Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T19:16:13.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Between Gnosis and Anamnesis — European Perspectives on Eric Voegelin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Gilbert Weise
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the following, the focus will be on the German reception of the work of Eric Voegelin. Nevertheless snapshots from Austria, Italy, France, Poland and the Czech Republic will be presented

Type
Eric Voegelin and Voegelin Scholarship
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , Fall 2000 , pp. 753 - 776
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Henkel, Michael, Eric Voegelin zur Einführung (Hamburg: Junius, 1998).Google Scholar

2 See also Marquardd, Odo, “Aufgeklärter Polytheismus—auch eine politische Theologie?” in Der Fürst dieser Welt. Carl Schmitt und die Folgen, ed. Taubes, Jacob (Munich et al: Wilhelm Fink/Ferdinand Schöningh, 1983), pp. 77–84.Google Scholar

3 Voegelin's position, by the way, first entered the German arena in a cut version, as it were, that is through two essays published in periodicals: “Gnostische Politik,” in Merkur (1952) and “Philosophic der Politik in Oxford,” in Philosophische Rundschau (1953/54, translation of “The Oxford Political Philosophers” published in Philosophical Quarterly, April 1953). The New Science of Politics (1952) was translated into German only in 1959. With regard to the extensive correspondences between Voegelin, Löwith and Taubes see Eric Voegelin Papers, Boxes 24.4 and 37.10, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California.

4 Blumenberg, Hans, The Legitimacy of the Modern Age, trans. Wallace, R. M. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986).Google Scholar

5 Blumenberg, Hans, Die Legitimität der Neuzeit. Erneuerte Ausgabe (Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 1988), p. 138.Google Scholar

6 ibid.

7 Taubes to Voegelin, 6 January 1967, Eric Voegelin Papers, Box 37.10, Hoover Archives.

8 See, for instance, Löwith, Karl, “Besprechung des Buches Die Legitimität der Neuzeit von Hans Blumenberg,” Philosophische Rundschau 15 (1968): 195–201Google Scholar; and Taubes, Jacob, “Der dogmatische Mythos der Gnosis” (1971) in Taubes, J., Vom Kult zur Kultur. Bausteine zu einer Kritik der historischen Vernunft (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1996), pp. 99–113.Google Scholar

9 Voegelin, E., Anamnesis. Zur Theorie der Geschichte und Politik (Munich: Piper, 1966).Google Scholar

10 ibid., p. 279.

11 Voegelin, E., On Character and Scepticism, p. 104Google Scholar, Eric Voegelin Papers, Box 56–60 (History of Political Ideas), Hoover Archives.

12 Brumlik, Micha, Die Gnostiker. Der Traum von der Selbsterlösung des Menschen (Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer, 1995), p. 297.Google Scholar

13 Kiel, Albrecht, Gottesstaat und Pax Americana: zur Politischen Theobgie von Carl Schmitt und Eric Voegelin (Cuxhaven: Junghans, 1998), p. 95.Google Scholar

14 ibid., p. 97.

15 Faber, Richard, Der Prometheus-Komplex. Zur Kritik der Polit-Theorie Eric Voegelins und Hans Blumenbergs (Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann, 1984), p. 56.Google Scholar

16 ibid., p. 67.

17 Faber, Richard, “Eric voegelin. Gnosis-Verdachtals polit(olog)isches Strategem,” in Gnosis und Politik, ed. Taubes, J. (Munich et al.: Wilhelm Fink/Ferdinand Schöningh, 1984), pp. 230–248, at p. 248.Google Scholar

18 Taubes, Jacob, “Einleitung,” in Taubes, Gnosis und Politik, p. 10.Google Scholar

19 ibid

20 Voegelin, E., Autobiographical Reflections (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), p. 13Google Scholar

21 For an overview of these studies see Price, Geoffrey, “Eric Voegelin: A Classifield Biliography” Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 76/2 (1994): 160–172.Google Scholar

22 Henningsen, Manfred, “Eric Voegelin und die Deutschen”, Merkur. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Europäisches Denken 8/48 (1994): 728.Google Scholar

