ABSTRACT
Even those sociologists who explain secularization as a result of industrialization, urbanization, and the increased rationality of the modern world, would have to recognize that Protestantism was importantly implicated in its own fate. Even if one concedes no more than that Protestantism played a part in the genesis and promotion of the rational, industrial, and urban world, one has the image of reformed Christianity as its own grave-digger. In adding to this irony the point that the fissiparousness of Protestantism hastened pluralism and hence secularization, I have not attempted to replace the more common explanations of secularization with the claim that the fragmentation of Protestantism was a sufficient cause of its own demise. Rather, I have tried to draw attention to an aspect of the process which has previously been neglected. When scholars have been interested in the content of the Reformation world-view, they have usually been concerned with the impact of what might be called substantive propositions. I am interested in the most abstract element of Protestantism: its epistemological position. Claimed reliance on the Bible as the sole source of authoritative knowledge, despite the best efforts of its promoters, has consistently failed to produce coherence, consistency, and uniformity. Instead, it has generated schism. The Holy Spirit’s reported achievement at Pentecost of allowing people to hear the same message in different tongues has not been repeated; different tongues now bear conflicting and competing messages.
