Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 2006 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

50 PIM VALKENBERG
these paragraphs alone justify introducing a volume on Nicholas of
Cusa in the series "the Classics of Western Spirituality"."
3. Nicholas of Cusa and a faithful interpretation of the
Qur 'än
While Nicholas of Cusa wrote his work on Learned Ignorance in the
context of what we would now call 'ecumenical conversations', his
work on the Peace of Faith may be characterized as his application to
what may anachronistically be named 'interreligious dialogue"."
Nicholas wrote this dialogue in 1453 as an immediate reaction to
rumors about the fall of Constantinople to the Muslims. Again, the
plurality of human approaches to God is his point of departure. In the
very beginning of De Pace Fidei, he introduces this main theme as
follows:
Therewas a manwho, havingseenthe sitesin the vicinityof
Constantinoplein the past, was inflamedwith zeal for God
when he was told of the deeds whichhad been committedin
Constantinoplerecentlyand the great crueltyinflictedby the
King of the Turks.Consequently,groaninghe beseechedthe
Creator of All, appealing to His kindness, to restrain the
persecution that was raging more fiercely than usual on
accountof thedifferenceof ritesbetweenthe religions.f
These last words allude to the wise man's conviction that this
violence between religions can be overcome if one realizes that the
various religious rites are in fact variations of a single adherence to
God. This concept in Cusanus, una religio in rituum varietate, sounds
very much like an axiom in the pluralist approach in contemporary
33 Bond(1997), o.c.,waspublishedas volume89 in the seriesThe Classics of
Western Spirituality. On the relevanceof Cusanusfor WesternSpirituality,
seeBond's introduction,13-19.
34 InigoBocken(2005),o.c.,171.
35 "Fuit ex his que apud Constantinopolirnproxime seuissirneacta per
turchorum regern diuulgabantur,quidam vir zelo dei accensus qui loca
liiarum regionurn aliquandoviderat vt pluribus gernitibusoraret omnium
creatoremquod persecutionernque ob diuersumritumreligionumplus solito
seuit: sua pietate moderaretur."Nicholas of Cusa, de Pace Fidei I (ed.
Wilpert1997, o.c.,I, 338), translationBocken(2005),o.c., 172.