23 A translation of the lectures is published now within The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin. See Voegelin, E., Hitler and the Germans, trans., ed. and intro. Clemens, Detlev and Purcell, Brendan, vol 31, Collected Works (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1999).Google Scholar

24 Voegelin, E., Die Politischen Religionen, ed. Opitz, Peter J. (Munich: Wilhelm Fink/Periagoge, 1993).Google Scholar

25 Voegelin, E., Das Volk Gottes. Sektenbewegungen und der Geist der Moderne, trans. Kaltschmidt, Heike and ed. and intro. Peter J. Opitz (Munich: Wilhelm Fink/ Periagoge, 1994)Google Scholar; and Autobiographische Reflexionen trans. König, Caroline and ed. and intro. Peter J. Opitz (Munich: Wilhelm Fink/Periagoge, 1994).Google Scholar

26 Voegelin, E., Die Neue Wissenschaft der Politik. Eine Einführung, ed. Opitz, Peter J. (Munich: Alber, 1991)Google Scholar; Voegelin, Eric, SchÜtz, Alfred, Strauss, Leo, Gurwitsch, Aron, Briefwechsel über “Die Neue Wissenschaft der Politik”, ed. Opitz, Peter J. (Munich: Alber, 1993).Google Scholar

27 This situation will change now that, under the direction of Prof. Opitz, the translation and editing processes of Order and History have been started. The first volume will come out in 2001.

28 Voegelin, , Politische Religionen, p. 53.Google Scholar

29 Maier, Hans, Politische Religionen. Die totalitären Regime und das Christentum (Freiburg et al.: Herder, 1995).Google Scholar

30 Maier, Hans, ed., ‘Totalitarismus’ und ‘Politische Religionen’. Konzepte des Diktaturvergleichs (Paderborn et al.: Ferdinand Schoningh, 1996)Google Scholar; Maier, Hans and Schäfer, Michael, eds., ‘Totalitarismus’ und ‘Politische Religionen’. Konzepte des Diktaturvergleichs. Band 2 (Paderborn et al.: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1997).Google Scholar

31 See Herz, Dietmar, “Der Begriff der, Politischen Religionen' im Denken Eric Voegelins”, in Maiei, ‘Totalitarismus’, pp. 191–209.Google Scholar

32 Ley, Michael and Schoeps, Julius H., eds., Der Nationalsozialismus als politische Religion (Bodenheim: Philo, 1997)Google Scholar; Ley, Michael, Apokalypse undModeme. Aufsädtze zu politischen Religionen (Wien: Sonderzahl, 1997).Google Scholar

33 Ley, , Apokalypse, p. 124.Google Scholar

34 Brumlik, Micha, “Gläubige Hingabe und starker Staat. Zu den Chancen einer, Religionspolitologie'”, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 13/1410 1997, pp. 50–51.Google Scholar

35 ibid.

36 Burrin, Philippe, “Die politischen Religionen: Das My thologisch-Symbolische in einer säkularisierten Welt”, in Ley, and Schoeps, , Der Nationalsozialismus, p. 169.Google Scholar

37 Brumlik, , Gläubige Hingabe, p. 51.Google Scholar

38 Faber, Richard, ed., Politische Religion—religiöse Politik (Würzburg: Konigshausen and Neumann, 1997).Google Scholar

39 Faber, , Der Prometheus-Komplex, p. 67.Google Scholar

40 Bärsch, Claus E., Die politische Religion des Nationalsozialismus. Die religiöse Dimension der NS-Ideologie in den Schriften von Dietrich Eckart, Joseph Goebbels, Alfred Rosenberg und Adolf Hitler (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1998).Google Scholar

41 See also Henningsen, Manfred, “Hitler und die Deutschen. Über Totalitarismus und politische Religionen”, in Merkur. Deutsche Zeitschrift für europäisches Denken 12 (1999): 1194–98.Google Scholar

42 Herz, , Der Begriffder politischen Religionen, p. 209.Google Scholar

43 See Gebhardt, Jürgen, “Politische Ideengeschichte als Theorie der politischen Evokation,”, in Politikwissenschaftliche Spiegelungen. Ideendiskurs— Institutionelle Fragen—Politische Kultur und Sprache, ed. Berg-Schlosser, Dirk, Richter, Gisela and Waschkuhn, Arno (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1998), pp. 15–33.Google Scholar

