Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter
Keywords
Book review, Erasmus of Rotterdam
Abstract
For many and various reasons the complexity of Erasmus of Rotterdam will never cease to give substance to historical meditation. One might be fascinated, as were the great writers of the Enlightenment, by his opposition to every kind of inessential traditionalism in religion and philosophy or by the cosmopolitan radiation of his thinking among his contemporaries at a period of growing nationalism. Theologians and scholars of antiquity will continue to reappraise how this man of fervent religiosity and profound classical learning succeeded in his lifelong endeavor of bringing about, with the newly discovered tools of philological inquiry, a new understanding of the gospel and the patristic literature. And whoever likes to meditate on human behavior and individual decision making in periods of turmoil and uncertainty, will return to the question of why Erasmus hesitated and finally refused to adhere to the Lutheran Reformation even at its very beginning, though he had so deeply committed himself to the cause of reform that he had been considered the spiritual leader during the 1510s.
Recommended Citation
Burckhardt, Andreas
(1969)
"Erasmus Seen by a Historian,"
Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter: Vol. 5:
Iss.
1, Article 5.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_newsletter/vol5/iss1/5