A prolific, perceptive, yet also generous and unassuming colleague, Donald F. Duclow has excelled as a scholar, teacher, faculty leader, and stalwart of several professional groups, not least the American Cusanus Society. He has published with enviable consistency and scope on Nicholas of Cusa, Meister Eckhart, and John Scotus Eriugena, as well as their predecessors, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Proclus. One can sample the breadth and depth of Don’s erudition and, no less, his humanity in his Masters of Learned Ignorance: Eriugena, Eckhart, Cusanus which brought together the best of his research up to 2006 as well as in his recent volume Engaging Eriugena, Eckhart and Cusanus published in 2023. These detailed, extensively annotated studies are clear evidence of Don’s acumen—of his mastery of the masters to whom he has been a devoted student. At the same time, Don has also probed this material to enlighten us on larger issues in the history of philosophical theology, not for the sake of demonstrating erudition, but for addressing abiding issues in the human search for God and for truly authentic communities. In other words, Don is both an intellectual historian of the highest caliber and a philosopher who takes seriously his personal devotion to the love and pursuit of wisdom—to what Nicholas of Cusa may have had in mind in titling one of his treatises De venatione sapientiae.
The foundation for this career was laid at DePaul University under the mentorship of Wilhelm Dupré, who instilled in Don a particular interest in mystical theology and intellect, and who directed Don’s Master’s thesis on “Anselm and Nicholas of Cusa” in 1969. The heart of Don’s continuing contributions to scholarship—the connectedness and significance of three outlier giants of medieval theology—became even clearer with a Ph.D. dissertation, advised by Jean A. Potter at Bryn Mawr College in 1974, entitled The Learned Ignorance: Its Symbolism, Logic and Foundations in Pseudo-Dionysius, John Scotus Eriugena and Nicholas of Cusa. The future course of Don’s academic endeavors was now set: studies in comparative philosophical theology with a focus on the unique blend of mystical theology and Christian Neoplatonism and their entwined
This tribute is not intended to provide a detailed recounting of Don’s exegeses of medieval philosophical treatises. The essay contributions for this volume both engage with and bear clear witness to the significance of Don’s work as an historian of philosophy and of medieval speculative theology. Our primary aim in this tribute is, rather, to bring to the foreground the ways in which Don’s contributions to the study of Cusanus and to the larger context of mystical theology and Christian Neoplatonism have been shaped by personal commitments that have always extended beyond the frameworks of the texts he has studied. In this vein, it is noteworthy that, although his disciplinary background has honed his exegetical and critical approach to philosophical analysis, Don’s intellectual career has also been rewarded by his interest in the lived experiences associated with the philosophical perspectives he has studied. Or, put differently, Don’s own philosophical methodology attests to the importance of this sort of attention to historical context and to the ethos of the “masters” to whom one devotes one’s studies.
Don’s curriculum vitae (included below) provides ample evidence of his commitment to this way of studying the past. It is not at all surprising, for instance, that Don’s intellectual biography of Nicholas of Cusa (“Life and Works” in Introducing Nicholas of Cusa: A Guide to a Renaissance Man), remains the best introductory access in English to Cusanus’ intellectual contributions. Further evidence of this sort of attention is easy to find throughout the corpus of Don’s writings. A few noteworthy examples include Don’s 2016 essay “Cusanus’ Clock: Time and Eternity in De visione Dei” and his 2019 essay “‘Our Substance is God’s Coin’: Nicholas of Cusa on Minting, Defiling and Restoring the Imago Dei.” In the former, Don carefully begins the essay by discussing clockmaking in the 15th century, including examples of clocks Nicholas of Cusa may have been familiar with, before turning to the clock as a symbol and metaphor in the De pace fidei. In the latter, Don discusses Nicholas of Cusa’s use of coins and coinage in both De ludo globi and Sermon 249. But it is also not surprising to find in Don’s career essays that reflect on the contemporary significance of the historical works that he has studied with such rigor. See, for instance, his 1981 essay “Dying on Broadway: Contemporary Drama and Mortality,” in which he analyzes two contemporary plays’ treatments of dying and the art of dying in light of the paradigm of the 15th-century drama Everyman. Or, to mention but one other example of Don’s interest in bringing the past to bear on the present, note his 2005 essay, “Theologies of Suffering: Eckhart, Henry Suso and Ursula Fleming,” in which Don discusses how Fleming integrates or “applies” Eckhart in her teachings on the subject of pain control.
