In the history of the scholarship on Nicholas of Cusa 1964 was a remarkable year. The fifth
centenary of Cusanus's death was celebrated and two famous Conferences were held in
Bernkastel-Kues and Brixen Bressanone Nicholas's German birthplace and episcopal see in South
Tyrol respectively. In the summer of the same year the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar
published a long article in the cultural supplement of the Swiss newspaper Basler Volksblattes
entitled: Warum wir Cusanus brauchen. Almost sixty years after Balthasar's article in this
book philosophers theologians and scholars from different European countries return to debate
on the topicality of Cusanus's thought and its relevance for contemporary culture.The
contributors to this volume address the question raised by Balthasar in 1964 (Why we need
Cusanus) from various perspectives and from different approaches. In this way the studies
collected here offer the reader a picture of the multiple legacies of Cusanus's philosophy and
at the same time enable him to have a look at the new directions of research on Nicholas of
Cusa and its developments in the last few decades.
