Arguably, the reformation is understood on most cases to be the political and religious revolutions that took place in the 16th century. The reformation resulted into partial disruption in the western Catholic Church that lead to the formation of various territorial and national churches. As a matter of fact, reformation succeeded in various ways. Initially, the church was united under the Catholic Church umbrella, but after the reformation took place, the disruption led to development of many churches. This implies that the reformation succeeded in bringing in changes. In the past, the Catholic Church was the only educated church who was capable of reading the bible. Due to the invention of the printing press, other people could now read the Bible. Therefore, they realized that they had been lied on various issues, such as payment and sale of indulgence. One of the prominent person that made the reformation succeed was Martin Luther. Additionally, reformation succeeded because the outcomes of it are still witnessed in the contemporary society.
Conversably, there were various goals of the reformation in the 16th century. In this case, reformation took place in two perspectives, whereby there existed catholic reformation and the protestant reformation. The main goal of the reformation was to develop a believe that the Bible is the only source of religious thoughts and truth. Additionally, the reformation objectives were to eliminate believes that people have to pay indulgence to the church so as to receive forgiveness as well as entering the kingdom of heaven. Hence, reformation goal was to educate individuals on such beliefs. Moreover, the catholic church was seen to be corrupt, hence reformers wanted to create a new church, separate from the catholic church that is free from all corrupt issues.
On the other hand, some of the goal of the reformation in the Catholic Church was to reinstate traditional beliefs in response to the reformation caused by the Protestants in the 16th century. There existed several abuses in the lives of the people and the clergy. Nevertheless, the leaders of the church were also interested on worldly life and political powers, leading to degradation of service in the church. The morality and celibacy issues were not observed anymore, and reformation was intended to bring sanity and clarity to church. The papal supremacy was also among the goals of reformation.
During the reformation period, Protestantism was perceived to be opposition to Catholicism. On the contrary, the recent past has seen the growth of Protestantism as a representation of a new religion, which is evangelical in nature and consists of a variety of a religious sect competing within himself or herself. Deductively, the growth of Protestant faith is attributed to the belief that Protestantism faith was compatible with different native cultures including those of Mexican and Central American origin. Precisely, close to the year 1970 up to 1990, Pentecostalism form of Protestantism, which base its believe on holiness through spiritual endowment reflected in the ability to speak in tongues thrived in the native regions of Central America and Mexico. In addition, it was perceived that Protestantism was closely related to traditional religious healings than Catholicism.
The growth of Protestantism coincided with the period of industrialization of Market economy in various societal settings, particularly Mexico and Central America. This made people believe that Protestantism played a role in enhancing market economic growth, hence, contributing to the eventual growth of Protestantism. To this purpose, Protestantism appealed to various native speakers due to its compatibility. On the other hand, Protestantism was perceived to be a religion for the poor. Therefore, it appealed to poor populations including Latin Americans living in the southern strip of the United States. The Catholic affiliates perceived the growth of Protestantism as a loss, and they developed strategies towards recapturing their lost association. Arguably, this reduced the perception that Protestantism was opposition to Catholicism and this catalyzed religious and social change.
