Erasing Borders: The Lost Bet of Erasmus

A return to history represents a way to a possible solution to the problems encountered today by a sociology of religion perplexed by the continual transformations of an elusive object of study. The present article proposes a borrowing from Weber's sociology of religion in order to discern empirically the fluctuating borders of a religious thought that emerged at the dawn of modernity & could be taken as a harbinger of present transformations. This exercise does not intend to be taken on historical one but aims at isolating the ideal-typical characteristics in the religious thought of Erasmus of Rotterdam, understood here as a "carrier" of the humanist thought of the 16th century. In proposing to us an interiorized & intellectualized religion reduced to its simplest expression, Erasmus proves to be the promoter of an accessible piety that would be, first & foremost, a guarantee of unity among men-but does he not, in so doing, plead for an erasing of the borders that support the very legitimacy of the religious sphere? Adapted from the source document.