Nicholas Of Cusa And Islam

To explore Christian-Muslim relations at the dawn of the modern age, this book examines Nicholas of Cusa’s seminal works on the Qur’an and world religions. It also considers Muslim responses to Christianity and other Christian writings on Islam.

This book offers a convincing examination of Nicholas of Cusa's Christ-centered approach to Islam and religious diversity and peace.

In the Middle Ages, as Christian sources on the Islamic world show, Muslim culture was perceived as extremely threatening: there were many defenses of Christianity, like the treatise on the “mistakes” of the followers of Allah. This book shows, through an analysis of the works of Nicholas of Cusa and of other authors, that in the course of time this textual attitude was modified, as European authors aimed to point out the Christian truth in comparison with the “falsity” of Islamic theology, in order to reinforce Christian identity through the presupposition of its own absolute truth. The apologetic aim was gradually replaced by a systematic comparison based on partial translations of the Qur’an. The comparison with the “other” was also the basis for reinforcing identity, in order to demonstrate the truth and consequently the supremacy of one’s own theoretical position.

"Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), thinker, polymath, and cardinal, had a long-standing interest in Islam. To date, however, no work has satisfactorily dealt with his volatile attitude towards the Islamic faith and the Ottoman Turks. This book revisits Nicholas of Cusa's attitude towards Islam, criticizing previous work that has overlooked Cusa's involvement in preparations for a crusade, and the significance of Cusa's polemical A Scrutiny of the Koran (Cribratio Alkorani) of 1461. The book also addresses the prevailing image of Cusa as a dove of peace and champion of interreligious dialogue, and suggests an alternative and more complex picture which takes account of Cusa's crusading activities and his attitude towards Muslims and Jews. A significant new study, Nicolas of Cusa and Mohammed will appeal to students and scholars interested in the Renaissance, Humanism, church-state relations, the history of the crusades, and Nicholas of Cusa's life and works"--

Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) was active during the Renaissance, developing adventurous ideas even while serving as a churchman. The religious issues with which he engaged – spiritual, apocalyptic and institutional – were to play out in the Reformation

On Faith, Rationality, and the Other in the Late Middle Ages is an investigation of Nicholas of Cusa that seeks a deeper understanding of this important medieval intellectual and his importance for us today. One of Gergely Bakos's primary aims in this study is to understand Nicholas of Cusa's important and underexamined dimensions of his approach to dialogue with Islam. The framework and the methodology that informs this investigation was inspired by the late Professor Jos Decorte (1954-2001), a Flemish philosopher and mediaevalist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. Bakos carefully exposits his method of approaching medieval thought (Part One) and then applies and tests this method in practice (Part Two). The most extensive part of this study offers a sketch of the historical background of Nicholas's dialogue with Islam and investigates what possibilities this approach offers. All of this is placed in dialogue with two other mediaeval approaches to Islam (Thomas Aquinas and Ramon Lull). The final chapters discuss Nicholas of Cusa's project from a perspective offered by his mystical theology. The book culminates in an exploration of the possibilities of Nicholas of Cusa's approach by testing the framework of the study. Finally, the author evaluates the application of his own approach (Part Three). The study ultimately has two purposes: to contribute to a better understanding of Nicholas of Cusa's thought, on the one hand, and, on the other, to test a particular methodology and interpretative framework for the understanding of mediaeval culture.

This book offers historical, philosophical and theological studies on the meaning of conflicts in life and thinking of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) and deals with his attempts to develop a model for peace and tolerance.