Nicholas of Cusa In the 21st century, Nicholas of Cusa or Cusanus is variously appreciated as a Christian disciple of the burgeoning Italian humanism of the 15th century, one of the great mystical theologians and reforming bishops of the late Middle Ages, and a dialogical religious thinker whose philosophical and political ideas peacefully contemplate … Continue reading Nicholas of Cusa →.

This study examines the Verbum speculation of Nicholas of Cusa. The investigation concentrates equally on the concept of language that he inherited from medieval and Quattrocento sources and on the Christian theology of the Word that he wove together using his own resources and distinctive approaches. It includes a consideration of the resonances between Gadamer's hermeneutical theory and Cusanus's unfolding of a productive and rhetorically-oriented concept of the Word. The next section offers a detailed examination of the medieval and humanistic (...) sources for his theology of the Word, paying special attention to Albertism, Ramon Llull, and the role played by Heymeric of Camp. This study highlights a development in Cusanus's thought that takes place after 1450 towards a speculative synthesis of human ars through the semiotic appearance of the power and intentionality of the word. It is also argued that even in the late works Cusanus does not submit to the nominalist tendencies of the via moderna. A penultimate section offers a detailed study of the role of faith in the acceptance of the divine Word. Cusanus fuses the unformed discursive knowledge that is known by analogy with the formal certainty received through intellectual vision. Faith and speculative knowledge unite to lead the believer beyond the images that words convey to the unifying image of the divine Word. The last section reviews recent literature on language and theology in Nicholas of Cusa and indicates a path as to how research on the speculative thought of Cusanus and on intercultural theology could move forward together in the future. (shrink)

This book is Jasper Hopkins' eighth study of the thought of the fifteenth-century German philosopher Nicholas of Cusa Through these publications he has established himself as an internationally respected translator, editor, and incisive critic on matters relating to disparate areas of Cusanus studies. Roughly following the pattern of the earlier works, Hopkins includes in this volume four critical analyses of scholarship, four English translations, and two extended book reviews.

The essay surveys the writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar on the theology of the Eucharist and the eucharistic theme in theology. After an initial presentation of the distinct contribution of a theological aesthetics to the theology of the Eucharist, these issues are addressed from the vantage point of von Balthasar’s thought: 1.) Discerning the reality of Christ’s activity in the Eucharistic form of the Church, 2.) the meaning of the eucharistic sacrifice, 3.) Marian assent in the eucharist, 4.) a (...) trinitarian spirituality of the Eucharist, 5.) the event of the Eucharist as de-privatizing prayer. By way of conclusion, a comparison is drawn to the life and thought of Dorothy Day. (shrink)

The essay surveys the writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar on the theology of the Eucharist and the eucharistic theme in theology. After an initial presentation of the distinct contribution of a theological aesthetics to the theology of the Eucharist, these issues are addressed from the vantage point of von Balthasar’s thought: 1.) Discerning the reality of Christ’s activity in the Eucharistic form of the Church, 2.) the meaning of the eucharistic sacrifice, 3.) Marian assent in the eucharist, 4.) a (...) trinitarian spirituality of the Eucharist, 5.) the event of the Eucharist as de-privatizing prayer. By way of conclusion, a comparison is drawn to the life and thought of Dorothy Day. (shrink)