Those of us involved in this tribute, however, recognize Don Duclow with special fondness as a key player in all developments of the American Cusanus Society. He was present at the creation. As early as 1971, eight years before anyone thought of a Cusanus Society, the groundwork may have been prepared when Don serendipitously met H. Lawrence Bond during Don’s first sojourn at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, where both gave papers on Cusanus, but in different sessions. What is certain is that Don was a key figure when Bond’s informal gatherings of inquirers became the American Cusanus Society under the leadership of Morimichi Watanabe in 1983. If Mori was the heart and soul of the society, Don (with Mori’s wife, Kiyomi) was its backbone and manager, the one who gave it structure and boots-on-the-ground steadiness. When Mori became ill and could not attend the 1994 Gettysburg Conference, it fell to Don to read out the quite moving comments Mori had sent. Afterwards, Don paused for a deep breath and then said ever so softly what the rest of us were thinking: “What a wonderful letter.” He served faithfully as secretary, beginning pro tempore in 1984 and only (much) later relinquished that role in order to take on (reluctantly) the role of elected vice president from 2014–2019. At the culmination of his distinguished service in 2019, he became the society’s éminence grise with the title of Executive Committee Member at Large. When he talks, we listen.
As to his role as an editor of several book volumes and journal special issues of collected essays, the authors of this Foreword are all well familiar with Don’s high standards and his insistence on punctuality. Out of habit, we were almost tempted to send this tribute to Don for some quick editing guidance.
Don’s contributions to the Society have always extended well beyond the officially recognized roles mentioned above, however. For example, he was often the Society’s organizer of sessions at Kalamazoo and frequently involved in planning the biennial Gettysburg Conferences, as well as panels for the Renaissance Society of America focused on Nicholas of Cusa. These roles coincided for many years with Don’s participation in the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, the Delaware Valley Medieval Association (which twice elected him president), and the Cusanus-Gesellschaft in Germany, which named him to their Advisory Board—an exceptional honor. But beyond or underneath all of that, Don has always excelled at encouraging, cajoling, and sometimes outright nudging Society members to bring their works-in-progress to completion for presentation and publication. He has been especially keen to introduce younger and emerging voices. This has helped to make the Society stand out as a place that regularly welcomed—indeed, sought out—new students of the masters of learned ignorance.
Scholars, faculty colleagues, Society members, former students, and not least readers of his probing insights on the human condition—we are all in his debt and grateful that he has been our companion.
Professor of Philosophy Emeritus
Gwynedd Mercy University
Gwynedd Valley, pa
personal data: |
Born January 11, 1946, Chicago, il |
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Married to Geraldine A. Hodzima, July 11, 1970 |
Education
Ph.D.: Philosophy, Bryn Mawr College, 1974.
m.a.: Medieval Studies, Bryn Mawr College, 1972.
m.a.: Philosophy, De Paul University, 1969.
b.a. with Highest Honor: English and Philosophy, De Paul University, 1968.
Post-doctoral Study
Institute on the History of American Philosophy, sponsored by the a.p.a. and the Council for Philosophical Studies. Haverford College, June 27–August 6, 1976.
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Religious Studies, 1980–81. Independent research project: Hermeneutics and Meister Eckhart.
