On Praying to God

A guide to prayer, written in thanks for a silver jug, that steps carefully around praying to the saints.

Latin, the original language

Original title: Modus orandi Deum
First published: 1524(aged 58)
Original language: Latin

Overview

Hieronymus Łaski, a Polish nobleman and diplomat, visited Erasmus in Basel in 1524 and left him a richly decorated silver jug. Erasmus repaid him that October with a book. Its dedication opens on the thought that gifts of gratitude travel back and forth: Łaski had left a pledge of his affection, and here was a pledge of Erasmus's in return. The book is a treatise on how to pray. The Gospel abolished the sacrifices of the law of Moses, Erasmus begins, and of the offerings that remain none did Christ commend more carefully than prayer. Prayer takes three forms: petition, thanksgiving joined with praise, and the hymn. The delicate part was what to say about praying to the saints, in a year when reformers were attacking their cult and Erasmus himself was being pressed to write against Luther. He does not forbid it. He points out that the early Church hesitated for a long time even to address prayers to the Holy Spirit, because Scripture did not plainly authorise it. And he notes, as he had in earlier books, how much superstition surrounds the saints: many people ask them for things they would not dare ask of an honest man, and believe they will not be heard without some particular rite. The book sold at once: Froben issued a revised and enlarged text in March 1525, and by the end of that year printers across Europe had produced ten new editions.

Key concepts

What are the three kinds of prayer in On Praying to God?

Petition, thanksgiving joined with praise, and the hymn. Petition asks God for what we need; thanksgiving and praise acknowledge what he has given and who he is; the hymn is praise sung, as Paul urged Christians to sing psalms and hymns in their hearts. Erasmus keeps them together because asking without thanking turns prayer into a bargain.

Why does Erasmus call prayer the offering that remains?

Because the Gospel abolished the animal sacrifices of the law of Moses, yet some offering to God is still owed. Of the offerings that remain to Christians, Erasmus argues, none did Christ commend more carefully than prayer. It is a sacrifice made with the mind rather than with blood, which is why everything in the book turns on the state of the heart that prays.

What is intercession, and what does Erasmus say about it?

Intercession is asking a saint to pray to God on one's behalf. Erasmus does not forbid it, but he recalls that the early Church long hesitated even to address prayers to the Holy Spirit, because Scripture did not plainly authorise it. His target is the superstition around it: treating saints as specialists for each trouble, or as patrons replacing the gods of a pagan city.

What makes a prayer sincere, according to Erasmus?

The silent affection of piety toward God. Words, chant and music are not condemned if they are moderate and fit for worship, but without that inner disposition they are nothing. That affection is the song God finds most pleasing, Erasmus says, even when no voice is heard at all, and it is what turns a recited formula into a prayer.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

How to Pray, and to Whom

If the old sacrifices are gone, what offering remains, and to whom should it be made? Erasmus answers with prayer, and steps carefully through the quarrel over praying to the saints.

The Gospel ended the sacrifices of the law of Moses, and of what remains Christ commended prayer most carefully. Its forms are petition, thanksgiving joined with praise, and the hymn. Song in church may be kept if it is moderate, but the song God likes best is the silent affection of the heart. Erasmus does not forbid prayers to the saints. He notes that the early Church long hesitated to pray even to the Holy Spirit, and he exposes the superstition of soldiers who trust Saint George and cities that adopt patron saints like pagan gods.

prayer
intercession
saints
worship
humility
gratitude
praise
petition
superstition
sincerity

Enter a dialogue

Within this work

passages held: 146
distinct concepts: 219
by passages held, corpus-wide: #423

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “prayer” and “scripture”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 19 pairings. 91 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
prayer	scripture	15
intercession	prayer	11
intercession	saints	11
prayer	religious practice	11
prayer	worship	9
gratitude	prayer	6
humility	prayer	6
prayer	saints	4
humility	intercession	3
intercession	religious practice	2
religious practice	saints	2
religious practice	scripture	2
gratitude	humility	1
gratitude	intercession	1
humility	saints	1
humility	worship	1
intercession	worship	1
saints	scripture	1
saints	worship	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

