Conversing with God: Prayer in Erasmus' Pastoral Writings

T.D. Regehr is a professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan.
He is the author of Mennonites in Canada, 1939–1970: A People
Transformed, The Beauharnois Scandal: A Story of Canadian
Entrepreneurship and Politics, and Remembering Saskatchewan:

Erasmus of Rotterdam was the most influential Christian humanist of the
16th century. While recent scholarship has focused primarily on
Erasmus’ humanism and piety, his insistence on the importance of
prayer has, according to Pabel, been neglected. The purpose of this book
is to “examine how Erasmus of Rotterdam understood prayer and how he
taught western Christendom to pray.”

The main thesis or argument advanced is that Erasmus believed prayer
was the central phenomenon of religion, and that true Christian piety
could be achieved only through prayer. When writing about prayer Erasmus
(and Pabel) focus mainly on petitionary prayers in which the person
praying asks for something. Very little is said about contemplative or
mystical prayer in which the prayer seeks to achieve some sort of
spiritual union with God. The God to whom Erasmus taught people to pray
was not the fierce, jealous, and vindictive warrior of the Old
Testament. Rather, God is regarded as an essentially good, benevolent,
and generous being who has created, loves, and cares for human beings.

The book is divided into four chapters. The first deals with the
principal elements of Erasmus’ teaching on prayer. The second is a
discussion of Erasmus’ qualified defence of prayer to the saints.
Erasmus was critical of those who attributed special miraculous powers
to the saints, arguing that when praying to the saints Christians should
seek to imitate the virtues that the saints had received from Christ.
The third chapter discusses Erasmus’ interpretations of the Lord’s
Prayer, seven specific elements of which are identified as models for
all Christian prayer. The final chapter focuses on the various prayers
written by Erasmus in his attempt to teach Christians how to pray.

In his lifetime, Erasmus saw his work savagely attacked by Luther and
other Reformation leaders. Some of his writings were also placed on
papal indexes of forbidden books. Nonetheless, prayers and devotional
writings were widely read and used by Roman Catholic clerics and also
enjoyed popularity in Protestant circles, particularly in England.

Erasmus is described by Pabel as an “educator of educators” and a
“professor of professors” who “helped to shape the piety of early
modern Europe.” Prayer was a central component of that piety.