Five hundred years after Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the doors of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany, many Protestant Americans do not subscribe to the beliefs that led to the Reformation, according to a new report from Pew Research Center.

In fact, fewer than half of U.S. Protestant adults (46 percent) say that salvation comes by faith alone — a belief reformers in Luther’s day called sola fide. A slim majority (52 percent) of today’s Protestants hold to the Catholic teaching that both faith and works are necessary for salvation.

Luther stood against the Catholic doctrine that God’s will is discernable only through a combination of Church teachings and Scripture, maintaining instead that the Bible alone — sola scriptura — is the complete and final authority for Christian living. Again, 52 percent of today’s American Protestants align with the Catholic view, saying that Christians must receive guidance through the Bible, a church’s official teachings, and tradition.

“When these two questions are combined, the survey shows that just 3 in 10 U.S. Protestants believe in both sola fide and sola scriptura,” the Pew report concludes. “One third of Protestants (35 percent) affirm one but not the other, and 36 percent do not believe in either sola fide or sola scriptura.”

Just 3 in 10 U.S. Protestants believe in both sola fide and sola scriptura.

By contrast, Catholics adhere closely to their own teachings, with 8 in 10 citing faith and deeds as requirements for salvation and three-quarters saying that Christians need church statements and tradition in addition to Scripture. Overall, two-thirds of Catholics assume their Church's position on these two defining questions.

Most Protestants (70 percent) can at least identify “the Reformation” as the period in history when Protestants broke away from the Catholic Church. And most (71 percent) are aware that Martin Luther inspired these events. But just 27 percent know that only Protestants teach the doctrine of salvation by faith alone.

More than half of Protestants (57 percent) say they and Catholics are more similar than different when it comes to questions of faith — and 65 percent of Catholics say the same about Protestants.