Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 2006 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

46 PIM VALKENBERG
because Christ is humanity united to the Word of God, He is the
maximum simul contraetum et absolutum, that is: the contracted
maximum human nature united with the absolute maximum in the
hypostatic union. When writing about the mysteries of faith in God
incarnate, the language Nicholas uses becomes as ecstatic as that of
his predecessor Dionysius:
But soundest faith-in-Christ, made steadfastly firm in
simplicity, can, in accordance with previously given
instruction in ignorance, be increased and unfolded in
ascending degrees. For although hidden from the wise, the
very great and very deep mysteries of God are revealed
through faith in Jesus, to the small and humble inhabitants of
the world. For Jesus is the one in whom all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge are hidden, and without Him no one
can do anything. For He is the Word and the Power through
which God (who as the Most High, having power over all
things in heaven and earth) created even the aeons. Since God
is not knowable in this world (where by reason and by opinion
or by doctrine we are led, with symbols, through the more
known to the unknown). He is apprehended only where
persuasive considerations cease and faith appears. Through
faith we are caught up, in simplicity, so that being in a body
incorporeally (because in spirit) and in the world not
mundanely but celestially we may incomprehensibly
contemplate Christ above all reason and intelligence, in the
third heaven of most simple intellectuality. Thus, we see even
the following: viz., that because of the immensity of His
excellence God cannot be comprehended. And this is that
learned ignorance through which most blessed Paul, in
ascending, saw that when he was being elevated more highly
to Christ, he did not know Christ, though at one time he had
known only Christ.28
28 "Potest autem Christi suauissima fides in simplicitate constanter fermata
gradibus ascensionem extendi et explicari secundum datam ignorantie
doctrinam. Maxima enim et profundissima dei misteria in mundo
ambulantibus: quanquam sapientibus abscondita paruulis et humilibus in fide
ihesu reuelantur, quoniam ihesus est in quo omnes thesauri sapientie et
scientiarum absconditi sunt, sine quo nemo quicquam facere potest, nam est
verbum et potential per quam dues fecit et secuIa super omnia que in celo et
in terra sunt potestatem habens solus altissimus, qui cum in hoc mundo non
sit cogniscibilis vbi ratione et opinione aut doctrina ducimur in symbolis per