Desiderius Erasmus
1466–1536 · Renaissance Humanism · Renowned
Erasmus was a priest and satirist, the leading Christian humanist of the Northern Renaissance, and the editor of the first published Greek New Testament. He wanted a philosophy of Christ: inner piety and moral formation in place of scholastic dogma and ceremony. Against Luther he defended the will's freedom to work together with grace. He mocked clerical pomp harder than anyone in Europe, spoke for peace, and still refused to join the Reformation.
Signature
The position Erasmus is most identified with in the Profiler:
- War
- leans Pacifism
- Agency
- Synergism
Positions on the 5 axes the sources answer
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Transcendence (90 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Polity
- leans Liberalism (81 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- War
- leans Pacifism (15 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Conviction
- leans Uncertain (25 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- leans Local (25 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
15 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Erasmus refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Agency
- Synergism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Authority
- Sacred Tradition
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Human Nature
- Redeemably Corrupted
What is human nature?