1500 Adages (Adagia)
The work that first made Erasmus famous and the one he revised for longest, from 1500 until the year he died; Erasmus Against War began as one of its entries.
LA
1503 The Manual of the Christian Knight (Enchiridion militis Christiani)
The earnest twin of In Praise of Folly: when critics attacked the satire, Erasmus answered that it treats the same subject as this manual, only in a playful spirit.
EN
1504 Panegyric for Archduke Philip of Austria (Panegyricus ad Philippum Austriae ducem)
Erasmus's advice to a ruler, delivered as a speech of welcome; The Complaint of Peace and the essay on war later make its case for peace without the obligatory flattery.
LA
1511 In Praise of Folly (Moriae encomium)
A mock oration in Folly's own voice and Erasmus's most famous book; The Tongue of 1525 has been read as an attempt at a companion piece.
LAEN
1511 On the Method of Study (De ratione studii)
Part of the same English years' work as De copia, with which it was later printed; Erasmus's later The Education of Children moves the same programme back to infancy.
LA
1515 Erasmus Against War (Dulce bellum inexpertis)
The fullest essay on war in the Adages and the core of Erasmus's writings for peace; The Complaint of Peace restates its case two years later in Peace's own voice.
EN
1516 The Education of a Christian Prince (Institutio principis christiani)
Erasmus's one full treatise on government, in the old genre of advice books for rulers; The Complaint of Peace followed a year later.
LA
1517 The Complaint of Peace (Querela pacis)
A declamation in the voice of Peace, the device of In Praise of Folly turned to a serious purpose, and the most direct of Erasmus's several writings against war.
LAEN
1518 Familiar Colloquies (Colloquia familiaria)
The book that carried Erasmus's views on fasting, pilgrimage and monks to far more readers than his devotional treatises ever reached.
LAEN
1518 In Praise of Marriage (De laude matrimonii)
A schoolroom piece that turned into a controversy: the first of three works on marriage, followed by The Institution of Christian Matrimony in 1526 and On the Christian Widow in 1529.
LA
1520 The Antibarbarians (Antibarbari)
The first statement of the cause Erasmus served all his life, classical learning as the ally of Christian faith, written before any of the books that made his name.
LA
1521 On Disdaining the World (De contemptu mundi)
The counterweight to everything Erasmus later wrote about monks, from The Manual of the Christian Knight to the Familiar Colloquies, and probably the earliest of his surviving prose works.
LA
1524 On Praying to God (Modus orandi Deum) you are here LA
1525 The Tongue (Lingua)
Erasmus's fullest treatment of a theme that runs through all his writing, speech as the mirror of the soul, written in Basel in the middle of the polemics of the 1520s.
LA
1526 The Institution of Christian Matrimony (Christiani matrimonii institutio)
Commissioned through the English court and dedicated to its queen, it is Erasmus's main statement on the law and practice of marriage, where In Praise of Marriage had been a single persuasive letter.
LA
1528 The Ciceronian (Dialogus cui titulus Ciceronianus)
Satire aimed at fellow humanists rather than at theologians, unusual in Erasmus's later years; it first appeared in one volume with his dialogue on the pronunciation of Latin and Greek.
LA
1529 On the Christian Widow (Vidua christiana)
The last of Erasmus's writings on women's lives, after In Praise of Marriage and The Institution of Christian Matrimony, and like the second of those dedicated to a queen.
LA
1529 The Education of Children (De pueris statim ac liberaliter instituendis)
Dedicated to a prince's heir, like The Education of a Christian Prince, but concerned with every child's first years rather than with government; the most personal of Erasmus's books on schooling.
LAEN
1533 An Explanation of the Apostles' Creed (Explanatio symboli)
Erasmus's catechism, written for lay readers rather than theologians three years before his death.
LA

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