Jaume De Marcos Andreu

From Philosopedia

Jaume de Marcos Andreu (25 June 1961 - )

Jaume de Marcos was born in Barcelona, Spain, and in 1987 graduated with a degree in Anglo-Germanic Philology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). In 2005 he also earned a Master in History of Religions, also from the UAB Barcelona University. His final paper dealt with the influence of Erasmus of Rotterdam in the works of Michael Servetus.

Although raised a Catholic, in his twenties he discovered Unitarian Universalism quite by chance while looking for information in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He joined their Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) and became active in the European Unitarian Universalists EUU. In 1996 and 1998 he participated in UU Leadership Seminars sponsored by the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU in Klingberg and Frankfurt, Germany.

In 2000 he started the Unitarian Universalist Society of Spain Sociedad Unitarios Universalistas de España - SUUE Sociedad Unitarios Universalistas de España - SUUE, which was admitted as a member of the ICUU in May, 2001. He is coordinating the creation and development of Spanish-speaking Unitarian Universalist groups in Spain and Latin America.

In 2007, his The Influence of Erasmos on Michael Servetus' Works was published by the Michael Servetus Institute. It is in English as well as Spanish. De Marcos has said of the book,

The thesis of the book is that Servetus was heavily influenced by the work of Erasmus of Rotterdam, the great scholar and sage who was caught in the middle of the struggle between Rome and the Reformations. Erasmus was, paradoxically, an inspirational author for the radicals, and "his work was indeed known, studied, and as admired as it was criticized by the different standard-bearers of the radical reformations that appeared after the third decade of the 16th century, as a reaction against what many saw in the early Reformers as timidity, cowardice, and even treason against the true spirit of Christianity, that they were committed to restore in its integrity.

Erasmus' influence in Servetus may be perceived in five main areas of thought: the return to the textual sources of revelation, the aspiration to restore original Christianity in front of the corruption of the Church, the question of the Trinity, the approach to other religions of the Book, and the issue of the role of free will in salvation. These influences may also help to explain why the antagonism between Servetus and Calvin was so acute.

The study ends with a brief review of Erasmian elements in the theology and behaviour of the two main post-Servetian antitrinitarian churches: Poland and Transylvania.

Currently, Jaume de Marcos is on the governing Board of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU) and the UNESCO Association for Interfaith Dialog. A free-lance translator, specializing mainly in software and fiction, he lives and works in Barcelona and has a son, Oriol (1997).

- The Influence of Erasmos on Michael Servetus' Work, 2007 - it is in Spanish and English