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Portal:Reformed Christianity

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Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congregational traditions, as well as parts of the Anglican (known as "Episcopal" in some regions) and Baptist traditions.

Reformed theology emphasizes the authority of the Bible and the sovereignty of God, as well as covenant theology, a framework for understanding the Bible based on God's covenants with people. Reformed churches have emphasized simplicity in worship. Several forms of ecclesiastical polity are exercised by Reformed churches, including presbyterian, congregational, and some episcopal. Articulated by John Calvin, the Reformed faith holds to a spiritual (pneumatic) presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper.

Emerging in the 16th century, the Reformed tradition developed over several generations, especially in Switzerland, Scotland and the Netherlands. In the 17th century, Jacobus Arminius and the Remonstrants were expelled from the Dutch Reformed Church over disputes regarding predestination and salvation, and from that time Arminians are usually considered to be a distinct tradition from the Reformed. This dispute produced the Canons of Dort, the basis for the "doctrines of grace" also known as the "five points" of Calvinism. (Full article...)

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Scottish religion in the seventeenth century includes all forms of religious organisation and belief in the Kingdom of Scotland in the seventeenth century. During the sixteenth century, Scotland had undergone a Protestant Reformation that created a predominately Calvinist national kirk, which was strongly Presbyterian in outlook. James VI favoured doctrinal Calvinism, but also episcopacy. His son Charles I authorised a book of canons that made him head of the Church and enforced the use of a new liturgy, seen as an English-style Prayer Book. In the resulting rebellion the Scottish bishops were formally expelled from the Church and representatives of various sections of Scottish society drew up the National Covenant. In the subsequent Bishop's Wars the Scottish Covenanters emerged as virtually independent rulers. Charles I's failure led indirectly to the English Civil War (1642–1646). The Covenanters intervened on the side of Parliament, who were victorious, but became increasingly alienated from the Parliamentary regime. The Scottish defeats in the subsequent Second and Third civil wars, led to English occupation and incorporation in a Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland led by Oliver Cromwell from 1652 and the imposition of religious toleration for Protestants. The Scottish Covenanters divided into parties of Resolutioners and Protesters.

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