God in the philosophy of Nicholas Cusanus

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Allame Tabataba'i, Tehran, Iran

10.22059/jpht.2024.375044.1006040

Abstract

The relationship between God and the world, or in other words, the relationship between the infinite and the finite, is the most central concept in Renaissance philosophy and occupied the minds of the thinkers of that period. The origins of this issue, in turn, go back to the efforts of philosophers and theologians to explain the relationship between God and creation in the Bible. Nicholas Cusanus is one of the thinkers who tried to solve this philosophical-theological problem and by introducing the concept of "non-other" as a new concept of God or infinity, he added a new side to the duality of "other" and "the same". In this article, an attempt has been made to first report on the relationship between God and the world in philosophy. Then the special view of Cusanus and its related concepts, such as folding and unfolding, non-otherness, and coincidence of opposites, will be examined. The roots of this type of thinking will be discussed in the thoughts of Pseud-Dionysus and Meister Eckhart. Here it will be shown that Cusanus, considering a new type of metaphysics, i.e., metaphysics of oneness, and abandoning the traditional Aristotelian metaphysics, i.e., existential metaphysics, and according to the interpretations of Meister Eckhart about creation, and the Pseud-Dionysus about God, has neutralized the duality of other-same and created the ground for the emergence of an intrinsic philosophy.

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References

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Philosophy of Religion
Volume 21, Issue 1
April 2024
Pages 59-73

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