Civic Humanism
Desiderius Erasmus and Christian Humanism Works Cited Missing Desiderius Erasmus was an influential figure in the late fifteenth century movement that was Christian Humanism. Christian Humanists were proponents of religious reform of the church primarily through educational and social change (McKay, 455). They were interested in returning to the importance of the Scriptures as well as the revival of antiquity. After being pressured by his parents to become a monk, Erasmus joined an Augustinian monastery, but considered himself a scholar first and foremost. He lived as a devout Christian, but was concerned with the corruption that had spread through the religious positions of office. However, Erasmus believed that religious revolt led directly to anarchy; therefore he took the side of neither the Pope, nor the reform radical, Martin Luther (Erasmus, in Workbook, 64). Erasmus hoped to provoke people into questioning their confidence in religious authority through his writings as opposed to speaking out directly against the Romanists. As a result both parties, Luther and the Romanists, disliked him. Erasmus wrote The Praise of Folly as a satire in hopes that people would start to question the Romanists' religious authority. It is written from the point of view of Folly, a Greek goddess, who is disgusted with the ignorance and vanity of her worshipers.