Among the most influential reformative authors during the Renaissance were Pico Della Mirandola and Erasmus of Rotterdam. Both distinguished writers explore humanism as a whole, and clearly dissect the relationship between knowledge and piety in their own way. According to orthodox theology, man was born sinful and was incapable of virtue without the aid of divine grace. However, Humanism offered an alternative, which said that man could freely choose his destiny and could act rightly by the exercise of his own will. Pico’s “Wisdom” throughout On the Dignity of Man, involves the practice of intellectual enlightenment and suggests knowledge as a necessary step towards piety. However, piety cannot be achieved solely without the final step of earning God’s grace. Erasmus’ Praise of Folly criticizes human society through the vast number of follies that lie within. Although it may seem strange to praise Folly, the one certain advantage to foolishness is the freedom to speak the truth. In Praise of Folly, Erasmus puts this freedom to good use in reminding his readers, a society greatly corrupted by worldly concerns, that one must serve God in order to reach a state of piety. Erasmus, as well as Pico, believes that man has self-determination along with the movement of the soul towards God. Erasmus bids entrance into the ambiguity of what we can know and understand, and ultimately the ambiguity of all knowledge, most importantly the divine wisdom of Christ. Although both Pico and Erasmus share a similar correlation between knowledge and piety, the two authors differ however, in that Pico emphasizes the notion that man has the ability to form himself through free will and become pious through intellectual reformation, while Erasmus calls for the need to increase knowledge of the original texts of The Bible, and believes that piety is achieved only when passion, a stifle to spiritual enlightenment can be separated completely from mans soul.
The Essay on Compare and Contrast the Ways in Which Two Poets Create Sympathy for Their Characters – ‘on a Portrait of a Deaf Man’ and ‘the River God’.
The poems ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’, written by John Betjeman and ‘The River God’, written by Stevie Smith appear as two very different poems; one in monologue form and the other in a regular form; but they are in fact two very similar poems. ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’ presents a character mourning the death of a deaf man who was very close to him/her, and ‘The River God’ presents a lonely ...
Pico preaches the need to rise up above being a mundane human being and become something of spiritual worth. In order to achieve this lifting, Pico repetitively demands the importance of God’s gift of free will. In the beginning of On the Dignity of Man, Pico relates to this importance by sharing God’s words to Adam after the creation of man:
“I have placed thee at the center of the
world…Neither heavenly nor earthly, either mortal
or immortal have We made thee. Thou art the
molder and maker of thyself into whatever shape
dost prefer. Though canst grow
downward into the lower natures which are brutes.
Thou canst again grow upward from the soul’s
reason into the higher natures which are divine…It
is given to man to have that which he chooses and
to be that which he wills.”
(On the Dignity of Man p.5)
The passage strongly affirms the gift given to man of free will. Pico explains that man has been bestowed upon the choice to grow towards God and piety or away as a brute. Shortly he adds that no matter if man was destined a brute or a heavenly angel, if man is not content with who he is he can “take himself up into the center of his own unity, then, made one spirit with God…he will stand ahead of all things.”(O p.5) Pico argues that although pre-destination may exist, it cannot limit the gift of free will, which has been bestowed on man. Pico believes that free will can be related to self-transformation through meditation. For he later says, “If you come upon a pure contemplator, ignorant of the body…he is not earthly, not a heavenly animal; he more superbly is a divinity clothed with human flesh.” With the peace bestowed by dialectic, which transcends rhetoric, Pico says through meditation, man can rise up and be one with the divine:
The Essay on Job Character Analysis God Life Man
Job was a man who was perfect (not sinless) and upright, one that feared God and turned away from evil. Job is a perfect example of universal suffering, why those are good suffer along with the individuals who are called bad. Job was a man who God had allowed to obtain riches and fame. He had all of the finer things in life. Satan knew this, and wanted to bring sorrow and pain into Job's life for ...
“When we have attained that by means of the
speaking or reasoning art, then besouled by a
cherub’s spirit, philosophizing along the rungs
of the ladder of nature…we shall at another time
be ascending and gathering into one the
many…until we finally come to rest in the bosom
of the Father, who is at the top of the ladder,
and are consumed by a theological Happiness.”
