Martin Luther and John Calvin in the Reformation essays

Martin Luther and John Calvin in the Reformation essays The Lutheran and Calvinist Reformations are very similar in principle. Martin Luther and John Calvin hold that not mere abuses of the Roman Catholic Church need correcting, but that the Catholic Church itself is wrong in principle. I will discuss the platforms from which religious revolutionaries Luther and Calvin stand in church reform as well as the tendency of women to agree with the reforms during 16th-century European religion. Luther's cause for reformation comes from the unnatural paranoia that he is eternally damned because he has problems convincing himself that his spirit is pure enough for heaven. His internal distress rages within him about the omnipotence of God, his own insignificant existence in comparison, and his apprehensiveness of the devil. His personal problems do not yield to the existing manners of assuring oneself that he is headed for heavens such as sacraments, alms, prayer attendance at Mass, and assorted "good works." Luther solves this problem, however, b y believing that good works are the consequence and external evidence of inner grace, but in no way the cause of this grace. He feels that if one has faith in themselves, the religion, and God, then good works will manifest themselves because of it. This is Luther's doctrine of justification by faith. John Calvin's religiousness is a result of acquiring a fresh insight into the meaning of Christianity, also known as a conversion experience, whereby he joined forces with the religious revolutionaries of whom the best known was then Luther. His book, Institutes of the Christian Religion, appeals to human reason itself in that if one is dissatisfied with the Roman church, they can find an idea that would most appropriately fit their beliefs or the situation they are in. Placing much of the textual emphasis on the concept of predestination, Hans J. Hillerbrand says about the Institutes, "Calvin believed that it was a biblical doctrine and he went to consider...