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The Divisive and the Unifying Power of Faith: Nicholas of
Cusa in the Presence of Islamic Military Victory
Paul Richard Blum, Loyola University Maryland
Delivered at the KU Leuven Institute of Philosophy on December 2, 2015
as part of the Leuven Newman Society's "Faith & Reason" series.
Abstract:
In
1453, when Byzantium fell to the Turkish powers, Nicholas of Cusa (1401-64)
wrote a treatise, De pace fidei, in which he pondered the reasons why religion
can lead to war and set peoples against each others. He was convinced that
there is a “heaven of reason” (coelum rationis), in which understanding the
truth of religion spreads peace. His philosophical starting point was that the
notion of God entails bliss, love, and union, whereas everything remote from
God is transitory, discordant, and fragile. Hence he postulated that the
variety of religions cannot be the essence of faith, but rather the gateway to
unity and peace. In order to show that he scrutinized all religious groups
known to him, including the Bohemians and the Muslims and emphasized that they
all imply the same veneration of truth. As a result he concluded that religion
cannot possibly be divisive, which is contrary to the truth, but ultimately
unifying for – in Christian language – it must have been God’s will to be
sought from all sides of the world. Plurality, hence, is not a curse but a
blessing.
Now part of my book
Now part of my book
