Erasmus – Redemption and The Turn Tables

For far too long the church did the thinking for the people. In today’s culture this sounds less and less like a bad idea. What with Miley being Miley (whatever that means) and the constant demand of today’s progressing world for more shock value, to some of us who still retain more conservative ideals, the world needs a little more advice from the church. But as many thinkers during The Renaissance will tell you, even the church doing the thinking for you can be harmful. Before The Renaissance the church had a habit of telling the people what was right and what was wrong. It was very legalistic in its behaviors and standards and often committed unspeakable things in the name of God. Where am I going with this? The Renaissance challenged much of that mindset much like Desiderius Erasmus.

Erasmus challenged the day’s standards and ways of thinking. His opinion was that women should be allowed to be educated, he believed anything created by humans could not be perfect. He challenged exorcisms and alchemy on nonsense as well as beliefs in superstitions. One of the highlighted statements he constantly made was the challenge to take their life lessons from the simple life of Jesus and not rely completely on organized religion. I think it’s safe to say Erasmus would not be a fun man to go fishing with on account of all the boat rocking. With all of this said, I would most associate Erasmus with Redemption.

As humans, we have often had a knack for counting one above the other. We can put people down, and argue to be in the right. We strive to be perfect but as it says in Romans, we all fall short of the glory of God, – we all fall short of true perfection. Legalism is what God’s creation was into when Jesus came to this planet. He challenged common knowledge, challenged societal norms, saw all the flaws that were in this creation, and yet, his ultimate calling was to die for it. He died so that this imperfect creation would know redemption. Erasmus, in my opinion, saw there was a need for a change. He saw that what were considered normal ways of life were not right. Erasmus is responsible for a book entitled The Praise of Folly where he stated that fools were almost better off than the so-called wise persons because they live in accordance with their true feelings and not by superstition or doctrines. Erasmus was so critical of the excess of the Catholic church he practically raised the reformist “egg” that would later be hatched by Luther. (J. Wilson, 1994). He saw the church was doing more harm than good. So why associate him with redemption? I believe it’s safe to say he started us down the road to making faith our own. In the end, faith in Jesus is about having a relationship with him. It’s about grace and love and forgiveness. It doesn’t seem like the church, back then, was very interested in any of that. Erasmus, I believe, helped bring about a voice of conviction and change. He saw all was not well and did what he could to redeem it, did what he could to teach and share that we will not get everything right all the time. Redemption is necessary and I think Erasmus saw there was a need for that which is why he challenged.