The Essential Erasmus: Includes the Full Text of the Praise of Folly

by Erasmus

Book Overview

In his own day a center of controversy, in the four hundred years since his death known too often solely as an apostle of mockery and irreverence, Erasmus can be seen today in a new light--as a humanist whose concen is at once contemporary and Christian. The Essential Erasmus is the first single volume in English to show the full spectrum of this Renaissance man's thought, which is no less profound because it is expressed with the grace, wit, and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452009723
• ISBN13: 9780452009721
• Release Date: May 1964
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Don't be a Fool, Buy This Book !

I bought this book because I study Shakespeare and it's been said, no Erasmus, no Shakespeare. I suspect there is a lot of Truth in this sentiment. And to be honest, I try to 'think' with Christian Humanism reasoning, vice whatever is the fashion today (I'm not sure if we're supposed to be Post-Post Modernist, or Secular Modernist or whatever - Christian Humanism seems to be more direct and reasonable and responsible, than being 'liberal' and rationalizing 'anything goes.' I only wish he'd been an English writer so I could have enjoyed his wit 'unmediated' by a translator.

Good Erasmus compilation for the lay reader

I really like Erasmus, and after studying him in a reformation class I decided to look for a collection of his writings, and this is a nice, cheap copy. Erasmus is a difficult person to analyze and figure out what exactly he is after. His writings can be confusing at times and one may sometimes wonder the applicability of some of his words for today; of course, such was very significant in the time period in which they were composed. Though their bearing may not have as much salient application to todays world, I think it is still very relevant, especially when considered with the proper perspective; if the writings themselves are not directly relevant, surely the motivation for his writings are. One would be wise to analyze their self, the modern church, and the modern world in light of his ideas and consider what he would propose did he live today.

One of the boldest books ever written!

Traveling toward England, Erasmus conceived the idea a little book that would become a referential text for the readers of the future. Dedicated to Thomas Moro making a curious twist of words between the name Moro and the Greek term "Moria" that designs the madness. This was a game in which he has thinking, but eventually will turn in a dangerous game. The text is apparently written by the madness itself and it says that it is the most powerful force which impulses the human life, and that all what it happens between men would be sadder, more mournful if not by its presence. This sort of allegation of the madness has a dark and corrosive emendatory, that precisely is what explicitly Erasmus is affirming. "All of you, men that populates Europe, loaded of destiny, are somehow madmen, foolish, people who ignore what you do or even go, and worst still, even don? t know the weight of your responsibilities." But wisely, he does not say in the serious tune of a preacher man, but in a mockery tune of this light satire that allows that such important isues be said and eventually contribute to shock the European conscious in a moment that was mature for that shaking, without great risk for the man who said it. It is absolutely fundamental for any illustrated person its reading. This is one the most transcendental texts of the Western civilization, In this sense this is a smart essay that will help us to understand evenc ?poser yjis egregious mind.