Seeing One's Own Face in the Face of God: The Doctrine of the Divine Ideas in the Mystical Theologies of Dionysius the Areopagite and Nicholas of Cusa

In his mystical theology, Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) uniquely blends the Christian mystical tradition with the philosophical and theological reflections of his own era to describe humanity’s existential encounter with God. Cusanus’s (his Latinised name) enthusiastic commitment to the Christian mystical tradition, and, in particular, to the thought of Pseudo-Dionysius (hereafter Denys), has, in recent years, elicited an increased interest from scholars of medieval mysticism because his works expose the state of many mystical precepts in the West during the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance era. One theme that figures prominently in Cusanus’s theological reflections, but has received little scholarly attention, is his reception and application of the divine ideas tradition. This lack of interest in the doctrine of the divine ideas is not restricted to Cusanus’s thought alone. The doctrine of the divine ideas is also a central motif in the mystical theologies of Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, Denys, John Scotus Eriugena, Maximus the Confessor and Thomas Aquinas, yet very few studies have been devoted to determining the doctrine’s role in the formation and understanding of Christian mystical theology.