Protestantism, by virtue of its general decentralization and its more liberal disposition in regards theological disputes, has been accused of having so many denominations as to be beyond count. The truth of the matter, however, is that there is one meaningful distinction that divides Protestant churches in a way that greatly influences the way they move forward in reforming the Universal Church.
That question is if they are Restorationist or Catholike.
No, its not a spelling error. When the Reformers were writing, and shortly thereafter, the name Catholike (Distinguished from the Roman Catholics) was one they claimed. The great Reformed Anglican Puritan writer William Perkins titled one of his seminal works A Reformed Catholike, in which he explained where the faith of the Reformed differed from the Roman church. Similarly, most early Protestant writers would refer to the Roman Church and Romanism, refusing to utter the name catholic alongside it.
When reading these men, there is a clear emphasis on a catholic faith stretching back through church history, which, while being corrupted over time, was nonetheless something to be called back upon. The Reformed Catholikes proudly confessed the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, and read the church fathers extensively. John Calvin would write of Augustine
“Augustine is so wholly within me, that if I wished to write a confession of my faith, I could do so with all fullness and satisfaction to myself out of his writings. 1
This faction of Protestantism was Protestant because they held to the catholic faith, and sought to defend it against Roman usurpation and corruption. Out of this faction would come the Anglican Church, the Presbyterians, the Huguenots, the Dutch Reformed, the Lutherans, the Continental Reformed Churches, and to a lesser degree the Congregationalists and Methodists.
Now we must deal with the other faction, that being the Restorationists. In the early days of the Reformation they are chiefly represented by the Anabaptists, a group that felt well within their rights to commit all sorts of outrages that their city of Munster. They would eventually be sieged by the local Roman Catholic prince, with the full support of the local Lutherans, whom the Anabaptists believed to still be too Romish. In Europe, the relationship between Catholike Protestants and Restorationist Protestans was extremely acrimonious, with William Perkins writing
“As for the assemblies of Anabaptists, Libertines, Antinomians, Tritheists, Arians, Samosatenians, they are no churches of God, but conspiracies of monstrous heretics judicially condemned in the primitive church, and again by the malice of Satan renewed and revived in this age.”2
The Anabaptists would be largely crushed in Europe, but the spirit of Restorationism was still deep within Protestantism and would come forth in many different iterations. The belief of the Restorationists is that the church had so early and grievously erred that they was starting more or less from scratch, save for the Bible. In Europe, this view was the minority and was generally repressed. However, in the Americas, it was not so.
Restorationist groups included the Unitarians, whose bloodless revolution unseated the Puritan stronghold of New England, thereby dispensing with Calvinism, Trinitarianism, and much of classical Christianity. The Quakers, too, would find refuge in the Americas under Royal protection, as they dispensed with Baptism and Communion.3 The Baptists of early Rhode Island also had this impulse, to a lesser degree, in their refusal to baptize covenant children. These groups began as the minority, but they were just the beginning.
As America grew, the old Catholike denominations like the Anglicans and Presbyterians, hamstrung by their insistence that ministers attend seminary, gave way to the Methodists, the Baptists, the Adventists, and the Mormons. It was these groups that would have their way in the American Frontier, with the exception of the Lutherans.
America is thus a curious study, being the great project of both sides of Protestantism, but being largely dominated by Restorationism. There are factors that made this eventuality predictable, but it nonetheless serves to explain why America’s Protestantism is so thoroughly low church compared to its European counterparts. Having said that, Catholike Protestants have been in America from the beginning and are also largely influence and present for all of American history, even as Restorationism colors them.
Restorationism has the unfortunate result of eating a lot of historic Christianity, but it has also been an extremely potent force. For all its negatives, the virile American Christianity that survives today in great numbers is undeniably Restorationist in flavor, and the sincere belief of its Evangelical adherents makes the princes of Tri-Faith America squirm.
Calvin, John. A Treatise on the Eternal Predestination of God. in Calvin, John (1987). Calvin's Calvinism. Translated by Henry Cole. Grandville, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association. p. 38.
Perkins, William. An Exposition of the Apostles Creed. 1595.
Underhill, Thomas. Hell Broke Loose, or, An History of the Quakers both Old and New. Setting forth many of Their Opinions and Practices. Published to antidote Christians against Formality in Religion and Apostasie (London, Printed for T. V. and Simon Miller in St. Paul’s Churchyard, 1660), p. 30.
This is a really nice breakdown. So often Protestants are all lumped up together. No thanks to more modern mixing from the restorationists. Do you have personal ideas of which inter-denominations best represent the Anglican, Lutheran, and Presbyterian descendants? I feel like OPC for the Pres, Lutheran would probably be Wisconsin (Missouri is showing some undesirableness), and certain Continuing Anglican groups.
I would not even consider the Anabaptists Protestant, because their rejection of two-kingdoms ecclesiology and political theology put them closer to popery in that respect. This difference (and affinity to Romish theology) was observed by the Protestant divines.