44 Voegelin, , On Character and Scepticism, p. 106.Google Scholar

45 See, for example, Kraus, Hans-Christof, “Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Ordnung. Theologische Spekulation als politische Philosophie bei Eric Voegelin” Criticon: Conservative Zeitschrift 120 (1990): 177–81.Google Scholar

46 Schütz, Alfred, The Problem of Social Reality. Collected Papers 1 (The Hague et al.: Martinus Nijhoff, 1962), p. 293.Google Scholar

47 Levy, David J., Realism: An Essay in Interpretation and Social Reality (Manchester: Carcanet New Press, 1981), p. 14.Google Scholar

48 Weiss, Gilbert, Theorie, Relevanz und Wahrheit. Eine Rekonstruktion des Briefwechsels zwischen Eric Voegelin und Alfred Schütz 1938–1959 (Munich: Wilhelm Fink/Periagoge, 2000).Google Scholar

49 Gurwitsch in a letter to Alfred Schütz from 2 November 1952, see Voegelin, E., Schütz, A., Strauss, L., Gurwitsch, A., Briefwechsel, p. 133.Google Scholar

50 See Voegelin, E., The Authoritarian State: An Essay on the Problem of the Austrian State, trans. Hein, Ruth, ed. and intro. Gilbert Weiss; historical commentary on the period by Erika Weinzierl, vol 4, Collected Works (Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 1999).Google Scholar

51 Rathkolb, Oliver, “Eric Voegelin: From a Member of the Vienna Legal Theory School to a ‘Gnostic Anti-Gnostic’” in Vertreibung der Vernunft. The Cultural Exodus from Austria, ed. Stadler, F. and Wteibel, P. (Vienna and New York: Springer, 1995), p. 163.Google Scholar

52 ibid.

53 See Voegelin, , TheAuthoritarian State, p. 57f.Google Scholar

54 Voegelin, E., Der autoritäre Staat. Ein Versuch über das österreichische Staatsproblem, ed. and intro. Winkler, Günther (Wien and New York: Springer, 1997).Google Scholar

55 Voegelin, E., La nuova scienza politico, trans. Pavetto, R. (Torino: Borla, 1968).Google Scholar

56 See, for instance, Gian Lami, F., Introduzione a Eric Voegelin. Dal mito teocosmogonico al sensorio della trascendenza: la ragione degli antiqui e la ragione dei moderni (Milano: Giuffré, 1993)Google Scholar; Mistrorigo, Luigi, Eric Voegelin. Decadenza e ordine politico: la politica prima del potere (Roma: Città Nuova, 1994)Google Scholar; Chignola, Sandro, Pratica del limite. Saggio sulla filosofia politica di Eric Voegelin (Padova: Unipress, 1998)Google Scholar

57 For detailled bibliographical references of all these publications see the Bibliography (“Fonti”) in Chignola, Pratica del limite.

58 ibid., Appendix 3.

59 S. Chignola, Fetishism with the Norm and Symbols of Politics, Occasional Papers 10, Eric-Voegelin-Archiv, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (1999).

60 This letter is from 16 October 1958; see Eric Voegelin Papers, Box 34.11, Hoover Institution Archives.

61 Schütz to Voegelin, 16 October 1958.

62 Voegelin to Schütz, 20 October 1958.

63 Waldenfels, Bernhard, Phänomenologie in Frankreich (Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 1987), p. 39.Google Scholar

64 Aron, Raymond, “Remarques sur la Gnose Leniniste” in The Philosophy of Order: Essays on Consciousness, History and Politics, ed. Opitz, P. J. and Sebba, G. (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1981), pp. 263–74.Google Scholar

65 Taubes to Voegelin, November 1952, see Eric Voegelin Papers, Box 37.10, Hoover Institution Archives.

66 Voegelin, E., “Gnostische Politik,” Merkur. Deutsche Zeitschrift für europäisches Denken 4 (1952): 301–17.Google Scholar

