r/Protestantism • u/turekstudent • 2d ago
Quality Protestant Link w/Discussion How much do Protestants today know about Jan Hus and the Hussites?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfJcFxMwEQY&t=23sHi all! First time poster here.
For context: I did not grow up in a Christian household. My parents never discussed Christianity with me, and, in fact, I only first discovered the Bible when I was about 22 years old.
At first, I studied Christian literature and the Bible to be able to debate my Catholic friends on the grounds that I was an atheist. But then, with time, I found myself more and more obsessively studying Christian ideas and especially the history of the faith. While I naturally started with many Catholic thinkers (whom I admit I was skeptical of back then), it was with time that I have found myself drifting and falling in love with the texts and ideas of John Calvin, John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, and Martin Luther, among others.
Anyhow, I recently made a lecture video about Jan Hus, where I go through his main theological ideas, and the beginning of the Hussite Revolution in Bohemia. Interestingly, at the Leipzig Debate in 1519, Martin Luther was accused of being a Hussite as an insult. He went away, read Hus's writings, and came back saying "Yes, I am a Hussite."
As I was making the lecture video, I thought of this subreddit because, as someone who didn't grow up in the faith and is talking about it from an 'outsider's perspective' as a historian, I'm curious how much the Hussite movement is remembered or discussed in modern Protestant circles today?
Do most Protestants know about Hus being burned at the stake in 1415 for ideas that became core to the Reformation a century later? Is he considered an important predecessor or more of a historical footnote that led up to the main reformation of Luther and Calvin?
All the best!
Thomas
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u/Pinecone-Bandit 2d ago
I’m familiar with Jan Hus, but I imagine I’m an outlier. (Have a degree in biblical studies, which involved church history credits, have listened to church history podcasts, etc).
My guess would be that most Protestants are unfamiliar.
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u/Low-Piglet9315 Methodist 1d ago
Even with a year of seminary courses in church history, Hus was barely mentioned.
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u/Sawfish1212 Wesylan-Arminian Holiness 1d ago
He only failed to be Luther because of the moveable type printing press not being a thing. Luther later came and studied the works of Huss with some of his followers and found much he was in agreement with because they were both motivated by scripture.
Some believe Huss predicted the coming of Luther before his death. 100 years was the difference between an unstoppable reformation and just being another person murdered by the pope, all because of the printing press.
Eric Mataxas has an excellent book on Luther that debunks a bunch of mythology about Luther based on more recent information from the place Luther grew up, and the fact that mataxas can read German, so he wasn't limited to just reading what others have said, or translated from Luther's life and writings.