“The Great Chain of Being in World Perspective,” an n.e.h. Summer Seminar for College Teachers. Pacific School of Religion, June 15–August 7, 1987. Seminar Director: Huston Smith.
“The Adam and Eve Narrative in Christian and Jewish Tradition,” an n.e.h. Summer Seminar for College Teachers. University of Virginia, June 15–August 5, 1993. Seminar Directors: Gary A. Anderson & Michael E. Stone.
Senior Fellow, Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion, The Divinity School, University of Chicago, spring quarter, 1998. Research project: “The Hungers of Hadewijch and Eckhart.”
Gwynedd Mercy University: Assistant Professor of Philosophy, 1974–80; Associate Professor, 1981–89; Professor, 1989–2009; Professor Emeritus, 2009-. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, May, 1982.
University of Pennsylvania: Adjunct Professor, Spring, 2011.
Rosemont College: Lecturer, Spring, 1970 and Spring, 1991.
Fordham University: Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Spring, 1978.
Professional Associations
American Philosophical Association.
Medieval Academy of America.
Renaissance Society of America.
Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy (Executive Committee, 2005–09; Chair, Program Committee, 2008–09; rsa Liaison, 2008–17).
Delaware Valley Medieval Association (President, 1991–92, 2007–08; Interim vp, 2016–17).
Cusanus-Gesellschaft (Advisory Board, 1993–2018).
American Cusanus Society (Secretary, 1984–2014; Vice President, 2014–2019; Executive Committee member at-large, 2019-).
Editorial Board, Listening: Journal of Religion and Culture, 1986–89.
American Association of University Professors (aaup); President, Gwynedd-Mercy College Chapter, 1996–97, 2002–09; Executive Committee, Pennsylvania aaup, 2000–03.
Publications
Books Authored
Engaging Eriugena, Eckhart and Cusanus. Variorum Collected Studies Series; London: Routledge, 2023.
Masters of Learned Ignorance: Eriugena, Eckhart, Cusanus. Variorum Collected Studies Series; Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.
Edited Books and Journal Issues
Renaissance Philosophy and the Humanists’ Thought: A Readers’ Tribute to Thomas Leinkauf, co-edited with Andrea Robiglio. Cordoba: Cordoba University Press: 2022.
Nicholas of Cusa and Times of Transition: Essays in Honor of Gerald Christianson, co-edited with Thomas M. Izbicki & Jason Aleksander. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
Responding to the Qurʾan: Cusanus, His Contemporaries and Successors, thematic issue of Revista Española de Filosofía medieval / The Spanish Journal for Medieval Philosophy, co-edited with with R. George-Tvrtković & T. Izbicki, vol. 26, no. 1 (2019); https://www.uco.es/ucopress/ojs/index.php/refime/issue/view/962. Nicholas of Cusa and Islam: Polemic and Dialogue in the Late Middle Ages, co-edited with Ian Levy & Rita George-Tvrtkovic. Leiden: Brill, 2014.
On Cultural Ontology: Religion, Philosophy and Culture—Essays in Honor of Wilhelm Dupré, co-edited with I. Bocken, S. van Erp & F. Jespers. Maastricht: Shaker Publishing, 2002.
The Great Chain of Being and World Religions, a thematic issue of Listening 24, n. 1 (Winter, 1989).
Arts of Suffering and Healing, a thematic issue of Listening 22, n. 2 (Spring, 1987).
Medicine, Religion and Culture, a thematic issue of Listening 19, n. 2 (Spring, 1984).
Selected Articles
“Charles de Bovelles on God, Nihil and Negative Theology,” in Studies in Honour of Paul Richard Blum on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday, Aither: Journal for the Study of the Greek and Latin Philosophical Tradition, International Issue 7/8 (2020): 24–38; https://aither.upol.cz/en/artkey/ath-202001-0003.php?l=en.
