The 2016 Theology
Conference at Houston Baptist University was titled “Ad Fontes, Ad Futura:
Erasmus’ Bible and the Impact of Scripture.” The conference theme was in honor of the 500
year anniversary of Erasmus’ Novum
Instrumentum omne (1516) which provided the first printed Greek NT and
became the basis for the so-called Textus
Receptus. The conference was held
February 25-27, 2016 Thursday evening to Saturday morning. There were four plenary lectures and four
break sessions. Here are my notes from
session one (2.25.16):
Session 1: Timothy George, “Erasmus and the Search for
the Christian Life”
TG is dean of the Beeson Divinity School at Samford
University in Birmingham, AL. TG noted that it is good
to smell the printer’s ink in Basel before moving to the anniversary of Luther
in 2017.
Who was Erasmus? What
made him tick? How did the Greek NT fit
into his thought?
TG says he is the most tragic of the Reformers (?), living at
the confluence of Renaissance and Reformation.
Though he remained RC, by 1559 all of Erasmus’ works were put on the banned
index.
What did he look like?
According to an early biographer who was his friend he had a fair complexion
and blue-ish gray eyes. He was winsome,
reticent, a brilliant conversationalist. He had arched eyebrows, wry smile. He had a delicate constitution.
He was one of the world’s first best-selling authors. He was always on the move, always traveling. There were FOEs (Friends of Erasmus) all over
the world.
He was at Cambridge from 1511-1514 (dates?). He worked there on the Greek NT and on the
letters of Jerome.
He was the first well-known public intellectual. He knew he played a unique role in
introducing the world to new learning.
He believed he had awakened the world from its “pharisaical slumber.”
He brought together the classical and Christian traditions,
the good and the sacred.
In April 1517 Erasmus wrote to Pope Leo X: “If ever there was a golden age there is good
hope there will be on in our time.” He
was filled with optimism and hope. He
had ties with the Pope and with the kings of Europe. Soon, however, the earthquake of Luther’s
Reformation would come. Erasmus would eventually
flee Basel due to uproar over the Reformation.
He later called it the worst century since Jesus Christ.
The formation of Erasmus: He was born the illegitimate son of a Dutch
priest. We must be careful of
psychoanalyzing, but this was certainly a cloud over his life. His enemies often threw this in his
face. Is this why he moved so much? He even backdated his birth. He lost his parents in the Plague. He was 13 when his mother died. Many of his fellow students also died. Luther also had a brush with death in the
thunderstorm. Whereas his experience
gave Luther a combative nature, Erasmus would speak of his experience giving
him a “weakness of spirit,” pusillanimity.
Erasmus entered the monastery and became a monk but his heart
was not in it. He snuck away to the
library. R. Bainton: Luther went to the monastery to save his
soul; Erasmus to enlighten his mind.
He became a secretary to a bishop and found a place to teach
in Paris at the College de Montague (the same school where Calvin and Ignatius
Loyola studied).
Erasmus was not pleased with the scholastic education system of
his day. He wanted to pursue “the
philosophy of Christ.” He first used the
term in 1503 in the Enchiridion. It was a program of moral reform for the
individual and society and centered on personal devotion to Jesus. His views were shaped by three persons:
1. John Colet: Erasmus heard his lectures on Paul. Colet set his piety ablaze by pointing him to
Paul and Plato. From Paul he learned
about grace: the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life. Erasmus wrote four
commentaries on Paul, now lost. From
Plato he learned idealism. His
spirituality was focused on stillness.
2. Petrarch: He was interested in history as more than
merely a series of events/facts and in rhetoric. He thought of history as a golden age, a
fall, and a renewal. Erasmus also
thought in this way.
3. Lorenzo
Vallla. He had a critical role in
philology. He examined the “donation of
Constantine” and found it a forgery.
This gave focus to the importance of text criticism. Erasmus discovered Vallas’s “Annotations” on
the NT in a monastic library and published it.
This fueled interest in text criticism.
Erasmus’ “evangelical” heart is what makes him so important
for the whole church: Catholic,
Protestant, Quaker, etc. He wanted the
Bible in the language of the people.
Luther would translate the NT in 1522 using Erasmus’ second
edition (1519). Tyndale would use Erasmus
to translate the NT into English.
Erasmus died in Basel, then a Protestant city, in 1536. This was the same year of Calvin’s first
edition of the Institutes. Erasmus’ last words in Dutch: Liebe Gott, Dear God….
TG sees these last words as significant. He says we can commend this type of piety in
Erasmus.
Q and A:
In discussion George notes that he has grown more sympathetic
to Erasmus over the years.
When asked about Erasmus and Luther TG cites a work by a
Jesuit author, H. J. McSorely, titled, Luther Right or Wrong? (1969). TG says Luther was right, but he does not see
this as the final word on the debate.
JTR Analysis:
This was a thoughtful and informative lecture from George. TG has long expressed sympathies with RC positions
and on supposedly bridging the divide between Protestants and the RCC (cf. his input
on the “Manhattan Declaration”). My friend
Rob Stovall and I heard TG speak at an ETS event a few years ago and were struck
by his references to the Pope as “the holy Father.” He did so at least once in this lecture also. Thus, it was not surprising that he presented a
favorable view of Erasmus’ spirituality and counts him as a 'reformer' (though there was little reference to Erasmus' understanding or articulation of the
Biblical gospel in it).
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