Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) challenged the rigidity of Scholasticism. He theorized that there are three stages to knowledge. He called two of the three fantasy and reason and found them lacking. Cusa, a Cardinal of the Church, called the third form of knowledge intellective, which he describes as divinely inspired intuition. Similarly to Augustine, Cusa believed true knowledge needs a divine jumpstart.

Nicholas of Cusa employed a paradox that he called learned ignorance. It is a Renaissance spin on Socrates's belief that the wise man is only wise when he admits to himself that he really knows nothing at all. Cusa said that God was an essentially unknowable entity. How can mere humans comprehend the ultimately perfect being? Yet he also claimed that God was the only truth in town, the only thing we could truly rely on.