Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 2006 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

60 PIM VALKENBERG
interpretation of the Qur'än, based on the insight that Christians may
learn from the docta ignorantia of others because they are aware of
the infinite distance between their God-talk and the One God who
surpasses every name and concept.
Jasper Hopkins has summarized Cusanus' hermeneutics in
five points, mainly based on the following text from the Cribratio
alcorani:
But suppose we admit - as the followers of the Koran claim
([a claim] whose denial all the wise and zealous believe, as
was made evident above) - that the goal and intent of the book
of the Koran is not only not to detract from God the Creator or
from Christ or from God's prophets and envoys or from the
divine books of the Testament, the Psalter, and the Gospel, but
also to give glory to God the Creator, to praise and to bear
witness to Christ (the son of the Virgin Mary) above all the
prophets, and to confirm and to approve of the Testament and
the Gospel. [If so,] then when one reads the Koran with this
understanding, assuredly some fruit can be elicited [from itlS3
The five rules mentioned by Hopkins are the following:
1. Interpret the Qur'än in such a way that it is compatible with
the Christian Scriptures;
2. Try to interpret the Qur'än in such a way as to render it selfconsistent;
3. Where the Qur'än contradicts the Gospel, look for the
human author's (i.e. Muhammad's) true intent;
4. Interpret the Qur'än as intending to give glory to God (alhamdu
lil/ah) without detracting from Christ;
S3 "Sed si vt sequaces alchoran aiunt admitteremus libro alchoran finem et
intentionem esse non solum non detrahere: nee deo creatori, nee christo: nee
prophetis ac legatis dei nee libris diuinis testamenti psalterii et euangelii, sed
gloriam dare deo creatori, laudem et testimonium christo marie virginis filio
super ornnes prophetas perhiberi testamentum et euangelium confirmare et
approbare, cuius contrarium omnes sapientes et zelosi credunt vt supra patuit
[... ] quando hec omnia sic considerantur quod predicte intentioni seruiant:
tunc aliquis elicit potest fructus." Cusanus, Cribratio alcorani, I, 9, no. 44
(ed. Wilpert 1967, o.c., 11,447). Translation Hopkins (1994), Role of pia
. interpretatio, p. 51.