The Prostitution of Protestantism

Schaf decries the multiplication of denominations and sects in Christendom and insists that this is not inherent in the Protestant principle: “If such were the fact, the Reformation must stand in direct contradiction to the holy scriptures, and be adjudged by its own umpire to condemnation, as a sinful work of man… Teh sect-system, like Rationalism, is a prostitution and caricature of true Protestantism, and nothing else… Away with human denominations, down with religious sects! Let our watchword be: One spirit and one body! One Shepherd and one flock!… Rationalism and Sectarianism are the most dangerous enemies of the church at the present time. They are both but different sides of one and the same principle, a onesided, false subjectivity, sundered from the authority of the objective. Rationalism is theoretic Sectarianism; Sectarianism is practical Rationalism.” (119, 121)