Editing Erasmus (section)

===={{lang|la|Philosophia Christi}}====
{{rquote|right|Everything in the pagan world that was valiantly done, brilliantly said, ingeniously thought, diligently transmitted, had been prepared by Christ for his society.|source=Erasmus, ''Antibarbari''<ref name=cwe23 />{{rp|9}} }}

(Not to be confused with his Italian contemporary Chrysostom Javelli's {{lang|la|Philosophia Christiana}}.)

Erasmus approached [[Ancient philosophy#Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy|classical philosophers]] theologically and rhetorically: their value was in how they pre-saged, explained or amplified the unique teachings of Christ (particularly the Sermon on the Mount<ref name=mansfield/>{{rp|117}}): the {{lang|la|philosophia Christi}}.<ref group=note>"Why don't we all reflect: this must be a marvelous and new philosophy since, in order to reveal it to mortals, he who was God became man". {{cite book |last1=Erasmus |title=Paraclesis |date=1516 |url=https://www.cite-osucc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Erasmus.Paraclesis.1516.pdf |access-date=11 August 2023 |archive-date=11 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230811143733/https://www.cite-osucc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Erasmus.Paraclesis.1516.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>{{refn|group=note|A Lutheran view: "{{lang|la|Philosophia christiana}} as taught by Erasmus has never been factual reality; wherever it was {{lang|la|philosophia}}, it was not {{lang|la|christiana}}; wherever it was {{lang|la|christiana}}, it was not {{lang|la|philosophia}}." [[Karl Barth]]<ref name=ewolf>{{cite journal |last1=Wolf |first1=Erik |title=Religion and Right in the Philosophia Christriana of Erasmus from Rotterdam |journal=UC Law Journal |date=1 January 1978 |volume=29 |issue=6 |page=1535 |url=https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol29/iss6/11/ |issn=0017-8322}}</ref>{{rp|1559}} }}  

{{blockquote|A great part of the teaching of Christ is to be found in some of the philosophers, particularly Socrates, Diogenes and Epictetus. But Christ taught it much more fully, and exemplified it better&nbsp;...|source=Erasmus, ''Paraclesis'' }}

In fact, he said, Christ was "the very father of philosophy" ({{lang|la|Anti-Barbieri}}).<ref group=note>Similar to [[John Wycliffe]]'s statement "the greatest philosopher is none other than Christ."{{cite book |last1=Lahey |first1=Stephen Edmund |title=John Wyclif |date=1 May 2009 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183313.003.0005}}</ref>

In works such as his ''Enchiridion'', ''The Education of a Christian Prince'' and the ''Colloquies'', Erasmus developed his idea of the {{lang|la|philosophia Christi}}, a life lived according to the teachings of Jesus taken as a spiritual-ethical-social-political-legal<ref name=ewolf/> philosophy:{{refn|group=note|Philosopher Étienne Gilson has noted "Confronted with the same failure of philosophy to rise above the order of formal logic, [[John of Salisbury]] between 1150 and 1180, [[Nicolas of Autrecourt]] and [[Petrach]] in 1360, Erasmus of Rotterdam around 1490, spontaneously conceived a similar method to save Christian faith", i.e. a sceptical-about-scholasticism {{lang|la|ad-fontes}} religious moralism promoting peace and charity.<ref name=gilson>{{cite book |last1=Gilson |first1=Etienne |title=The Unity of Philosophical Experience |year=1999 |orig-year=1st pub. Charles Scribner's Sons 1937 |publisher=Ignatius Press |isbn=978-0-89870-748-9 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|102–107}} }}

{{Blockquote|text=Christ the heavenly teacher has founded a new people on earth,&nbsp;... Having eyes without guile, these folk know no spite or envy; having freely castrated themselves, and aiming at a life of angels while in the flesh, they know no unchaste lust; they know not divorce, since there is no evil they will not endure or turn to the good; they have not the use of oaths, since they neither distrust nor deceive anyone; they know not the hunger for money, since their treasure is in heaven, nor do they itch for empty glory, since they refer all things to the glory of Christ.…these are the new teachings of our founder, such as no school of philosophy has ever brought forth.|source=Erasmus, ''Method of True Theology''}}

In philosopher Étienne Gilson's summary: "the quite precise goal he pursues is to reject Greek philosophy outside of Christianity, into which the Middle Ages introduced Greek philosophy with the risk of corrupting this Christian Wisdom."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gilson |first1=Étienne |title=Medieval Essays |date=1990 |url=https://archive.org/details/medieval-essays-by-etienne-gilson/page/n17/}}</ref>

Useful "philosophy" needed to be limited to (or re-defined as) the practical and moral: 
{{blockquote|You must realize that 'philosopher' does not mean someone who is clever at dialectics or science but someone who rejects illusory appearance and undauntedly seeks out and follows what is true and good. Being a philosopher is in practice the same as being a Christian; only the terminology is different.|source= Erasmus, ''Anti-Barbieri''}}