Countering Religious Violence with a Better Theory of Religion Following Nicholas of Cusa

Dissent within and among religions can provoke much violence. Nicholas of Cusa encountered this and countered it with a differentiated theory of religion, implicit in his De pace fidei from 1453. I propose four different levels of interpretation: the dominant philosophical approach, inspired by a high trust in the intellect and enlightened by a self-critical epistemology; the anthropological foundation of all religion in the desire for truth, goodness, salvation and peace, in conjunction with the character of the human mind as a living image of the divine mind; the rational hermeneutical interpretation of particular religious ideas and texts in view of a philosophical theology, and finally its reintegration in the perspective of a Christian. This is in line with Cusanus’s epistemological perspectivism and allows for interreligious dialogue from enlightened religious perspectives instead of violence.