ABSTRACT
Erasmus was so convinced that Christianity at its highest is a form of good madness that he put his own convictions into the very mouth of Christ, not only in paradoxical works of 'literature' but in his recension and in the accompanying Annotationes. The principal teachings of Christianity flew in the face of mature philosophical and religious thinking in the wider world of the Roman Empire. As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, religious ecstasy was increasingly interpreted with the help of Platonic philosophy. St Paul taught that Christ, crucified and resurrected, revealed the awe-inspiring. St Paul's rapture became a corner-stone for Christian mystic doctrines. Paul taught that Christ, crucified and resurrected, revealed the awe-inspiring power of the 'weakness of God which is stronger than men' and, similarly, of that 'foolishness of God which is wiser than men'.
