Nicholas Of Cusa On Christ And The Church

This volume contains studies on Nicholas of Cusa and his times. The first section is concerned with Cusanus' context, beginning with a historiographic essay by Francis Oakley on the impact of Brian Tierney's Foundations of the Conciliar Theory. Among the topics addressed are the long-term continuation of the Council of Basel (1431-1449) and the issues of ecclesiastical income which it addressed. The second part is concerned with Cusanus' thought on the Church, both in his conciliarist and papalist phases. Included is the first translation into English of Nicholas' Reformatio generalis. Attention also is paid to Cusanus' reforming efforts and the relationship of his thought on these issues to his earliest speculative writings. The third part is concerned with Nicholas' ideas on Christ and mystical experience. Particular attention is paid to the De visione dei, including its relationship to Renaissance art. The volume concludes with wide-ranging essays on the larger significance of Cusanus' speculative thought. An update of Thomas M. Izbicki's bibliography of Cusanus scholarship in English is included.

Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) was one of the most illustrious figures of the fifteenth century--a man whose imagination spanned the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance to point the way to modernity. Theologian, philosopher, canon lawyer, reformer, church statesman, and cardinal, Cusanus' ideas of learned ignorance and the coincidence of opposites still attract attention today across a wide variety of disciplines. However, there is no one book in the marketplace that explains to a general audience all the different facets of this Renaissance man. This book, which might be considered "Nicholas of Cusa 101," offers separate chapters for the non-specialist introducing the vocabulary, ideas, and works of Nicholas of Cusa on a wide variety of topics. The book also provides a guide to his works in Latin, English, and other languages; all the secondary literature on each topic treated; a glossary of Cusan terms and ideas; and a guide to Cusan societies, sites, libraries, and museums.

The authors focus on four major thematic areas – the reform of church, the reform of theology, the reform of perspective, and the reform of method – which together encompasses the breadth and depth of Cusanus’ own reform initiatives.

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

Known for his deeply mystical writings about Christianity, Nicholas of Cusa wrote this, his most popular work, against a backdrop of widespread Church corruption. God, he believed, is found in all things, and thus cannot be perceived by man's senses and intellect alone. The path to ultimate knowledge, then, begins in recognizing our own ignorance. Deeply influenced by Saint Augustine, Nicholas mixes the metaphysical with the personal to create a deeply felt work, first published in 1453, designed to restore faith in even the most jaded. A German cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, NICHOLAS OF CUSA (1401-1464) was a philosopher, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer. Also referred to as Nicolaus Cusanus and Nicholas of Kues, he is considered one of the great geniuses and polymaths of the 15th century. Among his other works are Writings on Church and Reform, Catholic Concordance, and Of Learned Ignorance.

Nicholas of Cusa’s Brixen Sermons presents the concepts of church and reform that the fifteenth-century speculative thinker preached as a residential bishop and relates them to the challenges of late medieval church reform.