Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 2006 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

54 PIM VALKENBERG
This text can be interpreted in two different fashions. It can be seen as
part of the old Christian tradition of apologetics in which the truth of
the Christian faith is defended against others, but it can also be seen
as representative of a new interest in the arguments that other
religions give for their points of view. While Norman Daniel in his
survey of the perception ofIslam in the West interprets Cusanus as an
heir of the apologetic tradition, Rollin Armour in a similar survey
interprets him as a notable innovator."
More particularly, Jasper Hopkins and others have argued
that this text should be read as a new hermeneutical approach to Islam
in which Cusanus applies the concept of a pia interpretatio that he
will expound later in his Christian reading of the Qur'än.42 According
to their interpretation, Nicholas opens possibilities for Christians to
understand their own faith in the Trinity better by considering the
Islamic perspective on this mystery of faith. If the Arabs deny a
certain interpretation of the concept of the Trinity, this may help us
Christians to realize that they rightly reject interpretations that
conceive of the Trinity in terms of family relationships or a heavenly
association43.
Cusanus uses the term pia interpretatio four times in the
second book of his 'Sifting of the Qur'än', a work that he wrote in
1460-61 in order to provide Pope Pius II with some materials for a
letter to Sultan Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople." In this
De Pace Fidei, no. 26 (ed. Wilpert 1967, o.c., I, 348-49); translation Boeken
(2005), o.c., 178.
41 Norman Daniel, Islam and the West: The Making of an Image (Edinburgh
1960), repr. Oxford 1993, 307; Rollin Armour, Islam, Christianity and the
West: A Troubled History, Maryknoll NY 2002, 109. See also Neil Elliott,
From "The Heresy of the Saracens" to "The War against the Turks",
Birmingham: Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations,
occasional papers no. 9, September 2001.
42 See Jasper Hopkins, The Role of the pia interpretatio in Nicholas of
Cusa's Hermeneutical Approach to the Koran, in id., A Miscellany on
Nicholas ofCusa, Minneapolis 1994,39-55; Boeken (2005), o.c., 177-80.
43 The word consocialitas in Cusanus' text is a faithful rendering of the
Qur'änic notion of shirk (giving God associates or partners, and therefore:
polytheism or idolatry).
44 The German historian of theology Ludwig Hagemann has edited the text of
the Cribratio Alcorani as vol. VIII of Nicolai de Cusa Opera Omnia,
Hamburg 1986. See also L. Hagemann, Der Kur 'an in Verstandnis und Kritik