Editing Erasmus (section)

====Accommodation====
Historian Manfred Hoffmann has described accommodation as "the single most important concept in Erasmus' [[hermeneutic]]".{{refn|group=note|Furthermore, "the role [[Hermeneutics#Allegorical|allegory]] plays in Erasmus' [[exegesis]] is [[Analogy#Catholicism|analogous]] to the crucial place accommodation obtains in his theology".<ref name=hoffmann>{{cite journal |last1=Hoffmann |first1=Manfred |title=Erasmus on Language and Interpretation |journal=Moreana |date=July 1991 |volume=28 |issue=2–3 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.3366/more.1991.28.2-3.4}}</ref>{{rp|7}})}}

For Erasmus, accommodation is a universal concept:{{refn|group=note|name=baker-peace|"This sense of our restricted capacity to handle truth is a basic corollary of his humanism and it provides the grounds for his appeal for toleration. ... Erasmus is less concerned about errors in doctrine than about the mental intransigence with which they may be upheld or opposed. This is not to say that he is indifferent to error, but priority goes to the preservation of a community, the body of Christ".<ref name=baker2006/>}} humans must accommodate each other, must accommodate the church and ''vice versa'', and must take as their model how Christ accommodated the disciples in his interactions with them, and accommodated humans in his [[Incarnation (Christianity)|incarnation]]; which in turn merely reflects the eternal mutual accommodation within the [[Trinity]]. And the primary mechanism of accommodation is language,<ref  group=note>"We see Erasmus' hermeneutic as governed by the idea of language as mediation [...] The dynamics of mediation, central as it is in Erasmus' hermeneutic, informed all aspects of his world view." {{cite book |last1=Hoffmann |first1=Manfred |title=Rhetoric and Theology |date=1994 |publisher=University of Toronto |isbn=978-0-8020-0579-3 |url=https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781487585884_A35159560/preview-9781487585884_A35159560.pdf |access-date=23 February 2024 |archive-date=23 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223001814/https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781487585884_A35159560/preview-9781487585884_A35159560.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|6}} which mediates between reality and abstraction, which allows disputes of all kinds to be resolved and the gospel to be transmitted:<ref name=hoffmann/> in his New Testament, Erasmus notably translated the Greek ''logos'' in [[John 1:1]] "In the beginning was the Word" more like "In the beginning was Speech:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jarrott |first1=C. A. L. |title=Erasmus' "In Principio Erat Sermo": A Controversial Translation |journal=Studies in Philology |date=1964 |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=35–40 |jstor=4173446}}</ref> using Latin ''sermo'' (discourse, conversation, language) not ''verbum'' (word) emphasizing the dynamic and interpersonal communication rather than static principle:{{refn|group=note|"Just as the Word of God
is the image of the Father, so too, human speech is a certain image of the human mind, which is the most wondrous and powerful thing man has."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vance |first1=Jacob |title=Secrets: Humanism, Mysticism, and Evangelism in Erasmus of Rotterdam, Bishop Guillaume Briçonnet, and Marguerite de Navarre |date=11 September 2014 |doi=10.1163/9789004281257_003}}</ref>{{rp|27}} }} "Christ incarnate as the eloquent oration of God":<ref name=martin2024>{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Terence J. |title=The Christology of Erasmus: Christ, Humanity, and Peace |date=12 January 2024 |publisher=CUA Press |isbn=978-0-8132-3802-9 |url=https://www.cuapress.org/9780813238029/the-christology-of-erasmus/ |language=en |access-date=23 May 2024 |archive-date=19 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240419131347/https://www.cuapress.org/9780813238029/the-christology-of-erasmus/ |url-status=live }}</ref> "He is called Speech [sermo], because through him God, who in his own nature cannot be comprehended by any reasoning, wished to become known to us."<ref name=boyle>{{cite journal |last1=Boyle |first1=Marjorie O'rourke |title=Evangelism and Erasmus |journal=The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism |date=25 November 1999 |pages=44–52 |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521300087.005|isbn=978-1-139-05363-1 }}</ref>{{rp|45}}

The role models of accommodation{{refn|group=note|"The saintly versatility with which Christ and Paul accommodate their message to their imperfect hearers is one of the highest expressions of their charity, which desires the salvation of all men."<ref name=kinney/>}} were Paul,{{refn|group=note|Erasmus quoted "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." (Cor. 9:22, RSV).<ref name=pabel1995>{{cite journal |last1=Pabel |first1=Hilmar M. |title=Promoting the Business of the Gospel: Erasmus' Contribution to Pastoral Ministry |journal=Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook |date=1995 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=53–70 |doi=10.1163/187492795X00053}}</ref>{{rp|55}} }} that "[[chameleon]]"<ref name=remer>{{cite journal |last1=Remer |first1=Gary |title=Rhetoric and the Erasmian Defence of Religious Toleration |journal=History of Political Thought |date=1989 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=377–403 |jstor=44797141  |issn=0143-781X}}</ref>{{rp|385}} (or "slippery squid"<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Moore |first1=Michael Edward |title=Truth and Irony: Philosophical Meditations on Erasmus, by Terence J. Martin (Review) |journal=Erasmus Studies |date=13 March 2019 |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=107–113 |doi=10.1163/18749275-03901009|s2cid=171963677 }}</ref>) and Christ, who was "more mutable than [[Proteus]] himself".<ref name=remer/>{{rp|386}}

Following Paul, Quintillian ({{lang|la|apte diecere}}{{clarify|reason=Without further explanation this is incomprehensible|date=May 2025}}) and Gregory the Great's ''Pastoral Care'', Erasmus wrote that the orator, preacher or teacher must "adapt their discourse to the characteristics of their audience"; this made pastoral care the "art of arts".<ref name=pabel1995/>{{rp|64}} Erasmus wrote that most of his original works, from satires to paraphrases, were essentially the same themes packaged for different audiences.

In this light, Erasmus' ability to have friendly correspondence with both [[Thomas More]] and [[Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire|Thomas Bolyn]],<ref name=mackay/> and with both [[Philip Melanchthon]] and [[Pope Adrian VI]], can be seen as outworkings of his theology, rather than slippery insincerity<ref group=note name=slippery/> or flattery of potential patrons. Similarly, it shows the theological basis of his [[pacificism]], and his view of ecclesiastical authorities—from priests like himself to Church Councils—as necessary mediating peace-brokers.