The Protestant Revolution

A four part series on BBC 4 that charts the history of the protestant faith and its effects, till the modern day.

The Protestant Revolution - Part 1: The Politics of Belief

The Protestant Revolution - Part 2: The Godly Family

The Protestant Revolution Part 3: A Reformation of the Mind

The Protestant Revolution - Part 4: No Rest for the Wicked

Though it tells the history of Protestantism but I see much resemblance between the revolution in their faith and departure from Catholicism and the impact of Islam in Europe. Islam preached the religion with no icons and protestants became the iconoclasts when they destroyed all icon and idol from catholic churches. Islam started in the 7th century while Protestantism is a phenomena of the 16th and 17th century. Islam had spread to Europe in its first 200 years and started to have impact on their societies though indirectly because Europe was being protected by the papacy and the holy wars a.k.a the crusades were taking place. Still I cannot ignore the fact that in the next ten centuries Islam did not have the influence to spark off this revolution?

Christianity was marred by papacy with the pope being a God appointed guide and responsible for the religion. The church could only interpret what the word of God was, ordinary people were even forbidden to read the book. Ordinary people were not worthy of interacting directly with God, rather the priest was their way to Him. The church offered salvation rather than God. This was everything that Islam broke down and created an egalitarian religion where everyone had the right to read the book. Everyone could interact directly with God and achieve salvation through good actions rather than blessing of some priest. There was no God appointed pope in Islam.

This is a great documentary as far as it traces the origin and impact of Protestantism but someone should make a documentary that links the arrival of Muslims in Europe and their impact, which I believe infused these familiar ideas in them.