"More of the Heart than the Brain": Christian Philosophy and the Folly of the Cross in Erasmus and John Calvin

• Other Authors: Essary, Kirk (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Religion
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-8774

This study examines the reception of Paul's discourse on foolishness in First Corinthians alongside other Pauline christological texts in order better to understand the relationship between theological epistemology, anthropology, and ethics in the biblical exegesis of Desiderius Erasmus and John Calvin. Paul's discourse on the relationship between folly and wisdom has received scant attention in the history of interpretation, despite its potential fertility for giving rise to any number of interesting uses in several areas of philosophy and theology. In the sixteenth century, these texts are of special interest in the context of humanist biblical theology whose practitioners, as a rule, consider themselves to be positing an anti-speculative form of theological method which is at odds with their scholastic forebears. Thus the foolishness of God, which is, according to Paul, wiser than the wisdom of human beings, takes on new significance in the hands of Erasmus and Calvin, who employ Paul's paradoxical constructions in the service of their assault on overly speculative forms of Christian theology that tend toward abstruseness and thereby become inaccessible to the layperson. Moreover, both Erasmus and Calvin spend a great deal of time in their exegetical works on First Corinthians attempting to deal with the problem of Christian eloquence that arises out of Paul's claim that he himself preaches an utterly simple gospel. In this regard, both exegetes argue for a return to a Pauline simplicity of preaching, which is, of course, modeled originally on the humility of Christ. Erasmus' and Calvin's interpretations of this portion of Paul's letter, furthermore, provide for a new way of thinking about the prospects of Erasmus and Calvin embracing a theologia rhetorica--a term coined by the historian of Renaissance philosophy Charles Trinkhaus to describe the trend in (primarily Italian) humanist theology to advocate a kind of theological discourse which seeks to move the heart, so to speak, more than to convince the brain. From this perspective, I argue that Erasmus and Calvin can be situated in the same intellectual milieu, and that their fuller appreciation of Pauline simplicity might be seen as a new stage in the development of theologia rhetorica. Finally, the study analyzes the influence Erasmus--primarily his Annotations on and Paraphrases of the New Testament, but also other of his theological works--had on Calvin's biblical commentaries and his theology more generally. This is a relationship that has been long neglected among Calvin scholars, despite the fact that Calvin is repeatedly explicitly engaged with Erasmus in his NT commentaries, and despite that fact that his "humanism" is widely recognized. Calvin can be seen following Erasmus, not only in certain philological conclusions, but also, as I will try to show, in advocating a particular kind of theological method as it relates to the foolishness of the cross (and not only when considering 1 Cor. 1-4, but also Phil. 2:6f. === A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Spring Semester, 2014. === February 17, 2014. === 1 Corinthians, Christian Philosophy, Erasmus, Folly, John Calvin, Paul === Includes bibliographical references. === Francois Dupuigrenet Desroussilles, Professor Directing Dissertation; Reinier Leushuis, University Representative; John Kelsay, Committee Member; David Levenson, Committee Member.