I desire that these teachings be handed down among the very first things a child learns, so that they may be loved even from infancy. For just as the harshness of certain teachers causes children to hate literature before they even know it, there are also those who make the Philosophy of Christ Philosophia Christiana: Erasmus’s term for a lived Christianity based on the Gospels rather than scholastic logic. seem gloomy and peevish, when in truth nothing is more delightful. Let them then be occupied with these studies until, through quiet growth, they mature into a robust man in Christ. The writings of others are often of such a kind that many people eventually regret the effort spent on them; it often happens that those who have fought until death for the fragile decrees of such authors desert their leader's faction at the very moment of death. But happy is the man whom death finds meditating upon these sacred letters.

Therefore, let us all thirst for these with our whole heart; let us embrace them, let us dwell in them constantly, let us kiss them, let us finally die in them, and let us be transformed into them—since studies eventually pass into our very character. If someone cannot achieve this—though who cannot, if only he has the will?—let him at least adore these writings as if they were the casket of that divine heart. If someone were to show us a footprint of Christ’s feet impressed in the earth, how we Christians would prostrate ourselves! How we would adore it! But why do we not instead venerate His living and breathing image in these books? If someone were to display the tunic of Christ, to what corner of the earth would we not fly to be allowed to kiss it? Yet, even if you were to bring forth His entire household furniture, there would be nothing that represents Christ more expressively and truly than the writings of the Gospels. Out of love for Christ, we decorate a statue of wood or stone with gems and gold. Why are these writings not rather adorned with gold and gems—and if there be anything more precious than these—since they represent Christ to us so much more excellently than any little statue? For what does a statue express other than the shape of the body? If, indeed, it expresses even that much. But these books bring back to you the living image of His most holy mind; they bring you Christ Himself, speaking, healing, dying, and rising again—in short, they render Him so present to you that you would see less of Him if you were looking at Him right before your eyes.

DESIDERIUS ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM

A LETTER

Ornamental woodcut initial Q depicting a scholar or saint seated at a lectern with an open book, within a square frame decorated with architectural and floral motifs.
ALTHOUGH in divine matters the mortal intellect—however sharp it may otherwise be—is so frequently blinded that it is forced to cry out with the Apostle Paul. For even though Paul had been caught up into the third heaven and had heard things more hidden than he was permitted to reveal to souls still weighed down by mortal bodies, nevertheless, when writing to the Romans, as the progress of his discourse brought his thoughts closer to the entrance of the divine counsel, he immediately cried out in astonishment: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? And soon, submitting the weakness of human understanding to the majesty of the Divine Spirit—who dispenses everything for the best, even if the reason for His plan cannot be perceived by us—he says: To Him be honor and glory forever and ever. Thus, having reverently withdrawn from the majesty he adored, he transitions to the instruction of morals. I beseech you, he says, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Likewise, the Prophet exclaims: The judgments of the Lord are a great deep.

Yet, there is a point to which the pious curiosity of Christians is permitted to proceed, provided that, following Paul's example, as soon as one feels the edge of the human mind cannot endure that "inaccessible light" where the Heavenly Father dwells, one yields in adoration. Having venerated the inscrutable mystery of the Divine Spirit, let a man acknowledge his own weakness and take care of those things instead Erasmus quotes Homer’s Odyssey here to suggest focusing on practical ethics at home rather than celestial mysteries. "whatever of evil or good has happened in your halls." original: "ὅττι τοι ἐν μεγάροισι κακόν τ' ἀγαθόν τε τέτυκται"

But I do not know how it happens that human curiosity exerts all its intellectual nerves nowhere more intensely than in those matters which are furthest from mortal understanding and contribute least to a life of piety. Of this kind are almost all those things debated concerning the divine essence. Yet no mystery concerns us more than the ineffable plan by which God, through His Son, restored the human race. To one who frequently dwells on this contemplation, it has sometimes seemed to me worth investigating whether it was truly necessary for the Son of God Himself, having become man, to show us the way of salvation through His own teaching. For there must have been some immense value in it.

And yet, there is scarcely anything handed down in the Gospel writings that was not handed down many centuries before in the volumes of the Old Testament, and some things even in the books of the Philosophers. That souls survive their bodies and are affected by either rewards or punishments according to the merits of their past life was taught by none other than the famous Socrates of Plato. He also teaches that no man is truly just who would not rather cease to be just than endure being thought unjust. He teaches that the soul must be led away from the love of visible things toward the pursuit of those things which truly and eternally exist. He teaches that death is not to be feared, but rather hoped for by one who has lived well. He teaches that no one ought to trust in his own deeds, yet he who has striven with all his might to live purely ought to have good hope in a merciful God.

Do these things not agree with those Gospel doctrines? And these shall go into eternal life, but those into eternal fire. And blessed shall you be when men reproach you, and blessed are you when they persecute you for righteousness' sake. And do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. And work for the food that does not perish. And do not fear those who kill the body. And when you have done all things, say: We are unprofitable servants.

Indeed, that law of charity, which alone encompasses all laws—was it not clearly and diligently handed down in the Old Testament? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself. What could be emphasized more diligently, or expressed more effectively? Furthermore, those Gospel precepts of charity, by which we are commanded to be merciful and kind toward the needy, are so emphasized in the volumes of the Prophets and the Old Testament that they could scarcely be stated more clearly or accurately. Isaiah cries out: Help the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. Again, elsewhere: Let those who are broken go free, and break every burden. Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the needy and the wanderers into your house. When you see the naked, cover him. Christ teaches: Give to everyone who asks of you. But the book of Deuteronomy says this even more effectively: There shall be no needy person among you, so that the Lord your God may bless you. For he who commands that care be taken so that no one is in need seems to require more than he who commands that it be given to one who asks.

Even that which seems peculiar to the Philosophy of the Gospel—namely, in what things Christian happiness consists—one may hear in Isaiah. The Lord Jesus said: Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who hunger, blessed are those who mourn. How well Isaiah harmonizes with these: Behold, he says, my servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry; and my servants shall drink, and you shall be thirsty. Behold, my servants shall rejoice, and you shall be confounded. Behold, my servants shall praise for joy of heart, and you shall cry for sorrow of heart. Christ says: Blessed shall you be when men hate you. What does Isaiah say? Do not fear the reproach of men, he says, and do not be diminished by their contempt. Finally, regarding what seemed specifically to belong to Gospel perfection—that we should not return injury when harmed, that we should love our enemies and deserve well of those who treat us ill—did not Isaiah also teach this when he said: Say, "You are our brothers," to those who hate you? Again, when Zechariah commands that no one should remember the malice of his neighbor. Again, when the Lord cries through the Prophet: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay. Indeed, not even examples of Gospel perfection are lacking in the Old Testament...