Tracing Nicholas Of Cusa S Early Development

Tracing Nicholas of Cusa's Early Development

Nicholas of Cusa and the Making of the Early Modern World

Nicholas of Cusa and Early Modern Reform sheds new light on Cusanus’ relationship to early modernity by focusing on the reform of church, the reform of theology, the reform of perspective, and the reform of method – which together aim to encompass the breadth and depth of Cusanus’ own reform initiatives. In particular, in examining the way in which he served as inspiration for a wide and diverse array of reform-minded philosophers, ecclesiastics, theologians, and lay scholars in the midst of their struggle for the renewal and restoration of the individual, society, and the world, our volume combines a focus on Cusanus as a paradigmatic thinker with a study of his concrete influence on early modern thought. This volume is aimed at scholars working in the field of late medieval and early modern philosophy, theology, and history of science. As the first Anglophone volume to explore the early modern reception of Nicholas of Cusa, this work will provide an important complement to a growing number of companions focusing on his life and thought.

A Communication Ethic of Dialogic Reformation

Calls for reformation were widespread across the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but few were as nuanced or philosophically rich as the lifelong work of Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464). Cusa centralized the coincidentia oppositorum, the coincidence of opposites, in our knowledge of God and the mystical institution of the Church. In his book, Michael R. Kearney traces Cusa's historical impact on philosophy of communication and communication ethics with an eye toward the health of institutions in a postmodern moment of cynicism and decline. Cusa loved the church and fought passionately for its reform, energized by the "clouded vision" of a God who is beyond opposites. This champion of dialogic reformation offers churches and communities an unfinished task with a unity of contraries at its heart: upholding local narrative ground with tenacious loyalty while working in an increasingly large world.