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Walker Peter Thesis 1 ON THE VISION OF GOD An historical and theological inquiry into the significance of Nicholas of Cusa’s De visione Dei for Christian theology of religions and inter-religious dialogue A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Charles Sturt University by Peter Walker BA (Hons) BTh Charles Sturt University July 2019 2 Certificate of Authorship I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at Charles Sturt University or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgment is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by colleagues with whom I have worked at Charles Sturt University or elsewhere during my candidature is fully acknowledged. I agree that this thesis be accessible for the purpose of study and research in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Executive Director, Library Services or nominee, for the care, loan and reproduction of thesis, subject to confidentiality provisions as approved by the University Signature Date: July 18, 2019 3 CONTENTS ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION Introducing the thesis 7 Nicholas of Cusa’s Vision 11 1. CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY OF RELIGIONS 1.1. Introduction 14 1.2. Theology of Religions 15 1.3. Contemporary Christian Theology of Religions 19 1.4. A Fresh Vision 32 2. NICHOLAS OF CUSA’S VISION 2.1. Introduction 35 2.2. ‘A prince of the church but also a philosopher’ 36 2.3. De visione Dei 47 2.4. Libellus iconae 54 2.5. A Theological Vision 62 3. DE VISIONE DEI AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY OF RELIGIONS 3.1. Introduction 70 3.2. De visione Dei and Mystical Theology 71 3.3. De visione Dei and Theology of Religions – A Literature Survey 75 4. WARRANTS FOR DE VISIONE DEI’S INTER-RELIGIOUS ENGAGEMENT 4.1. Introduction 125 4 4.2. Contextual Warrant - The Towers of Constantinople and New York 127 4.3. Epistemological Warrant - Perspectives in Dialogue 142 4.4. Philosophical Warrant - The One and the Many 151 4.5. Textual Warrant - An Expanding Vision 161 5. THEOLOGY OF RELIGIONS, INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE, AND CUSA’S PERSPECTIVE 5.1. Introduction 173 5.2. Contemporary Challenges to the Three-fold Typology 174 5.3. Particularity vs. Pluralism 185 5.4. Particularism, Pluralism, and De visione Dei 192 5.5. The Rationale and Conditions for Inter-Religious Dialogue 199 5.6. Inter-religious Dialogue and De visione Dei 207 CONCLUSION ‘I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you’ 212 BIBLIOGRAPHY 216 5 ABSTRACT Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) was among the first Christian thinkers to advocate for dialogue as a means of achieving peace among the religions. Within months of the fall of Constantinople in 1453, with Europe mired in inter-religious suspicion and violence, Cusa wrote De pace fidei (On the peace of faith), a pioneering work in the cause known today as inter-religious dialogue, and De visione Dei (On the vision of God), a mystical treatise about how knowledge of God may be obtained via a dialogue of different perspectives. De visione Dei is considered Cusa’s literary masterpiece.1 Yet, notwithstanding its founding exercise involving a dialogue of different perspectives around an icon of God, the text has only rarely been cited for its potential to resource theological engagement with religious diversity. Therefore, this thesis will advocate for De visione Dei as a resource for Christian theology of religions and inter-religious dialogue. It will do so by, firstly, presenting four warrants to justify deploying De visione Dei within those fields of inter-religious engagement and, secondly, applying its ideas to a currently contentious issue for Christian theology of religions and in providing a theological rationale for inter-religious dialogue. The four warrants that will be presented to justify utilizing De visione Dei as a resource for Christian theology of religions are, firstly, the historical resonance between the circumstances in which Cusa wrote the book and our current context; second, the fact that the epistemological framework of the text appears especially germane to inter-religious engagement; third, the thematic complementarity between De visione Dei and the pioneering work on inter-religious 1 Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa’s Dialectical Mysticism: Text, Translation and Interpretive Study, Third Edition (Minneapolis: The Arthur J. Banning Press, 1996), 44. 