Erasmus and Calvin on the Foolishness of God: Reason and Emotion in the Christian Philosophy

by Kirk Essary

Overview

What did Paul mean when he wrote that the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom? Through close analysis of the sixteenth-century reception of Paul's discourses of folly, this book examines the role of the New Testament in the development of what Erasmus and John Calvin refer to as the “Christian philosophy.”

Erasmus and Calvin on the Foolishness of God reveals the importance of Pauline rhetoric in the development of humanist critiques of scholasticism while charting the formation of a specifically affective approach to religious epistemology and theological method. As the first book-length examination of Calvin's indebtedness to Erasmus, which also considers the participation of Bullinger, Pellikan, and Melanchthon in an Erasmian exegetical milieu, it is a case study in the complicated cross-confessional exchange of ideas in the sixteenth century. Kirk Essary examines assumptions about the very nature of theology in the sixteenth century, how it was understood by leading humanist reformers, and how ideas about philosophy and rhetoric were received, appropriated, and shared in a complex intellectual and religious context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487514150
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	05/08/2017
Series:	Erasmus Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Kirk Essary is Lecturer in History and Classics at the University of Western Australia.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter One

Calvin’s Erasmus, Theologia Rhetorica, and Pauline Folly

Chapter Two

Foolishness as Religious Knowledge

Chapter Three

Hidden Wisdom and the Revelation of the Spirit

Chapter Four

Milk for Babes: A Pauline Eloquence

Chapter Five

Blaming Philosophy, Praising Folly

Chapter Six

The Affective Christian Philosophy

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

‘Essary’s book offers much that will intrigue curious general readers as well as scholars. Excellent notes and bibliography.’

—P.A. Streveler, Choice Magazine vol 55:03:2017

"This is an admirable study that reflects extensive scholarship in early modern and patristic sources."

—William P. Weaver, Baylor University, Erasmus Studies, vol 39

From the Publisher

'Essary's book offers much that will intrigue curious general readers as well as scholars. Excellent notes and bibliography.'

Choice Magazine vol 55:03:2017 - P.A. Streveler

"This is an admirable study that reflects extensive scholarship in early modern and patristic sources."

Erasmus Studies, vol 39 - William P. Weaver