Becoming God: The Doctrine of Theosis in Nicholas of Cusa

Introduction

I n t ro d u c t i o n Although it is an integral part of his theology, Nicholas of Cusa’s doctrine of salvation has received little scrutiny.The absence of a thorough understanding of theosis has contributed to frequent misunderstandings of his work. He has been interpreted as both a Scholastic and a fideist, a medieval and an early modern, a monist and a pantheist. He has also been suspected of Platonizing the Christian faith and hailed as one of the first theologians who stressed God’s immanence in creation. An examination of theosis, or becoming God, will help in the effort to correctly place Nicholas of Cusa and his understanding of the creationcreature relationship. The variety of opinions about his thought echo Cusanus’s (his Latinized name) multifaceted career.Conciliarist,canon lawyer,bishop,cardinal , and scholar, this perplexing figure was born in 1401 in Kues, a small town on the Mosel River near Trier.Though early chronicles of his life allege that he studied with the Brothers of the Common Life in Deventer, uncertainty remains about the truth of these claims. It is known, however, that he attended the University of Heidelberg before entering the University of Padua a year later.There he obtained a doctorate in canon law in 1423 and was a fellow student of mathematics and science with PaoloToscanelli.At the University of Cologne, where he studied philosophy and theology, he was introduced to the works of  Pseudo-Dionysius and Raymond Lull, who were to have such a great effect on his own thought.1 In the 1430s he was ordained to the priesthood and participated in the Council of Basel. His work De concordantia catholica reflects his advocacy of conciliarism, the movement that argued for the authority of a general council over the papacy. Later his loyalties shifted toward the papacy and he became a papal delegate. His duties included accompanying a group of Orthodox patriarchs from Constantinople to Italy for the projected Council of Florence. It was on this mission, returning from Greece by ship, that Nicholas received “what I believe was a supreme gift of the Father of Lights fromWhom is every perfect gift,”2 the gift of learned ignorance.His treatise De docta ignorantia (On Learned Ignorance) is a development of this, his unique version of negative theology . This early work (1440) was followed by a significant number of later texts, ranging from epistemological treatises (De coniecturis, for example) to mystical works (De visione Dei).3 The final collection of his work also included philosophical dialogues (De Deo abscondito and Idiota), a defense against misinterpretation (Apologia docta ignorantiae), and one of the earliest Renaissance texts about universal religion (De pace fidei).4 One of his treatises from 1445, De filiatione Dei, explores theosis, or deification, 1. For a more detailed biography see Donald Duclow,“Nicholas of Cusa,” in Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 115: Medieval Philosophers, ed. Jeremiah Hackett (Detroit: Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1992), 289–305. 2. From the dedicatory page of De docta ignorantia, addressed to Cardinal Julian Cesarini .The reference is to James 1:17.This is also the first line of Pseudo-Dionysius’s The Celestial Hierarchy, a work with which Cusanus was familiar. 3. De coniecturis, On Surmises, 1443, hereafter abbreviated as DC; De visione Dei, The Vision of God, 1453, hereafter abbreviated as DVD. 4. De Deo abscondito, The Hidden God, 1444, hereafter abbreviated as DDA; Idiota, The Layman, 1450, hereafter abbreviated as either IDM (Idiota de mente) or IDS (Idiote de sapientia); De pace fidei, OnThe Peace of Faith, 1453, hereafter abbreviated as DPF , trans. H. Lawrence Bond, Nicholas of Cusa on Interreligious Harmony:Text, Concordance, and Translation of De Pace Fidei,Texts and Studies in Religion (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000).An earlier translation was done by Jasper Hopkins, “Nicholas of Cusa’s De Pace Fidei   i n t r o d u c t i o n a concept that figures prominently in Cusanus’s philosophy and theology .5 The origins of theosis, variously defined as becoming divine, identity with God, and similitude or being closely united with the divine, can be traced to Neoplatonic philosophy. By the time of Nicholas of Cusa, however,it was not unprecedented in the Christian tradition.The Greek fathers had employed the concept, and it has enjoyed a long history in the Eastern Church ever since. From whom Cusanus himself...