Erasmus in the twentieth century: interpretations c. 1920-2000

Abstract

Erasmus in the Twentieth Century: Interpretations c 1920-2000. By Bruce Mansfield. Erasmus Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003. xiv + 324 pp. CDN$70.00 (cloth); US$70.00 (cloth). The National Library of Canada describes this book, not inappropriately, as the final volume in the trilogy which includes Phoenix of His Age (1974) and Man on His Own (1992) (p. iv). In preface Mansfield is more precise: Erasmus in the Twentieth Century both is and is not a sequel to the two previous studies: does indeed continue the interpretations of Erasmus analyzed in the two previous volumes, but it has become a book of a different (p. ix). The change was caused by a fundamental shift in the study of Erasmus in the twentieth century from apologetics to scientific scholarship. In reflecting on the enormous growth of scholarly publications in the twentieth century, the variety of critical approaches, and the technicalities of scholarship, Mansfield has produced a work that is inevitably more difficult to read than the previous volumes. It is also less entertaining. In the previous volumes Mansfield was interested not only in the fortunes of Erasmus's reputation, hut also in the writers who shaped the images of Erasmus. Hence the portrait of the Anglican Evangelical Isaac Milner, or the brief but sympathetic biography of Mark Pattison, in rum Anglican Evangelical, Tractarian, and liberal (Man on His Own, pp. 98-99, 159-164). While we seek to understand apologies through the character of their authors, scholarship pretends to be validated by its sheer facelessness. There was little room, therefore, in Erasmus in the Twentieth Century to describe the nexus between the scholar and subject-though one should not overlook the acute psychological analysis of the tragic Stefan Zweig, distinguished Jewish biographer of Erasmus, who, unable to come to grips with the reality of the Nazi regime, committed suicide in Brazil in 1942 (pp. 8-10). Mansfield has not, however, been defeated by the challenges of twentieth-century scholarship. This book may not be easy to read, but in both eloquence and illuminating synthesis matches the preceding volumes. Mansfield s prose is energetic, imagistic, and varied, ranging between the language of high dignity and humble familiarity. Moreover, Mansfield's skill in organization and synthesis has brought coherence to the many-sided scholarship on Erasmus, and set in an illuminating perspective. Further, Mansfield has embarked upon an intellectual quest, an adventure in locating Erasmus within the geography of twentieth-century thought. Thus, in two separate chapters Mansfield considers the scholarship represented by the anniversaries of Erasmus's death (1936) and birth (1967-1970). In the former celebrations his name was attached to values that were manifestly under threat: peace, toleration, liberal education, even democracy (p. …