Erasmo, referencia del cristianismo del s. xvi

INTERNATIONAL BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY-PRAGUE

ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM: His Relevance in the Context of 16th Century Christianity
BY MANUEL MARTÍNEZ ORTEGA
A S S I G N M E N T:

( S TU D Y O N E R AS M U S )

S U B M I T T E D T O T H E C O U R S E LE A D E R , R E V . D R . K E I T H G. J O N E S , I N P A R TI A L F U LF I LM E N T O F T H E R E Q U I R E M E N TS OF

IBTSPOST-GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN THEOLOGY

ON

BAPTIST AND ANABAPTIST STUDIES

MODULE TUTOR: REVD. DR. KEITH G. JONES.

December 15, 2010

Essay Length: … (5602 words) excl. footnotes and bibliography

IBTS PGTh Certificate 2 Erasmus of Rotterdam: His Relevance in 16th Century Christianity.

ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM: His Relevance in the context of 16th Century Christianity

CONTENTS

I.INTRODUCTION AND PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS ............................................................................. 3 A. B. C. Introduction: Who Is Erasmus? ...................................................................................................................... 3 Interest, Actuality, and Difficulties about Erasmus................................................................................ 4 Perspectives on Erasmus................................................................................................................................... 5 Historical Background and Key Movements Influencing Erasmus’ Lifetime............................... 6 Life of Erasmus................................................................................................................................................... 12 ERASMUS’ CHRISTIANITY: PHILOSOPHIA CHRISTI ................................................................................. 28 CONCLUSION: ERASMUS’ PERSPECTIVE AND SIGNIFICANCE............................................................ 30

II.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND LIFE OFERASMUS............................................................................................... 6 A. D.

III. IV.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................................................................... 33

IBTS PGTh Certificate 3 Erasmus of Rotterdam: His Relevance in 16th Century Christianity.

I.

INTRODUCTION AND PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
A. INTRODUCTION: WHOIS ERASMUS?

In the midst of a renewed scholarship about Erasmus of Rotterdam coming from the 20th century, diverse historians praise, oppose, or simply ignore him. What could be the reason to have no entry dedicated to him in the “Dictionary of Spanish Ecclesiastical History” printed in 1972? 1 A deafening silence manifests the uneasiness of such a figure, who pledged faithfulness to Romecriticized sharply the Church, and maintained some Protestant axioms. Was he an ambiguous “slippery eel”?2 Was he rather a character with boundless vanity and egotism whose critique was meant to be a deadly poison for the Church?3 Was he just an irritating “difficult child” of the Catholic Church?4 The 16th century presented a very diverse spectrum of Christian tenets, irreducible to just Catholic orProtestant. Still today endeavors are made to relegate the Rotterdamer to a peculiar family history. Did Erasmus really articulate a distinct perspective of Christianity?

Q. Aldea Vaquero, T. Marín Martínez, and J. Vives Catell Ed., Diccionario de Historia Eclesiástica de España, Madrid: Instituto Enrique Flórez, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1972. Note: Enrique Flórez1702-0773, the one who gives his name to the referred publishing house, is an Augustinian friar who wrote the fifty-one volume historical work “España Sacra,” a clear image of the Tridentine absolutist version of Romanism in Spain. Even though Erasmus is not a Spaniard, his presence in the dictionary would be fully justified considering the diverse evidences presented by Bataillon about Spanish...