pacific region, 100 million in Europe and 2 million in Middle East-North Africa.
- Overview
- Origins of Protestantism
- The context of the late medieval church
Protestantism, Christian religious movement that began in northern Europe in the early 16th century as a reaction to medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices. Along with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism became one of three major forces in Christianity. After a series of European religious wars in the 16th and 17th centu...
The name Protestant first appeared at the Diet of Speyer in 1529, when the Roman Catholic emperor of Germany, Charles V, rescinded the provision of the Diet of Speyer in 1526 that had allowed each ruler to choose whether to administer the Edict of Worms (which banned Martin Luther’s writings and declared him a heretic and an enemy of the state). On April 19, 1529, a protest against this decision was read on behalf of 14 free cities of Germany and six Lutheran princes who declared that the majority decision did not bind them because they were not a party to it and that if forced to choose between obedience to God and obedience to Caesar, they must choose obedience to God. They appealed either to a general council of all Christendom or to a synod of the whole German nation. Those who made this protest became known to their opponents as Protestants, and gradually the label was applied to all who adhered to the tenets of the Reformation, especially to those living outside Germany. In Germany the adherents of the Reformation preferred the name evangelicals and in France Huguenots. The name was attached not only to the disciples of Martin Luther (c. 1483–1546) but also to the Swiss disciples of Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) and later of John Calvin (1509–64). The Swiss reformers and their followers in Holland, England, and Scotland, especially after the 17th century, preferred the name Reformed.
In the 16th century Protestant referred primarily to the two great schools of thought that arose in the Reformation, the Lutheran and the Reformed. In England in the early 17th century, the word was used to denote “orthodox” Protestants as opposed to those who were regarded by Anglicans as unorthodox, such as the Baptists or the Quakers. Roman Catholics, however, used it for all who claimed to be Christian but opposed Catholicism (except the Eastern churches). They therefore included Baptists, Quakers, and Catholic-minded Anglicans under the term. Before the year 1700 this broad usage was accepted, though the word was not yet applied to Unitarians. The English Toleration Act of 1689 was titled “an Act for exempting their Majesties’ Protestant subjects dissenting from the Church of England.” But the act provided only for the toleration of the opinions known in England as “orthodox dissent” and conceded nothing to Unitarians. Throughout the 18th century the word Protestant was still defined in relation to the 16th-century Reformation.
The Protestant Reformation occurred against the background of the rich ferment of the late medieval church and society. It has been difficult for two reasons to gain a proper understanding of the relationship between the late Middle Ages and the Reformation. One reason is the tradition of the sectarian historiography of the period. Catholic historians had an interest in showing how much reform occurred before and apart from the activities of the Protestant reformers of the 16th century. Protestant historians, on the other hand, portrayed the late medieval church in the most negative terms to show the necessity of the Reformation, which was characterized as a movement that broke completely with a corrupt past.
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The second reason for difficulty in understanding the period is that the 15th-century critics of the church were not “Pre-Reformers”; they neither anticipated Protestantism nor acquired their importance from the Reformation. The events of that period were also not “Pre-Reformation” happenings but had an identity and meaning of their own.
The existence of reform efforts in the 15th-century church from Spain and Italy northward through Germany, France, and England has long been acknowledged. Some of these were directed against abuses by the papacy, the clergy, and monks and nuns. The pious, for example, abhorred Pope Innocent VIII (1484–92), who performed marriage ceremonies for his own illegitimate children in the Vatican, and Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), who bribed his way to the throne of St. Peter and had fathered eight children by three women by the time he became pope. The public was also increasingly aware of and angered by extravagant papal projects—patronage of art and architecture, wars of conquest—for which funds were exacted from the faithful.
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They are divided into numerous independent churches that are not subject to the Pope. With about 900 million Protestants, they form the second largest grouping within Christianity. The Protestant churches and denominations include above all: Lutherans; Reformed (Calvinists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, etc.) Adventists
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes justification by God through faith alone, the teaching that salvation comes by unmerited divine grace, the priesthood of all believers, and the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice.
