In the Mirror of Imaginary Interreligious Dialogues

From Niccolò Cusano’s “De Pace Fidei” to Jean Bodin’s “Colloquium heptaplomeres”

Abstract

The essay proposes an analysis of Niccolò Cusano’s De pace fidei, highlighting the presence in it of the relationship between the universality of the “una religio” and the peculiarity of the “varietas rituum”, according to a dialectic which seeks to keep them in balance. During the analysis, it is revealed that “una religio” is not simply Christianity in the ecclesiastical and orthodox sense, but a universal and rational religion which is able to embrace the plurality of religions without identifying with any one of them. The second part of the essay is focused on Jean Bodin’s Colloquium heptaplomeres, highlighting the process of secularization that took place after Cusano’s work.