The Protestant Reformation marked a renaissance of the Sophist philosophical attitude, that led to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and thence to the humanist religious movement that has developed over the past three hundred years.

The key precepts of the Protestant Reformation, as distinguished from the Catholic tradition, are:

Sola scriptura (“by Scripture alone”): that Scripture overrides tradition and priestly interpretation, which led to biblical literalism and later scholarly hermeneutic interpretation of historical texts

Sola fide (“by faith alone”): by faith, irrespective of works, God may justify saving you. Faith later became theory.

Sola gratia (“by grace alone”) by God’s grace, not by any merit, you may be saved. Society later replaced God, while the subordination of individual agency became

Solo Christo (“through Christ alone”) by Christ alone, without any priestly intermediary.

Soli Deo gloria (“glory to God alone”): a rejection of the church as an institution, and of an exalted class of priests, saints, and angels, as a kind of idolatry (or later, ‘fetishizing’) that errantly diverts worship of God alone.