church reform
Transforming sacred institutions
Church reform refers to movements or efforts to change religious institutions, particularly Christian churches, addressing perceived corruption, doctrine, or practice.
Historical examples include the Protestant Reformation and various Catholic reform councils.
The term applies both to organized movements the church reform movement of the sixteenth century and ongoing institutional change calls for church reform on issues of governance.
- religious schismDivision within a faith
- schismFormal organizational fracture
- synodChurch governing assembly
- heresyBelief opposing official doctrine
- hierarchyRanked authority structure
papal authority · orthodoxy · ecumenism · liturgy · canon law · indulgences · Diet of Worms · evangelism · reformer · Martin Luther · council · dogma · clergy · theologian · theses · creed · Protestant · papacy
- Lateran Councilstransubstantiation
- ReformationMartin Luther, John Calvin, 95 Theses, Protestant Reformation, Luther
- German ReformationMartin Luther, Protestant Reformation, Wittenberg, theses, indulgences
- Medieval English ChurchCanterbury, York, abbeys, priories, dioceses
- Catholic Actionlaity, lay leaders, Knights of Columbus, Pax Romana, parish councils
- Counter-ReformationCouncil of Trent, Counter-Reformation, Jesuits, Society of Jesus, Ignatius Loyola
church reformCounter-Reformation
Church's internal reform movement
church tradition · religious conservatism · papal supremacy · religious fundamentalism
church reformdisestablishment
Withdrawal of official status
civil authority · secularization · civil government · political reform · separation of church and state
church reformclerical abuse
Wrongdoing by religious officials
simony · institutional decay · nepotism · moral decline · abuse of office