67 Lévinas, E., Dieu, la Mort et le Temps (Paris: Éditions Grasset and Fasquelle, 1993), quoted from the German translation 1996, p. 25.Google Scholar

68 Brague, Rémi, Europe, la voie romaine (Paris: Criterion, 1992), quoted from the German translation 1993, p. 146.Google Scholar

69 Boudon, Raymond, L'idéologie. L'origine des idées recues (Paris, Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1986), quoted from the German translation, p. 167.Google Scholar

70 Voegelin, E., Les religions politiques, traduction et préface par Jacob Schmutz (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1994).Google Scholar

71 See Schmutz, J., “La prophetie du Flore,” in Voegeli, E.n, Les religions politiques, pp. 7–22Google Scholar; and “La philosophie de I'ordre d'Eric Voegelin,” Revue philosophique de Louvain 3 (1995): 255–84.Google Scholar

72 Voegelin, E., La nouvelle science de la politique, traduction et présentation par Sylvie Courtine-Denamy (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 2000).Google Scholar

73 Besançon, Alain,Le Malheur du siècle. Sur le communisme, le nazisme et I'unicité de la Shoah (Paris: Fayard, 1998)Google Scholar. I am grateful to Jacob Schmutz for this information.

74 Uminska-Ziesche, Monika, Eric Voegelin's Reception in Poland, manuscript for the Second International Conference on the work of Eric Voegelin, University of Manchester 1997Google Scholar. See also by the same author, “Slowo od Tlumaza,” in Voegelin, Eric, Lud Bozy, trans. Uminska, Monika (Krakow: Wydawnictwa Znak, 1994; translation of The people of God), pp. 5–19.Google Scholar

75 Legutko, Ryszard, Etyka absolutna I spoleczenstwo otwarte (Absolute ethics and open society) (Krakow, 1994)Google Scholar, quoted from Uminska-Ziesche, , Voegelin's Reception, p. 3.Google Scholar

76 Dorosz, Krzystof, “Przeciw gnostykom,” Aneks 35 (1984): 3–35Google Scholar, quoted from Uminska-Ziesche, , Voegelin's Reception, p. 8.Google Scholar

77 Uminska-Ziesche, , Voegelin's Reception, p. 12.Google Scholar

78 Voegelin, E., Nowa nauka polityki, trans, with Foreword Pawel Spiewak (Warszawa: Bibliotheka Aletheia, 1992)Google Scholar; for The People of God see footnote 74.

79 See Tischner, JÓzef, Das menschliche Drama. Phänomenologische Studien zur Philosophie des Dramas (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1989)Google Scholar; this text had not been published in Polish before.

80 ibid., p. 29.

81 ibid., p. 35.

82 See, for instance, Voegelin, E., “Der meditative Ursprung philosophischen Ordnungswissens” Zeitschrift für Politik 2 (1981): 130–37.Google Scholar

83 Patočka, Jan, “Co je existence?” (What is existence?) Filosofický časopis 17 (1969): 682–702Google Scholar; see also Srubar, Ilja, “Vom begründeten Leben. Zu Jan Patoèkas praktischer Philosophie”, Phänomenologische Forschungen 17 (1985): 10–31.Google Scholar

84 See Srubar, , Vom begriindeten Leben, p. 26.Google Scholar

85 See Patočka, J., Le monde naturel comme probleme philosophique (The Hague et al.: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976).Google Scholar

86 Kohák, Erazim, Jan Patocčka. Philosophy and Selected Writings (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1989), p. 117.Google Scholar

87 Patočka, J., Platon et I'Europe, trans. Abrams, Erika (Lagrasse: Èditions Verdier, 1983, French translation of unpublished manuscript from 1973).Google Scholar

88 Paloš, Martin, “Post-Totalitarian Politics and European Philosophy”, Public Affairs Quarterly 7/2 (1993): 149–64Google Scholar; and by the same author, “European Politics in the End of the Twentieth Century as a Philosophical Problem (Variations on them themes of Jan Patočka, Eric Voegelin and Hannah Arendt)” (Paper delivered at the American Political Science Association Convention, San Francisco 1996).