11/10 The Praise of Folly #11A

Folly
In Erasmus's Praise of Folly, Folly is character that describes her role in people's lives. According to Folly, she is a deity, a goddess. She differs from other gods in that she requires no token of devotion from her subjects nor does her rule only over one region, but the entire world. Folly describes her ways as following the ways of Nature. Being a fool does not step beyond the lot that Nature has given humans, like artists, philosophers, inventors do. Foolishness not hurt anyone, instead not only brings pleasure to the fool and to one observing the fool. Since foolishness is simply thriving in the way Nature has allotted us, why would it hurt anyone? Folly's ways, as Erasmus has described, encourages a selfish, low life style where one is not human, only an animal. One should not think outside what pleases him and what would make oneself a better person. Folly's lifestyle is a degrading, wretched life style that, even if it leads to present happiness, can only lead to misery in the end.
Christian Folly
Erasmus's Christian Folly does not make any sense. He wrote that Christianity is folly, that God hates human wisdom (so he must encourage foolishness) and that even our Savior's act was in itself Folly and that is what, in the end, saves us. While I can understand his point, I believe that Erasmus is missing the entire point of Christianity. His earlier descriptions of Folly describes a life style wrapped up around the individual and even still, Erasmus' view of Christianity is about the individual. I know Christianity to be a faith not about me, but about God. God doesn't like human wisdom, but He doesn't want folly either. He wants us to bring glory to Him through making ourselves better and honoring Him in all our actions. Since Folly is only focused on herself, already it cannot relate to Christianity. Erasmus made some good points, about believing in Christ's folly in the cross (which is what it was), he just doesn't fully grasp the concept. God loves us, and when we accept His love, he are commanded to return that love and act according to God, still leaving the point of emphasis on God. Erasmus' school of thought does not grasp this.