(O p.10)
Pico’s significant issue in On the Dignity of Man, lies within the teaching that dialectic alone could harmonize disparate philosophies, synthesize religion, and unveil the secret wisdom at the core of all systems. Pico explains that natural philosophy is imparted first by study and later, when man is purified, by initiation. He cites Moses, “Let those who are still unclean and in need of moral knowledge dwell with the people outside the tabernacle…Let those who have by now set their lives in order be received into the sanctuary.”(O p.12) Simply stated, those that freely choose the path of God and expand their mind intellectually will be welcomed, when purified, into the house of the Divine.
Many of Pico’s ideas are mocked by Folly in Erasmus’ Praise of Folly. Erasmus, in fact, views Humanism as the opposition to scholasticism. In regards to living a life of folly, Erasmus claims that the philosophers would protest that a life of folly would be one of “illusion” and “deception”. Erasmus mocks mans branch system of learning, “Man is especially gifted with understanding of the branches of learning so that they can help him compensate by his wits for what nature has denied him.”(Praise of Folly p.50) Donning the mask of Folly, Erasmus criticized almost everything in life, including Catholicism, and in the process he defended the conservative Christian ethic. Though he attacked the foolishness that led to the corruption of the Church, Erasmus defended conservative Christianity with praise of a different type of folly, the essential Scriptural truths of Christianity which are the wisdom of God. Erasmus refers to Paul’s teachings of the folly of gospel, by saying that “it is quite clear that the Christian religion has a kind of kinship with folly in some form, though it has none at all wisdom.”(P p.128) Erasmus quotes this because if “folly by contrast, is being swayed by the dictates of passions”(p.29) then Christianity falls to the feet of Folly, for the love of God is definitely a passion. This love and folly exemplifies Erasmus’ voice on the necessity to understand the texts of early Christianity.
The Essay on Socrates God Man Wisdom
socrates By: mike The Key to Happiness Truly, many of life's unteachable lessons are those most sought to be learned. The cycle that life revolves in is a direct product of mankind's knowledge. For without answers to many of life's mysteries, there is no progress, no change. The missing piece to the puzzle is God's wisdom. "Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother's ...
Erasmus emphasizes the requirement for man to separate their passion from themselves, in order to achieve Piety. He examines a work from Luke:
Christ…providing men with nothing but a sword-not
the sword which serves the robbers and murderers,
but the sword of the spirit which penetrates into
the innermost depths of the bosom and cuts out
every passion with a single stroke, so that
nothing remains in the heart but piety.”
(p.131)
Erasmus furthers this idea a few pages later when tells of the Eucharist symbolizing the death of Christ. He explains that “man must express through the mastery and extinction of their bodily passions…Then this is how the pious man acts, and this is his purpose.”(p.131) Erasmus goes on to write:
“I quote this only as one example, in fact the
<pious man> throughout his whole life withdraws
from the things of the body and is drawn towards
what is eternal, invisible, and spiritual.”
(p.132)
Erasmus teaches of a new type of wisdom, the wisdom of Christ, which cannot be mistaken for the stoic definition of “nothing else but being ruled by reason”(p29).
This wisdom of Christ explained by Erasmus is Divining, and is fundamentally the same grace in which Pico calls for man to strive for. The two authors agree that a fine relation between knowledge and piety exist, however they differ only in their views of achieving this grace. Pico calls for intellectual study and self-reform through meditation and free will, and Erasmus teaches, through Folly’s satirical mockery of herself, the need for separation of mans passion from the Self, and the necessity to learn the roots of Christianity such as the early doctrines of the New Testament.
The Essay on The Passion Of The Christ
The Passion of the Christ The Passion of the Christ dramatically and graphically captures the last 12 hours of Christ's life on Earth, accurately based on the four gospels. The film - unique passion has stirred controversyGibson wanted to make the most accurate movie possible and I think he succeeded. After a special public screening for the Global Pastors Network the furor has reached proportions ...