“‘Our Substance is God’s Coin’: Nicholas of Cusa on Minting, Defiling and Restoring the Imago Dei,” in Nicholas of Cusa and Times of Transition: Essays in Honor of Gerald Christianson, ed. T. Ibicki, J. Aleksander & D. Duclow (Leiden: Brill, 2019), pp. 301–319.
“Cusanus’ Philosophical Testament: De venatione sapientiae (The Hunt of Wisdom) (1462),” in Inventing Modernity in Medieval European Thought, ca. 1100 –ca. 1550, ed. B. Koch & C. Nederman (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2018), pp.137–154.
Co-author with Geraldine Duclow, “Tracing Cusanus in Brixen,” American Cusanus Society Newsletter, vol.33 (December 2016): 23–29.
“Cusanus’ Clock: Time and Eternity in De visione Dei,” Mitteilungen und Forschungsbeiträge der Cusanus-Geselschaft, vol. 34 (2016): 135–146.
Co-author with Geraldine Duclow, “The Tegernsee Altar Panels of Gabriel Angler,” American Cusanus Society Newsletter, vol. 32 (December 2015): 49–55.
“The Sleep of Adam, the Making of Eve: Sin and Creation in Eriugena,” in Eriugena and Creation: Proceedings of Eleventh International Colloquium on Eriugenian Studies held in Honor of Edouard Jeauneau, ed. W. Otten and M. Allen (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), pp. 235–261.
“Tempus—Aeternitas—Perpetuum: ‘Eternal Time’—Nicholas of Cusa on World, Time and Eternity,” in Manuductiones: Festchrift zu Ehren von Jorge M. Machetta und Claudia D’Amico, ed. C. Rusconi & K. Reinhardt (Münster: Aschendorff, 2014), pp. 211–221.
“‘Dying Well’ from the Fifteenth Century to Hospice,” Lutheran Quarterly, 38 (Summer 2014): 125–148.
“Meister Eckhart’s Latin Biblical Exegesis,” in A Companion to Meister Eckhart, ed. J. M. Hackett (Leiden: Brill, 2013), pp. 321–336.
“Coinciding in the Margins: Cusanus Glosses Eriugena,” in Eriugena-Cusanus, ed. A. Kijewska et al. (Colloquia Medievalia Lubliniensia, vol. i; Lublin: Wydawnictwo kul, 2011), pp. 83–103.
“Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa: Eucharist and Mystical Transformation,” Eckhart Review, 17 (2008): 44–61.
“Theologies of Suffering: Eckhart, Henry Suso and Ursula Fleming,” Eckhart Review, 14 (2005): 41–61.
“Life and Works,” in Introducing Nicholas of Cusa: A Guide to a Renaissance Man, ed. T. Izbicki, G. Christianson & C. Bellitto (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2004), pp. 25–56.
“Hell and Damnation in Eriugena,” co-authored with Paul A. Dietrich, in History and Eschatology in John Scottus Eriugena and His Time, ed. J. McEvoy & M. Dunne (Leuven: University Press, 2002), pp. 347–366.
“William James, Mind-cure and the Religion of Healthy-mindedness,” Journal of Religion and Health, 41, n. 1 (Spring, 2002): 45–56.
“Nicholas of Cusa’s ‘Conjectural’ Neoplatonism,” in Mediterranean Perspectives: Philosophy, Theology, Aesthetics, ed. Robert M. Berchman (Dowling College Press, 2000): 103–121.
“The Hungers of Hadewijch and Eckhart,” Journal of Religion, 80, n. 3 (July, 2000): 421–441.
“Dying Well: The Ars Moriendi and the Dormition of the Virgin,” in Death and Dying in the Middle Ages, ed. E. DuBruck & B. Gusick (New York: Peter Lang, 1999): 379–429.
“Denial or Promise of the Tree of Life?—Eriugena, Augustine and Genesis 3:22b,” in Johannes Scottus Eriugena, the Bible and Hermeneutics, ed. C. Steel, J. McEvoy & G. Van Riel (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1996): 221–238.
