Overview

None of the works included among Erasmus' 'Literary and Educational Writings' in the Collected Works of Erasmus captures his most adventurous thinking about how texts signify in and thereby make or remake worlds of thought, feeling, and action. The one that comes closest to doing so, the Ratio verae theologiae ('A System of True Theology'), was first published separately in 1518 and 1519, then appeared in the preliminaries to the New Testament in Erasmus' (revised) 1519 edition. This handy Ratio or compendious 'System' gave advice on how to interpret complex texts and develop persuasive arguments based upon them. Its lessons were applied to the canonical Scriptures as source, and to everyday Christian theology as target discourse. They unfold in response to the special difficulties and incitements of the biblical text in Latin and Greek, within a framework provided by classical grammar and rhetoric, adjusted to the examples of the Church Fathers as exemplary interpreters of the Bible. At every turn, the Ratio. It is designed to make it easier to estimate the long-term value of this particular work and of Erasmus' works more generally, and to allow for a multidisciplinary understanding of the lives of human beings as symbol-using creatures in worlds constructed partly by texts.

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9781487522100

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This book provides compelling insights into Erasmus's views on interpreting the Bible and reading more generally. It will be helpful to students of renaissance literature and literary theory. - Peter Mack, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of Warwick Vessey presents one of Erasmus' key texts on biblical scholarship in a fresh way by giving Sider's lucid, well-structured and annotated translation, preceded by five excellent, informative essays by recognized specialists. It is well done and a pleasure to read it, as is Grafton's insightful foreword. I learned a lot from this book that shows us a humanist theologian and Christian at work. - Jan Bloemendal, Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Erasmus' Ratio of 1519, designed as a novice's guide to interpreting the New Testament, serves here as a powerful entry into the life, leading ideas, and historical context of Europe's most famous humanist. The splendid accompanying essays offer a rich complement to the translation and annotations of the text, explaining the principles of literary analysis which informed his theology. - Ann Blair, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor, Harvard University It is hard to overestimate the significance of Erasmus' insights into how literature is produced and interpreted. Here at last as a stand-alone text is a fine English translation of the Ratio verae theologiae, an introduction to reading the New Testament and the work that most directly distilled Erasmus' view of how we understand literature. Specialists and students alike will be delighted, inspired, and enabled by this powerful, extremely substantial, and richly adorned edition. - Nigel Smith, William and Annie S. Paton Foundation Professor of Ancient and Modern Literature, Princeton University

Author Information

Mark Vessey is Principal of Green College and Professor of English Literature at the University of British Columbia. Robert D. Sider is General Editor of the New Testament Scholarship for the Collected Works of Erasmus. Anthony Grafton is Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University.

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