Thursday, 11 September 2014

Luther and Gutenberg

I often point out little bits of American history which aren't discussed much.  Pennsylvania, in the beginning, was a melting pot of various radical religious groups which packed up and left England, Germany and the Netherlands, in search of a free place to operate and pray along their own lines.

Some of the original groups?  Schwenkfelders, Tunkers, Labadists, New Born, New Mooners, Separatists, Zion's Brueder, Ronsdorfer, Inspired, Quietists, Gichtelians, Deprellians, Mountain Men, River Brethren, Brinser Brethren, and the Society of the Women in the Wilderness.

Why this wide spread division of Christianity that divides over and over?

This generally goes back to Europe's period of history from 1525 to the mid-1700s.  With Martin Luther's standing against the Catholic Church (the dominating force of life and society up until 1525), and Gutenberg's printing press....this vast door opened for the Bible (not Christianity itself).

Once the Bible has relieved from the Catholic Church, and translated from Latin to various languages.....Gutenberg's printing press accomplished a mythical transformation.....bringing these new interpretations to every single village.  With literacy hanging around 3-percent prior to can watch the next two-hundred years as an impact period.....villages and towns set up schools and put mass education as a priority.

The driving force for mass education?  Gutenberg's publications.

People began reading the Bible in various translations and came to different meanings and interpretations.  Prophets appeared out of thin air, and religious movements started to become common.  All of this kinda scared the Catholic Church, which mounted various conflicts (The Thirty Years War was the last of the episode on the Continent).

The settling of America in the 1600s?  It all goes back to Martin Luther and Gutenberg.  The necessity of religious freedom being written into the Constitution?  Back to Luther and Gutenberg.  The wide arena of various religious groups in existence today in America?  Back to Luther and Gutenberg.