late 15th – early 16th c.

Christian humanism and Erasmus's "philosophy of Christ"

Around 1500, humanism in northern Europe took on a Christian character. Led by Erasmus of Rotterdam, scholars called for a return "ad fontes" – to the Greek and Hebrew biblical text and the early Church Fathers. Erasmus understood Christianity as a simple, moderate, inward "philosophy of Christ" opposed to scholastic formalism.

In 1516 he published the first printed Greek New Testament with a new Latin translation (the "Novum Instrumentum omne"). The Complutensian Polyglot prepared at Alcalá followed soon after. These editions laid the foundations of modern biblical scholarship and influenced Luther, Zwingli and other reformers, though Erasmus himself remained within the Catholic Church.