What is it about?
Erasmus, Grotius and Rembrandt belong to the canoncial figures of Dutch and European culture and thought. The lived in the highdays of Europe's religious wars. The essay argues that these three masters of the Renaissance sought to bring concord, religious toleration, and freedom of expression together in a tradtion that presented doubt, reason and dialogue as the pillars of civil society.
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Why is it important?
Like Erasmus, Grotius and Rembrandt we struggle with what is often called polarisation, with the rise of of groups and thinkers we claim they are absolutely right, and that their truth overrides all other considerations, even those of civility and civic concord. Reading Erasmus and Grotius, looking at Remrbandt we are urged to rethink the values of doubt and dialogue.
Perspectives
As a European, having lived and worked in four different European countries, questions about how to deal with 'foreign' views and with 'foreign' persons are pertinent. At a political and personal level the questions how to maintain room for freedom and toleration, for doubt and dialogue, are of paramount importance to me --as scholar, as citizen, as European.
Martin van Gelderen
Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Civil Conversation, Natural Reason and Humanist Irenicism: Grotius, Erasmus, and Rembrandt, March 2026, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004543003_010.
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