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Nicholas of Cusa and the Making of the Early Modern World
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SYSNO ASEP 0504405 Document Type M - Monograph Chapter R&D Document Type Monograph Chapter Title The Book Metaphor Triadized: the Layman’s Bible and God’s Books in Raymond of Sabunde, Nicholas of Cusa and Jan Amos Comenius Author(s) Pavlas, Petr (FLU-F) ORCID, RID, SAI Source Title Nicholas of Cusa and the Making of the Early Modern World. - Leiden : Brill, 2019 / Burton S.J.G. ; Hollmann J. ; Parker E.M. - ISSN 1573-5664 - ISBN 978-90-04-34301-6 Pages s. 384-416 Number of pages 33 s. Number of pages 512 Publication form Print - P Language eng - English Country NL - Netherlands Keywords book of nature ; layman’s Bible ; book of the mind ; book metaphor ; triadism ; trinitarianism ; Raymond of Sabunde ; Nicholas of Cusa ; Jan Amos Comenius Subject RIV AA - Philosophy ; Religion OECD category Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology R&D Projects GB14-37038G GA ČR - Czech Science Foundation (CSF) Institutional support FLU-F - RVO:67985955 Annotation In the writings of John Chrysostom and especially Augustine we find appreciation of nature as a “layman’s Bible”, but it is not until the fifteenth century that this idea becomes widespread. Raymond of Sabunde (c. 1385–1436) was the first thinker to emphasize not only the obvious chronological priority and availability of the book of nature, but also its interpretative clarity in comparison with the book of Scripture. Raymond’s direct influence on Nicholas of Cusa and their conjoint influence on Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670), the “teacher of nations” and early modern educational and religious reformer, is evident. Less familiar, however, is Comenius’ triadization of the traditional book metaphor. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the two traditional dyads “book of nature–book of Scripture” and “book of the mind–human books” transform into the metaphorical book triad “nature–mind–Scripture.” Such a transformation is slightly suggested already in Augustine and Hugh of St Victor, diffidently expressed in Bonaventure and Cusanus, explicitly postulated in sixteenth-century Lutheran mysticism, and finally impressively developed in Comenius’ universal method of pansophia. Yet while diffident, Cusanus’ development of this theme is nonetheless important. Drawing on the Anselmic, Lullist and “Sabundian” tradition of natural theology, Cusanus as nomenclator Dei seeks God in the maximal Unity that is the same (or “not-other”) with his Triunity. Cusanus’ employment of the book metaphor for both nature and mind prepares the way for Comenius, whose project of universal reform, in the words of Jan Patočka, “suddenly breaks out with a volcanic power from its Cusan germs”. The hypothesis of this chapter is that Comenius’ universal reform included – not as an epiphenomenon but as a conscious and productive intention – the triadic reform of the traditional book metaphor, inspired by Cusan ideas. Workplace Institute of Philosophy Contact Chlumská Simona, chlumska@flu.cas.cz ; Tichá Zuzana, asep@flu.cas.cz Tel: 221 183 360 Year of Publishing 2020
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