A literary dialogue between a Christian and a Muslim, maintaining the superiority of Christianity: this volume presents a critical Latin text and the first ever English translation, annotated, of this important but hitherto largely overlooked document among sources in Christian – Muslim relations. Some of Vives’s criticisms of Muhammad and Islam are based on scripture or reason; many others rely on lampoon of Arab or Islamic folk tales. Still, he censures Muslim followers only narrowly, far less for moral failings or hatred of Christians than for gullibility in accepting Islam. Book Four provides valuable evidence of the reach and the limits of Vives’s humanistic tolerance as applied to religious conflict.

The De Europae dissidiis et republica (On Conflicts in Europe and on the Commonwealth) is a collection published by Vives in 1526 that has been called his “summa politica.” It contains five letters, to Henry VIII and three prelates including Cardinal Wolsey; a Lucian-style underworld satire on European wars and the Turkish threat; and Latinizations of two political speeches by Isocrates. It counsels the pursuit of peace following Christian principles, but it also explores the possibility of an aggressive war against the Turks as the means of unifying and saving European Christendom. It urges the calling of a council to deal with Luther. We present critical Latin texts and, for the first time, English translations, with introduction and notes.

Juan Luis Vives’ 1533 treatise on rhetoric, De ratione dicendi, is a highly original but largely neglected Renaissance Latin text. David Walker’s critical edition, with introduction, facing translation and notes, is the first to appear in English. The conception of rhetoric which Vives elaborates in the De ratione dicendi differs significantly from that which is found in other rhetorical treatises written during the humanist Renaissance. Rhetoric as Vives conceives it is part of the discipline of self-knowledge, and involves a distinct way of thinking about the way kinds of rhetorical style manifested modes of human life. Moving as it did from the concrete particulars of a man’s style to their abstractable implications, the study of rhetoric was for him a form of moral thinking which enabled the student to develop a critical framework for understanding the world he lived in.

This study presents a new analysis of the historical meaning of Grotius’ apologetic work. It means to answer two chief questions: what were Grotius' motives to write this work, and what sources did he use?

This volume contains the proceedings of a conference “Hugo Grotius as a Theologian” (1992), held at the occasion of the retirement of professor Guillaume H.M. Posthumus Meyjes, the editor of Grotius' Meletius. Containing thirteen lectures, it is divided into three sections. In the first all Grotius' main theological works are discussed. The second section presents studies of Grotius' relationship to Erasmus, his polemics with André Rivet, his views on scholarly and religious developments in contemporary France, and his opinions on Jews and Judaism. Four lectures on the reception of Grotius' theological thought in the 17th and 18th centuries in Great Britain, Switzerland and the Netherlands, constitute the third section. In the appendix, a bibliography on the theme 'Grotius as a theologian' is provided. Publications by G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes: • Geschiedenis van het Waalse College te Leiden, 1606-1699, ISBN: 978 90 04 06669 4 (Out of print) • Jean Gerson et l'Assemblée de Vincennes (1329): Ses conceptions de la juridiction temporelle de l'Église, ISBN: 978 90 04 05740 1 • Hugo Grotius – Meletius, sive de iis quae inter Christianos conveniunt epistola. Critical Edition with Translation, Commentary and Introduction, ISBN: 978 90 04 08356 1 • Edited by C. Berkvens-Stevelinck, J. Israel and G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes, Emergence of Tolerance in the Dutch Republic, ISBN: 978 90 04 10768 7 • G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes. Translated by J.C. Grayson, Jean Gerson - Apostle of Unity: His Church Politics and Ecclesiology, ISBN: 978 90 04 11296 4

The extraordinarily diverse oeuvre of Juan Luis Vives, marked by great erudition and originality, still remains very little known in the English-speaking world. This collection of essays considers his life and the influence of his writings, and examines some of his chief works. These include his books on the education of women and on the relief of the poor, his numerous political writings, and his huge encyclopedic treatise, De disciplinis, a comprehensive critical and systematic review of universal learning and the state of the academic disciplines at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Subsequent chapters discuss Vives's ideas on the soul, especially his analysis of the emotions, his contribution to rhetoric and dialectic and a posthumous defense of the Christian religion in dialogue form. Contributors are Enrique Gonzalez Gonzalez, Catherine Curtis, Peter Mack, Valerio Del Nero, Edward V. George.

Volume 46

Humanism has constantly proclaimed the belief that the only way to improve man's life on earth is to make man himself wiser and better. Unfortunately, the voice of the humanists has always been challenged by the loud and cheap promises of scientists, by the inflammatory tirades of politicians, and by the apocalyptic visions of false prophets. Material greed, nonsensical chauvinism, racial prejudice, and religious antagonism have progressively defiled the inner beauty of man. Today's bankruptcy of man's dignity in the midst of an unparalleled material abundance calls for an urgent revival of humanistic ideals and values. This book was planned from its very start as a modest step in that direction. It is not my intention, however, to attempt, once again, a global interpretation of Humanism in general, or of Renaissance Humanism in particular. I have been dissuaded from such a purpose by the failure of contemporary scholars to agree on such basic issues as whether the Renaissance was a total break with or a continuation of medieval culture, whether it was basically a Christian or a pagan movement, whether it was the effect or the cause of the classical revival. Instead, then, of discussing the significance of sixteenth century humanism, this book concentrates upon the life and the thought of a single humanist.