Abstract

This dissertation examines the Verbum speculation of Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa . It attempts to redress the balance between studies of the concept language in the Renaissance which ignore theological issues and treatments of the Word in late medieval theology which pay scant attention to the non-theological function of the analogy of language. ;The first part situates Cusanus' thought in the history of speculative theories of language in the West. The speculative structure of language, suggested by Hegel and defended by Gadamer, is put forth as a point of departure for retrieving Nicholas' doctrine. ;The second part examines some of the medieval and Renaissance sources of Cusanus' theology of the Word. The renewed study of the trivium among twelfth century Christian theologians and the theologia rhetorica of quattrocento humanism are evaluated as sources for Cusanus' espousal of a theologia sermocinalis. Although Nicholas' writings bear traces of these and other strategies of the school theologians and orators, the uniqueness of his own rhetoric of lay wisdom outweighs any explicit dependency on his sources. ;The third part traces the development of the concept language in Cusanus' works from 1430 to 1464. The period from 1430 to 1450 marks a turn from the acceptance of pure ineffability in divinis to a new consideration of the productive ars of forming words. After 1450 there is a twofold development--towards a speculative synthesis of human ars and away from the visible presence of the divine Word except through the finite, semiotic appearances of its power and intentionality. The origins of this development in Plato's Seventh Letter, Ramon Llull, and late medieval nominalism are considered. It is argued that even in his late works, Nicholas never fully embraces the nominalist tendencies of the via moderna, as some of his interpreters have suggested. ;The fourth part studies the role of faith in the acceptance of the divine Word. In his most mature works, he fuses the unformed discursive knowledge that is known by analogy with the formal certainty received through intellectual vision. Faith and speculative vision unite to lead the believer beyond the images which words convey to the unifying image of the divine Word