Editing Erasmus (section)

====Scopus christi====
{{lang|la|Scopus}} is the unifying reference point, the navigation goal, or the organizing principle of topics.{{refn|group=note|{{lang|la|Scopus}} comes from Origen and was also picked up by Melanchthon.<ref>{{cite book |last=Saarinen |first=Risto |chapter=Luther and the Reading of Scripture |title=Remembering the Reformation: Martin Luther and Catholic Theology |date=2017 |publisher=1517 Media |jstor=j.ctt1ggjhg1.15 |isbn=978-1-5064-2337-1 }}</ref>  }} According to his assistant-turned-foe, Œcolampadius, Erasmus's rule was {{lang|la|"nihil in sacris literis praeter Christum quaerendum"}} ("nothing is to be sought in the sacred letters but Christ").<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fudge |first1=Thomas |title=Icarus of Basel? Oecolampadius and the Early Swiss Reformation |journal=Journal of Religious History |date=1 January 1997 |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=268–284 |doi=10.1111/1467-9809.00039 |url=https://www.academia.edu/95316549}}</ref>{{rp|269}}

{{rquote|right|What Erasmus contributes [...] is a counsel of restraint in metaphysical speculation, an accent on the revelatory breadth of the eternal Word of God, and an invitation to think of Christ incarnate as the eloquent oration of God. But the central impulse [...] is the affirmation of the full incarnation of Christ in human existence [...] for the transformation of human life. With that, the ethical capstone of Erasmus' reflections on Christ centers on the responsibility to imitate Christ's love for others, and thus for advancing the cause of peace in personal and social life.|source=Terrence J. Martin, ''The Christology of Erasmus''<ref name=martin2024/>}}

In Hoffmann's words, for Erasmus "Christ is the {{lang|la|scopus}} of everything": "the focus in which both dimensions of reality, the human and the divine, intersect" and so He himself is the hermeneutical principle of scripture": "the middle is the medium, the medium is the mediator, the mediator is the reconciler".<ref name=hoffmann/>{{rp|9}} In Erasmus' early ''Enchiridion''<ref group=note>"Erasmus is so thoroughly, radically Christ-centered in his understanding of both Christian faith and practice that if we overlook or downplay this key aspect of his character and vision, we not only do him a grave disservice but we almost completely misunderstand him."{{cite journal |last1=Markos |first1=Louis A. |title=The Enchiridion of Erasmus |journal=Theology Today |date=April 2007 |volume=64 |issue=1 |pages=80–88 |doi=10.1177/004057360706400109|s2cid=171469828 }}</ref>{{rp|82}} he had given this {{lang|la|scopus}} in typical medieval terms of an ascent of being to God (vertical), but from the mid-1510s life he moved to an analogy of Copernican planetary circling around Christ the centre (horizontal) or Columbian navigation towards a destination.<ref name=mansfield/>{{rp|135}}

One effect is that scriptural interpretation must be done starting with the teachings and interactions of Jesus in the [[Gospels]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marius |first1=Richard |title=Martin Luther's Erasmus, and How he got that Way: Eleventh-Annual Margaret Mann Phillips Lecture |journal=Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook |date=1998 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=70–88 |doi=10.1163/187492798X00069}}</ref>{{rp|78}} with the [[Sermon on the Mount]] serving as the starting point,{{refn|group=note|According to philosopher John Smith "The core of his theological thought he traced back to Christ's Sermon on the Mount, rather than Paul."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=John H. |title=Dialogues between Faith and Reason: The Death and Return of God in Modern German Thought |date=15 October 2011 |doi=10.7591/9780801463273-003}}</ref>}}<ref name="meyer1">{{cite journal |last1=Meyer |first1=Carl |title=Erasmus on the Study of Scriptures |journal=Concordia Theological Monthly |date=1 December 1969 |volume=40 |issue=1 |url=https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm/vol40/iss1/71 |access-date=25 December 2023 |archive-date=25 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231225035453/https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm/vol40/iss1/71/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and arguably with the [[Beatitudes]] and the [[Lord's Prayer]] at the head of the queue.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} This privileges peacemaking, mercy, meekness,{{refn|group=note|Historical theologian Carl Meyer writes "Because the Scriptures are the genuine oracles of God, welling forth from the deepest recesses of the divine mind, Erasmus said they should be approached with reverence. Humility and veneration are needed to find the secret chambers of eternal wisdom. 'Stoop to enter', Erasmus warned, 'else you might bump your head and bounce back!{{'"}}<ref name=meyer1/>{{rp|738}}}} purity of heart, hungering after righteousness, poverty of spirit, etc. as the unassailable core of Christianity and piety and true theology.{{refn|group=note|According to historian Emily Alianello, "Throughout ''Ecclesiastes'', Erasmus seeks to orient his theories of preaching around 'the simplicity of Christ's teaching and example'. Consequently, preaching is not for engaging in controversy, but for bringing salvation, moving the congregation to a moral life and building community through concord."<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Alianello |first1=Emily |title=Understanding and Presence: The Literary Achievement of the Early Modern Sermon |date=2019 |publisher=Catholic University of America |hdl=1961/cuislandora:213631 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1961/cuislandora:213631 |access-date=2 March 2024}}</ref>{{rp|71}}}}

The Sermon on the Mount provides the axioms on which every legitimate theology must be built, as well as the ethics governing theological discourse, and the rules for validating theological products; Erasmus' {{lang|la|philosophia christi}} treats the primary and initial teaching of Jesus in the first Gospel as a theological methodology.{{refn|group=note|I.e., Erasmus' method is that Jesus' primary teachings are not things you (whether lay person or theologian) interpret in the light of everything else (particularly some novel, post-patristic theological schema, even if ostensibly biblically coherent), but what you base your interpretation of everything else on.}}

For example, "peacemaking" is a possible topic in any Christian theology; but for Erasmus, from the Beatitude, it must be a starting, reference and ending point when discussing all other theological notions, such as church authority, the Trinity, etc. Moreover, Christian theology must only be ''done'' in a peacemaking fashion for peacemaking purposes; and any theology that promotes division and warmongering is thereby anti-Christian.{{refn|group=note|This is quite contrary to Luther's privileging of his scheme of justification, its associated verses of [[Epistle to the Romans|Romans]] and [[Epistle to the Galatians|Galatians]], and his prizing of vehement assertions and insults. Erica Rummel notes "The similarities between his and Luther's thought were of course superficial."<ref name=rummel1/>{{rp|36}} }}