Mathematical Theologies: Nicholas of Cusa and the Legacy of Thierry of Chartres(Oxford Studies in Historical Theology)

The writings of theologians Thierry of Chartres (d. 1157) and Nicholas of Cusa (d. 1464) represent a lost history of momentous encounters between Christianity and Pythagorean ideas before the Renaissance. Their robust Christian Neopythagoreanism reconceived the Trinity and the Incarnation within the framework of Greek number theory, challenging our contemporary assumptions about the relation of religion and modern science. David Albertson surveys the slow formation of theologies of the divine One from the Old Academy through ancient Neoplatonism into the Middle Ages. Against this backdrop, Thierry of Chartres's writings stand out as the first authentic retrieval of Neopythagoreanism within western Christianity. By reading Boethius and Augustine against the grain, Thierry reactivated a suppressed potential in ancient Christian traditions that harmonized the divine Word with notions of divine Number. Despite achieving fame during his lifetime, Thierry's ideas remained well outside the medieval mainstream. Three centuries later Nicholas of Cusa rediscovered anonymous fragments of Thierry and his medieval readers, and drew on them liberally in his early works. Yet tensions among this collection of sources forced Cusanus to reconcile their competing understandings of Word and Number. Over several decades Nicholas eventually learned how to articulate traditional Christian doctrines within a fully mathematized cosmologyanticipating the situation of modern Christian thought after the seventeenth century. Mathematical Theologies skillfully guides readers through the newest scholarship on Pythagoreanism, the school of Chartres, and Cusanus, while revising some of the categories that have separated those fields in the past.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Toward a Genealogy of Christian Neopythagoreanism PART ONE: The Genesis of Neopythagoreanism: A Synopsis 1. Platonic Transformations of Early Pythagorean Philosophy Mathematics as Philosophy in Philolaus and Archytas Mathematics as Mediation in Plato Mediation and First Philosophy in the Early Academy 2. The Neopythagorean Revival: Henology and Mediation The Origins of Henology in Eudorus and Moderatus Henology on the Margins of Middle Platonism Mathematical Theology in Nicomachus of Gerasa 3. The Late Antique Preservation of Neopythagoreanism Iamblichus, Proclus, and the Legacy of Nicomachus Augustine and the Number without number Boethius and the Fate of the Quadrivium PART TWO: The Pearl Diver: Thierry of Chartres's Theology of the Quadrivium 4. Thierry's Trinitarian Theology in Context The Status of Mediation in Twelfth-Century Platonism The Problem of Bernard's Gloss Thierry on Quadrivium and Trinity 5. The Discovery of the Fold Attempts at a Universal Theory of Science The Achievement of the Modal Theory Thierry as Neopythagorean Theologian 6. Thierry's Diminished Legacy Confusion about Mediation An Augustinian Censor A Late-Medieval Refutation: Word or Number? PART THREE: Bright Nearness: Nicholas of Cusa's Mathematical Theology 7. The Accidental Triumph of De docta ignorantia A Patchwork of Conflicting Sources Experiments in Chartrian Theology The Christological Double Synthesis 8. Chartrian Theology on Probation in the 1440s An Agenda for the 1440s in Two Sermons The Neopythagorean Counterexperiment Two Paradigms of Mediation 9. The Advent of Theologia geometrica in the 1450s The Restoration of Thierry's Modal Theory A New Foundation for Mathematical Theology The Word as Number and Angle 10. Completing the Circle in the 1460s New Impulses in the Late Works Incarnation and Neopythagoreanism Figurae mundi Epilogue Notes Bibliography

About the Author :
David Albertson is Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California.

Review :
"[A] fascinating genealogical study...Albertson does explain, more specifically than anyone has done before, exactly what it means for Cusanus to be dependent on the twelfth-century Thierry of Chartres, but his genealogical map also allows him to explore the deep reasons for the dynamic nature of Thierry and Cusanus's project...[H]is scholarship should appeal to medievalists, historians of philosophy and theology, Renaissance scholars, but also all those interested in the genealogy of modernity and questions of secularism, or anyone looking for a brilliant example of the early modern compatibility of religious belief and scientific/mathematical inquiry."--The Journal of Religion "This is the most insightful and learned monograph on Nicholas of Cusa to appear in the last decade. Cusanus scholars will have to grapple with his new reading of the Chartrian lines of influence, including his brilliant insight into Nicholas's alleged forgery. Even more exciting is the new sketch for the pre-history of today's debates about science and theology. Are the intellectual presuppositions of our spiritual a-cosmism only to be found within the age of Galileo or can the ancient and medieval synthesis of arithmetic and Incarnation still speak to us? Albertson adds considerable depth and light to that pressing discussion."--Peter Casarella, Associate Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame and President, American Cusanus Society "The heritage of Pythagoras has influenced Western thought for two-and-a-half millennia. One of the neglected aspects of this tradition was the development of Christian Neopythagoreanism in Late Antiquity and its rebirth in the twelfth century with the early scholastic Thierry of Chartres. David Albertson's wide-ranging and impressive book uncovers the significance of Thierry's mathematical theology and demonstrates its powerful influence on the Renaissance Cardinal and speculative thinker Nicholas of Cusa. Mathematical Theologies is a ground-breaking study in the history of Western theology and a major new interpretation of Cusanus." --Bernard McGinn, Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor emeritus, University of Chicago "Mathematization is usually regarded as the central element in the transition from medieval theology to modern science. David Albertson's genealogical study of the roots of Nicholas of Cusa's thought in the Christian Neopythagoreanism of Thierry of Chartres demonstrates that theology and mathematics did not always go separate ways. What if, in our age of unprecedented quantification, Word and Number could be made to meet once again? That is the provocative question of this brilliant book." --Philipp W. Rosemann, Professor of Philosophy, University of Dallas "Mathematical Theologies has much to offer scholars of Thierry and Cusanus but more broadly those interested in how historical theology found and/or ignored meaning in numbers." --Journal of the History of Philosophy "Albertson's first book is a major contribution to our understanding of mathematical notions of the cosmos."-- David Zachariah Flanagin, Catholic Historical Review