“Nicholas of Cusa’s Dialogue on World Religions: A Student Response Approach,” with Jessica L. Fry et al., American Cusanus Society Newsletter 12, 1 (August, 1995): 29–32.
“Boethius among the Navajo,” jrmmra(Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association) 15 (1994): 1–15; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra/vol15/iss1/2/.
“The Virgin’s ‘Good Death’: The Dormition in Fifteenth-Century Drama and Art,” Fifteenth-Century Studies 21 (1994): 55–86.
“Isaiah Meets the Seraph: Breaking Ranks in Dionysius and Eriugena?” in Eriugena: East and West, ed. B. McGinn & W. Otten (Notre Dame & London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994), pp. 233–252.
“Nicholas of Cusa,” in Medieval Philosophers, ed. Jeremiah Hackett, volume 115 of The Dictionary of Literary Biography (Detroit & London: Gale Research, 1992), pp. 289–305.
“Nicholas of Cusa in the Margins of Meister Eckhart: Codex Cusanus 21,” in Nicholas of Cusa in Search of God and Wisdom, ed. G. Christianson & T. Izbicki (Leiden: e.j. Brill, 1991), pp. 57–69.
“Mystical Theology and Intellect in Nicholas of Cusa,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 64 (1990): 111–129.
“‘Whose Image Is This?’ in Eckhart’s Sermones,” Mystics Quarterly 15 (1989): 29–40.
“Into the Whirlwind of Suffering: Resistance and Transformation,” Second Opinion 9 (November, 1988): 10–27.
“Meister Eckhart on the Book of Wisdom,” Traditio 43 (1987): 215–235.
“John Donne’s Art of Suffering in the Devotions upon Emergent Occasions,” Listening 22, n. 2 (Spring, 1987): 151–162.
“Virgins in Paradise: Deification and Exegesis in Periphyseonv,” co-authored with Paul A. Dietrich, in Jean Scot écrivain, ed. Guy-H. Allard (Montreal: Bellarmin, & Paris: J. Vrin, 1986), pp. 29–49.
“Hermeneutics and Meister Eckhart,” Philosophy Today 28 (1984): 36–43.
“‘My Suffering Is God’: Meister Eckhart’s Book of Divine Consolation,” Theological Studies 44 (1983): 570–586.
“Everyman and the Ars moriendi: Fifteenth-Century Ceremonies of Dying,” Fifteenth-Century Studies 6 (1983): 93–113.
“Anselm’s Proslogion and Nicholas of Cusa’s Wall of Paradise,” Downside Review 100 (1982): 22–30.
“The Dynamics of Analogy in Nicholas of Cusa,” International Philosophical Quarterly 21 (1981): 295–301.
“Dying on Broadway: Contemporary Drama and Mortality,” Soundings 64 (1981): 197–216.
“Dialectic and Christology in Eriugena’s Periphyseon,” Dionysius 4 (1980): 99–117.
“Perspective and Therapy in Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 4 (1979): 334–343.
“Nature as Speech and Book in John Scotus Eriugena,” Mediaevalia 3 (1977): 131–140.
“The Analogy of the Word: Nicholas of Cusa’s Theory of Language,” Bijdragen: Tijdschrift voor Filosofie en Theologie 38 (1977): 282–299.
“Divine Nothingness and Self-Creation in John Scotus Eriugena,” The Journal of Religion 57 (1977): 109–123.
“Structure and Meaning in Anselm’s De veritate,” American Benedictine Review 26 (1975): 406–417.
“Gregory of Nyssa and Nicholas of Cusa: Infinity, Anthropology and the Via Negativa,” Downside Review 92 (1974): 102–108.
“Pseudo-Dionysius, John Scotus Eriugena and Nicholas of Cusa: An Approach to the Hermeneutic of the Divine Names,” International Philosophical Quarterly 12 (1972): 260–278.