31 pages • 1 hour read
Desiderius ErasmusPraise Of Folly
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1511A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPages 123-134Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 123-127 Summary: “Folly Quotes Christ in Her Praise”
Christ preferred the company of simple people, like fishermen, women, and children. He described himself as a shepherd of his flock, thus comparing his followers to sheep, widely known as a foolish animal. Chris himself is often called the Lamb of God. Folly explains that Jesus condemned those who trust in their own intelligence instead of in God.
Christ’s incarnation as an act to redeem humankind was an act of “foolishness,” and his acceptance of death on a cross was “folly” as well. Christ preached the use of simple images and metaphors from nature, not wise and learned arguments. In his parable about the lilies, Christ teaches that humans should live simple lives, free from care or worry. In Genesis, God forbids man to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, implying that knowledge is harmful. When people ask God for forgiveness, they often invoke folly to explain their actions. Likewise, when Christ was dying on the cross, he asked God forgiveness for his executors because they acted in ignorance. Thus, everything that Christ did contradicted worldly wisdom.
Pages 128-132 Summary: “The Christian Religion’s Alliance with Folly”
Christianity thus “has a kind of kinship with folly” (128). The most religious people tend to be children, the elderly, women, and “simpletons.” The happiness that Christians seek does not belong to this world but to heaven. Christians shun the ordinary rewards and pleasures of this life in favor of glory in heaven. They scorn the needs of the body in favor of the needs of the soul. They reject wealth and embrace poverty because it will bring them closer to God.
Pages 132-134 Summary: “The Rewards of Life Hereafter”
The happiness that Christians seek at the end of earthly life is a kind of madness as he is brought “outside himself” and absorbed into God. Believers who have mystical experiences enjoy a foretaste of heavenly happiness in this life, in which it definitely appears to be “folly”: speaking in strange tongues, weeping and laughing as if in a trance, etc. Such experiences lift us out of our earthly life and give us a taste of “divine madness.”
Having completed her argument, Folly bids her audience farewell and tells them to enjoy their life to the full as “distinguished initiates of Folly” (134).
Pages 123-134 Analysis
This last section of the book concludes Praise of Folly. Here, Erasmus reveals the serious message that lies behind the jesting tone of the work. He abandons his previous mocking tone, writing more seriously and philosophically. As well, Erasmus turns away from classical pagan motifs and emphasizes the book’s Christian message.
In the previous section, Erasmus cites classical pagan authors who praise folly. Now he turns to the New Testament to support his rhetoric, which would have been the highest authority for Erasmus’s audience. St. Paul speaks of himself as a “fool” or as a “fool for Christ” and often contrasts worldly wisdom with God’s perspective: “God’s folly is greater than human wisdom” (124); “The doctrine of the cross is folly to those that are perishing” (124); “God chose to save the world through folly” (124). Jesus’s acceptance of death on the cross when he could easily have saved his own life is a supreme example of “folly,” but it is a “folly” that saved the world. As well, the gospel teaches that humans are all “fools” in God’s eyes and in need of God’s redemption, a teaching with which Folly would agree.
In the final section, Erasmus applies Platonic ideas to Christianity while describing how the soul reaches union with God. He evokes Plato’s story of the cave, which illustrates that another reality exists, beyond the visible world. The Christian believer has broken out of the cave and seen the reality that, on the cave wall, was only shadows. To those who can see only the shadows, any talk of another reality seems like folly. Erasmus’ use of Plato reflects the influence of Neoplatonism, a revival of Plato’s thought that took place during the Renaissance.
The true Christian believer that Erasmus describes in this section—one that scorns wealth and bodily comforts—are foils to the rulers, theologians and other wise men described in previous sections of the book. A Christian “fool” transcends himself and reaches God. For the Christian “fool,” everything in life is ordered according to intangible values that lead to God.
At the end of the book, Erasmus dispels lofty religious meditations through the voice of Folly, who reminds readers that it is she who has been speaking all along. By employing self-deprecation, Folly reminds readers that she is only a fool, but that “often a foolish man speaks a word in season” (134). This humble tone enhances the possibility that Erasmus’s message may be well-received by its audience. As well, Erasmus prioritizes consistency, keeping his tone light while decrying the false notes of the most learned members of his society.
