Interreligious Dialogue before and after Nicholas of Cusa: an Exegetical Approach
Marica COSTIGLIOLO
Original title: Interreligious Dialogue before and after Nicholas of Cusa: an Exegetical Approach
Published in Nicholas of Cusa in Dialogue
Keywords: Exegesis, Hermeneutic, Interreligious Dialogue, Nicholas of Cusa, Rites.
In this article my aim is a philosophical reflection on a history of interreligious dialogue from the perspective of the dialectical relation between rites of different religions: given that rite is one of the most essential aspects of religions, it should be profitable to examine the significance of rites in light of interreligious dialogue. First, I will explain some theories about religions' difference. I will analyse texts written by Christian and Jewish authors from the Middle Ages to the Modern period in order to compare the crucial role of rite in philosophical and religious discourse among different chronological and cultural panoramas. Among the authors who wrote outstanding works focused on the relations between Islam and Christendom, I wish to mention in particular Nicholas of Cusa, who wrote the De pace fidei, one of the most famous interreligious dialogue in the Middle Ages. The following paragraph of my article is on a 12th century Jewish scholar, Judah Halevi, who wrote the book Kitab al Khazari (Sefer ha-Kuzari, in Hebrew), which is considered one of the most polemical and well-known medieval works and a source of Ramon Llull (1235-1315), the most relevant source of the De pace fidei. The second paragraph is on Aberlard, who, like Cusanus, wrote his Dialogus inter philosophum, Judaeum et Christianum in a period of conflicts and violence. Like De pace fidei Abelard’s dialogue is a work of the author’s maturity which deals with the theme of rational and intellectual knowledge as an instrument of confrontation between different confessions. I will analyse the theme of rites in this Abelard's work. I will also take a look of the work of Lessing, to highlight the fundamental role of transmission of traditions and rites for the construction of a specific religious identity.
The Christian itinerary according to Evagrius Ponticus: the reach of its exegetical projections on the Holy Scriptures in general, and on the book of Ecclesiastes in particular
Santiago Hernán VÁZQUEZ, Ana Laura QUIROGA
Original title: El itinerario cristiano según Evagrio Póntico: sus proyecciones exegéticas en la Sagrada Escritura en general y en el libro del Eclesiastés en particular
Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Keywords: Ecclesiastes, Evagrius Ponticus, Exegesis, Natural Contemplation.
In the context of current studies on the thought of Evagrius Ponticus we are interested in deepening the exegetical projections that –following a well– identified classical–Christian tradition– possesses the evagrian conception of Christianity as an itinerary of salvation. These projections extend to Sacred Scripture in general and, in a way, to the book of Ecclesiastes. Thus, after developing the sense of the evagrian itinerary and its general exegetical projections, our work will focus on the evagrian commentary entitled “Scholia on Ecclesiastes” and its place within the framework of the thought of the philosopher of Ponto. This work has been little studied but it constitutes a unique exegetical piece within the evagrian corpus. Through this work we access a deeper understanding of what Evagrius wanted to designate with the concept of “natural contemplation”. In this sense, deepening this work allows –in our view– a renewed understanding of the spiritual itinerary that constitutes, for Evagrius, the essence of Christianity. Similarly, Scholia on Ecclesiastes allow us to understand more fully the particularities of the exegetical evagrian method.
