When I was in seminary at Ashland Theological Seminary working toward an M. Div., I wrote a paper for Church History on Erasmus. Before then, I had never heard of the man. But, at that time there were a lot of things I didn’t know. (That’s not to say that I know much of anything now.)
For me, Erasmus became a hero of sorts. He was the first person at the time to show the importance of studying the original Greek texts of the Scripture. He was a true ‘Humanist’ at that time. That word meant something much different than it does today. In the 16th century, a humanist was a person who sought to get back to roots. So, for Erasmus, that meant a return to the teachings of the Church Fathers and original texts.
I remember sitting in a church service and the person who was speaking bad-rapped Erasmus. He was an ignorant twit who had never met Erasmus. But, I digress. Enjoy this post be Brian Zahnd and,
Meet my friend, Desiderius Erasmus!
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