Question

How are the monk's actions the opposite of Christian beliefs? (based on the article The Praise of Folly)

Answer 1

Answer:

The monks exhibit a high level of hypocrisy exhibited in the following ways;

1. They reject money and live a life of denial but they do not reject wine nor women.

2. They gloat in their self-righteousness forgetting that they would be judged by the standards set by Christ.

3. They claim to explain the scriptures but in actuality, they circumvent the serious or core issues that they should spend more of their time explaining.

Explanation:

The writer of the article, Erasmus, speaking through the narrator Folly, explained the degree of folly exhibited by the theologians and the monks. He accused them of several acts of hypocrisy which include; giving attention to things that were not so important such as the color of their cloaks, claiming that they reject money but yielding to some desires of the flesh such as drinking wine and sleeping with women. They do not explain the weightier matters found in the scriptures but rather spent their time on trivialities.

They had their own standards of righteousness which Folly believed not the same as those of Christs'. All these actions were the opposite of Christian beliefs.