Bridge or Barrier? Mary and Islam in William of Tripoli and Nicholas of Cusa

Abstract

Both Christianity and Islam claim the Virgin Mary, but most Christians throughout history have seen her as a barrier between the two religions, not a bridge. In the medieval period, Latin Christians noted errors in Qurʾānic Mariology and raised standards of the Virgin in wars against Muslims. By the sixteenth century, the use of Mary as an interfaith barrier escalated among Catholics who employed her to combat both Ottomans and Protestants. Yet two medieval churchmen, William of Tripoli and Nicholas of Cusa, stressed concord between Christian and Muslim Mariologies, despite the fact that they were both writing at times of great interreligious strife: William soon before the fall of Acre in 1291, and Nicholas soon after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. This article discusses how William and Nicholas, unlike most of their confreres, saw Mary as a theological link between Islam and Christianity. This perspective represents but one point in the historical trajectory of Christian views of Mary vis-à-vis Islam, a spectrum which has shifted from seeing the Virgin as either a bridge or barrier, depending on her polemical or irenic utility.