6 dialogue that Cusa wrote in the same year, De pace fidei; and, fourth and finally, the expansive nature of De visione Dei’s language along with the experimental nature of its opening exercise provide a basis for an expansive reading of the text. This thesis will also describe and discuss the breadth of Christian theology of religions in order to identify how De visione Dei can contribute to that field. Particular attention will be given to a significant point of contention - the fault-line between Christian theological approaches to religious diversity which prioritize commonality or ‘common ground’, on the one hand, and those which prioritize the distinctiveness and particularity of the religions on the other. It is a debate often framed between pluralism and particularism. Two of De visione Dei’s central ideas will be deployed in our final chapter to illustrate how Cusa’s text can be creatively utilized as an interlocutor for this currently contentious issue, and to show its value in supporting a rationale for inter-religious dialogue. Those two ideas are Cusa’s emphasis on the epistemological role of dialogue in making visible that which is invisible, and the theological and epistemological significance Cusa places on particularity in enabling knowledge of that which is universal. In setting out the above-named warrants, and applying some of the prominent concepts of De visione Dei to current issues in inter-religious engagement, it is hoped that this thesis will establish that Nicholas of Cusa’s visionary text is a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners who seek to deepen inter-religious understanding and respect. 7 INTRODUCTION But so great is Your goodness, O my God, that You even permit the blind to speak of the Light.1 Introducing the Thesis The privilege of living alongside neighbours from a variety of religious traditions is an increasingly common experience. Growth in global migration saw an estimated 258 million people in 2017 living in a country other than their country of birth, an increase of 49% since 2000.2 Given this astonishing world-wide movement of people also results in a global intermingling of religions, the challenge of providing a theologically coherent means to understand and engage this multi-religious reality is critical for all the world’s religions. The need to resource inter-religious understanding becomes even more acute, and demanding, when we take into account the phenomena of religiously implicated violence. Few assessments of geopolitics in the last fifteen years have not identified the revitalization of religion and the rise of religious militancy as a destabilising factor, and perhaps the destabilising factor, in contemporary global politics.3 Where are the exemplars who can 1 Nicholas of Cusa, De visione Dei (1453), chapter 17, paragraph 80, translated by Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa’s Dialectical Mysticism: Text, Translation, and Interpretive Study, Third Edition (Minneapolis: The Arthur J. Banning Press, 1996). Hereafter all references to De visione Dei will be from the Hopkins translation and notations will be ‘DVD, chapter number, paragraph number’. 2 United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, International Migration Report 2017 (New York; United Nations, 2017), 4. 3 For example, Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order (London: Simon & Schuster, 1996); Charles R. Lister, The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015); Ian Goldin and Chris Kutarna, Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of our New Renaissance (New York: St Martin’s Press, 2016); Eric Wolf, Europe and the People Without History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (London: Profile Books, 2018). 8 provide guidance to those who wish to bear witness to the integrity of their faith and yet remain open-minded and humble in the midst of different perspectives? What ideas might resource people of religious conviction who seek the build bridges of understanding and respect among those who hold to different visions of God? How shall we abide in a multi-religious public square without relinquishing our particular beliefs, or violating the beliefs of others? The Christian ecumenical movement has sought to build bridges between people who hold differently to the doctrines and practices of the Christian church. The ecumenical movement has a distinguished history striving after such unity and yet the relatively few examples of divided churches electing to unite are an indication that building bridges between people with different religious perspectives is a complex challenge, even within a single tradition. The complexity of the task is greater still when seeking to build bridges of understanding from one religion to another. That practical task is known as inter-religious dialogue and, within the academy, the field of study dedicated to examining religious diversity and seeking theological explanations for that diversity has come to be known as theology of religions. The challenge undertaken by those who practice inter-religious dialogue or study theology of religions is complex yet vitally important, and not only for the commonly cited reason that peace among the nations is possible only when there is peace among the religions.
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