De Quaerendo Deum - On Seeking God

De Quaerendo Deum (DQD)

De quaerendo Deum, meaning: On Seeking God, a book written by Nicholas of Cusa (or Cusanus) in 1445, 660 years ago.

Truly venerable Brother-in-Christ, l in complying with your desire, as best I
can, I will here attempt to repeat in writing, briefly and clearly, that which I
endeavored to explain to the congregation at the Feast of Epiphany concerning
the analysis of God's name. [I will do so] in order that meditating may be
stimulated on the part of us both and that by the ascent of our intellects our
inner man may gradually be transformed from light unto light—[transformed] I to
the point that [having attained] unto clear recognition through the light of
glory, it may enter into the joy of its Lord.

To begin with,
Excellent Brother, you well know that when on
the Areopagus Paul (who says
that he was caught up unto the third heaven, to the point of beholding sacred
mysteries) preached the truth to those men who, in Athens, were then devoting
themselves to the very celebrated study of philosophy, he stated in his sermon
that he wanted to proclaim to them the good news about the Unknown God, to whom
those pagans had consecrated an altar. And when he proceeded to explain this
matter, he stated that God had created all men in one man and that He had
granted a definite period of time for men's being in this world, in order that
they might seek Him, to see whether they could gropingly find Him. And Paul
added that, nonetheless, God is not far from anyone, since in Him we exist and
live and are moved.

Then, reproving idolatry, he added that in
men's thought there can be no likeness at all to God. Whenever reading the Acts
of the Apostles, I marvel at Paul's procedure. For he wanted to make known to
[these] philosophers the Unknown God, whom thereafter he affirms to be unable to
be conceived by any human intellect. Therefore, God is made known by the fact
that every intellect is too small to be figure or conceive Him. But Paul names
Him God—or Theos in Greek. So given the fact that man entered this world in
order to seek God and to cleave unto Him once found and by cleaving unto Him to
find rest: since man cannot seek God, and grope for Him, in this sensible and
corporeal world (for God
is spirit rather than body and cannot be attained by
the intellect's abstracting, since man cannot conceive of any likeness to God,
as Paul said), then how is it that God can be sought in order to be found?
Assuredly, unless this world were useful to the seeker, man would be sent in
vain to the world for the purpose of seeking God. Hence, it must be the case
that this world offers assistance to the seeker and that the seeker knows that
neither in this world nor in anything which man conceives is there any likeness
to God.
Let us now determine whether the name “Theos,” or “God,” offers
us
assistance in these matters. For the name “Theos” is not that
name of God
which excels every concept. For that [name] which cannot be conceived, remains
ineffable. For to express is to externalize an inward concept by means of words
or other befiguring signs. Therefore, the name of Him whose likeness is not
conceived is not known. Hence, “Theos” is the name of God only insofar as God is
sought, by human beings, in this world. So let him-who-seeks take careful
account of the fact that in the name “Theos” there is enfolded a certain
way-of-seeking whereby God is found, so that He can be groped for. “Theos” is
derived from “theoro,” which means “I see” and “I hasten.” Therefore, the seeker
ought to hasten by means of sight, so that he can attain unto God, who sees all
things. Accordingly, vision bears a likeness to the pathway by means of which a
seeker ought to advance.

Consequently, in the presence of the eye
of intellectual vision
we must magnify the nature of sensible vision and
construct, from that nature, a ladder of ascent.