Nicholas of Cusa's Dialogue with Augustine: The Measure of the Soul's Greatness in De Ludo Globi
Nicholas of Cusa's De Ludo Globi (1463) explores the tensions between the soul's terrestrial and transcendent aspirations; between its desire to engage materiality through creative self-expression and to remove itself from its historically-bound identity in mystical contemplation. Many of...
| Published in: | Renaissance and reformation |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Iter Press
[2015]
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| In: |
Renaissance and reformation
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| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality CD Christianity and Culture KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity KAF Church history 1300-1500; late Middle Ages KDB Roman Catholic Church NBE Anthropology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Nicholas of Cusa's De Ludo Globi (1463) explores the tensions between the soul's terrestrial and transcendent aspirations; between its desire to engage materiality through creative self-expression and to remove itself from its historically-bound identity in mystical contemplation. Many of Cusa's arguments about the soul in this work are indebted to Augustine's De Quantitate Animae (388), and while the cardinal emphasizes different capacities of the soul, many of his analogies originate from this Augustinian source. Clearly Cusa's most significant appropriation is the dialogical framework itself, which being situated at the threshold between discursive reason and mystical contemplation becomes an effective vehicle for exploring the soul's cognitive and spiritual aptitudes. While both dialogues illustrate the rational or creative capacities of the embodied soul, they ultimately acknowledge the limitations of these capacities, and of the dialogic form itself, when compared to the higher reaches of the soul's contemplative powers. Le De Ludo Globi (1463), par Nicolas de Cuse, examine l'opposition entre les aspirations terrestre et transcendante de l'âme; entre son désir d'agir sur la matière par l'expression créatrice et le désir de se retirer, par la contemplation mystique, hors de l'identité circonstancielle. Nombre des arguments de Cuse sur l' âme dans cet ouvrage proviennent du De Quantitate Animae (388) d'Augustin, et plusieurs de ses analogies sont empruntées à cet ouvrage, même si le cardinal développe indépendamment les capacités variées de l'âme. De fait, le cadre dialogique constitue le plus important des emprunts de Cuse. Entre raison discursive et contemplation mystique, ce cadre devient un outil efficace d'exploration des aptitudes intellectuelles et spirituelles de l'âme. Tandis que les deux dialogues illustrent le potentiel de raison ou de création de l'âme incarnée, ils en reconnaissent à la fin les limites, tout comme celles du dialogue lui-même, en comparaison avec les possibilités de l'âme pour la contemplation, bien supérieures à celles-là. |
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| ISSN: | 2293-7374 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Renaissance and reformation
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