Protestantism and Christian Humanism
Fundamental Differences Between the Two Movements of the Reformation
Christian humanism (otherwise known as Northern humanism in contrast to Italian humanism) was one with Protestantism in its efforts to reform the corrupt Church of Medieval Christendom. As an intellectual movement that emerged out the Renaissance, its aim was to promote a broad social reform in Europe to address the corruption of the Church based on Christian ideals and the revival of classical (i.e., Graeco-Roman) learning.
Their program for the reformation of the Church was basically geared towards the development of the ethical way of life through the fusion of the best elements of classical learning and the Christian religion. However, the Protestant reformers, starting with Martin Luther, had something much deeper to offer – that of calling the Church back to biblical Christianity on doctrinal and theological grounds.
Fundamental Differences Between Christian Humanism and Protestantism
Impatient with the Roman Catholic Church's scholastic approach to educational pursuits, the Christian humanists applied Renaissance humanism's educational system to providing solutions to the religious issues of the day. The French humanist Jacques Lefevre, for instance, worked hard to produce a more accurate text of the Bible, believing that a solid education in Scripture would result in increased piety and heighten the level of Christian influence in society.
These humanists believed that the power of the human intellect, appropriately educated and properly honed in classical learning and the Christian religion, would bring about moral and institutional reform. Thus, they put emphasis on reason as the key to building a sure foundation for the long-awaited reformation of the Church.
While Protestantism also had the intellectual and moral aspects of the reformation in view in all of its efforts to bring the Roman Catholic Church back to biblical Christianity, it fundamentally differed with Christian humanism. Protestantism was a theological and spiritual movement that sought to address the religious issues of the day on doctrinal grounds based on the final authority of the Bible as the written Word of God (i.e., the Protestant doctrine known in Latin as sola scriptura).
The Debate Between Luther and Erasmus
These fundamental differences between Christian humanism and Protestantism surfaced on Luther's disagreement with the prince of the humanists, Desiderius Erasmus, in spite of the fact that they were one in their criticism of the corrupt Church of Medieval Christendom.
Following his fellow Christian humanists, Erasmus despised the Church's idea of Christianity that technically reduced the religion of Christ to mere formalism, religious rituals, ceremonies and dogmas. Instead, he proclaimed that Christianity is more of an inner attitude of the heart and offered an alternative in what he called in his own words as "the philosophy of Christ."
However, Luther, who at the Diet of Worms proclaimed himself to have been captive to the Word of God, found in Erasmus and his fellow Christian humanists a fundamental weakness - their understanding of the biblical doctrine of grace and the theology of salvation was not sufficient enough to effect genuine reformation in the Church. Erasmus, being a Renaissance intellectual, placed reason above Scripture. It was the other way around with Luther, who, after his long quest for truth and careful theological studies, concluded that Scripture must be placed above reason.
Many of those who for a long time wished for the reformation of the Church wanted to have both Luther and Erasmus work together in spite of their differences. However, the Protestant reformer and the prince of the humanist increasingly became critical of each other. Under the constant pressure of both the religious and political hierarchies of Medieval Christendom, Erasmus attacked Luther through his treatise On the Freedom of the Will. Luther responded through his work The Bondage of the Will.
Regardless of the fact that Erasmus the humanist was a more eloquent writer than Luther the theologian, the latter proved to have a more accurate grasp of the gospel of Christ. Erasmus believed that though human nature had been corrupted by sin, man's fundamental goodness remained and could be improved through education.
To the Protestant reformer, what Erasmus had to offer was a semi-Pelagian gospel, belonging to the synergistic view of salvation where man must cooperate with God in order to secure his place in heaven as against Protestantism's monergistic view where salvation is understood to be a complete work of God made possible only by His grace (i.e., the Protestant doctrine called in Latin as sola gratia).
References:
- Eriks, Garrett J., "Luther and Erasmus: The Controversy Concerning the Bondage of the Will" in Protestant Reformed Theological Journal: April 1999, Volume 32, Number 2.
- Kreis, John Steven. "Desiderius Erasmus, 1466-1536" The History Guide: Lectures on Early Modern European Intellectual History.
- Schaff, Phillip. History of the Christian Church Volume VII. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997.
Martin Luther's Answer to Erasmus
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