Stock in Protestant Christianity was way up when Erasmus bought into the excitement. Expecting, as Metternich would later with politics, that a tradition of Christianity could be the force to keep mankind's bubble("homo bulla") aloft, he misread the disordered signs of the time.

Continuous revolution, not revelation, marked the Reformation and later Age of Metternich.

Nonetheless, a last stand in Praise of Folly, like vocal ministry confronting the principle of…

2 Chronicles 9 – The Queen of Sheba hears of Solomon’s fame and comes to Jerusalem “test him with hard questions” (9:1), to test the wisdom he was reputed to possess. She brings a great retinue carrying spices, gold and precious stones. He answers all her questions and impresses her so with the plenty of his court that she is overwhelmed. She recognizes the greatness of Israel’s Lord and gives Solomon many gifts: “9,000 pounds of god, great quantities of spices and precious…

2 Chronicles 7 – Fire comes down and consumes the burnt offering. Even the priests cannot enter the Temple “because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house” (7:2). The people’s prayer in response to the coming down of fire is to say, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever” (7:3). The offerings are made in the court before the Temple, for the altar could not hold all that Solomon offered. “For the next seven days Solomon and all Israel celebrated the Festival of…

2 Chronicles 6 – Solomon prays, “O Lord, you have said that you would live in a thick cloud of darkness. Now I have built a glorious Temple for you, a place where you can live forever” (6:1-2).

Solomon recounts the word the Lord spoke to his father David promising him that even though he had not chosen a city heretofore nor a ruler to rule over his people, he now has chosen Jerusalem as his city and David to be ruler over his people Israel.

The Lord…