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Eric Voegelin's Interpretation(s) of Modernity: A Reconsideration of the Spiritual and Political Implications of Voegelin's Therapeutic Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Murray Jardine
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Extract

Eric Voegelin's political theory, which is often understood as “conservative,” actually contains very radical elements. An examination of Voegelin's understanding of the genesis of modernity in more detail than hitherto has been attempted shows that four apparently different accounts of modernity's origins can be isolated in Voegelin's writings. An attempt to synthesize these accounts indicates potentially radical implications for both Christian theology and Western political institutions. Such a synthesis shows that the sources of modern consciousness are inherent in orthodox Christianity, which in turn implies a fundamental reconsideration of Christian revelation and its political impact.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , Fall 1995 , pp. 581 - 606
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1995

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References

This project would not have been possible without the support and criticism of Ellis Sandoz, Cecil Eubanks, and Clarke Cochran. I would also like to thank the referees at The Review of Politics for their many helpful comments.

1. Voegelin, Eric, The New Science of Politics: An Introduction (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1952).Google Scholar

2. See, for example, Germino, Dante, Beyond Ideology: The Revival of Political Theory (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), pp. 161–85Google Scholar; Havard, William C., “Voegelin's Changing Conception of History and Consciousness,” in Eric Voegelin's Search for Order in History, ed. Mcknight, Stephen A. (Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 1978), pp. 1–25Google Scholar; and Webb, Eugene, Eric Voegelin: Philosopher of History (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1981).Google Scholar

3. New Science, p. 27.

4. Ibid., pp. 1–2.

5. Ibid., p. 1.

6. Actually, this characterization may oversimplify, at least in light of Voegelin's later work, where he argues that some of the typical features of modernity can be found even in the third millennium B.C. See Order and History, vol. IV: The Ecumenic Age (Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 1974), pp. 1–58 and especially pp. 59–113Google Scholar. Ultimately, however, I think this is probably the best way to understand Voegelin's perception of modernity.

7. By “orthodox Christianity” I mean what Voegelin means by the term, i.e., the basic doctrines shared by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, as well as the Protestant traditions, such as Anglicanism, which did not make drastic breaks with Rome. Voegelin would not apply the term to the more radical Reformation movements, which he saw as among the earliest manifestations of modern gnosticism, nor would he apply it to present-day Protestant fundamentalism, which almost certainly amounts to another kind of gnostic movement.

8. See Rhodes, James, “Voegelin and Christian Faith,” Center Journal 2 (Summer 1983): 55–105.Google Scholar

9. This impression might be given by parts of the Introduction and chapter 6. See New Science, pp. 22–26,187–89.

10. Ibid., pp. 2–3. Contrary to those who understand Voegelin as engaging in a project similar to Strauss, this passage could actually be read as an implicit critique of the Straussian enterprise.

11. Voegelin, Eric, From Enlightenment to Revolution, ed. Hallowell, John (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1975), pp. 298–301.Google Scholar

12. Voegelin, addresses issues of this nature briefly in “Industrial Society in Search of Reason,” in World Technology and Human Destiny, ed. Aron, Raymond (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1963), pp. 31–46Google Scholar, where he appears to assume that an industrial economy should be organized in what is sometimes referred to as corporatist manner.

13. New Science, pp. 162–63.

14. From Enlightenment to Revolution, pp. 22–23.

15. New Science, pp. 110–21.

16. Ibid., p. 119.

17. For an alternative interpretation, see Dallmayr, Fred “Postmetaphysics and Democracy,” Political Theory 21 (1993): 101–127, especially pp. 103–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Dallmayr argues that Voegelin essentially accepts the Augustinian dualism and regards Christianity as necessarily apolitical. This interpretation seems to confuse Voegelin's description of Augustine with his own views and ignores contrary evidence from Voegelin's other writings.

18. New Science, pp. 188–89. See also “The Oxford Political Philosophers,” Philosophical Quarterly 3 (1953): 97–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19. From Enlightenment to Revolution, p. 22.

20. See Voegelin, Eric, Order and History, vol. I: Israel and Revelation (Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 1956), pp. ix–xiv, 1–11Google Scholar; vol. II: The World of the Polis (Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 1957), pp. 1–24Google Scholar; and especially vol. IV, pp. 1–58.

21. See New Science, pp. 76–80.

22. Ibid., pp. 27–51.

23. Ibid., pp. 122–23.

24. From Enlightenment to Revolution, p. 21.

25. See Order and History, 3: 273–79.Google Scholar

26. Voegelin, Eric, Order and History, vol. V: In Search of Order (Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 1987), pp. 38–39Google Scholar. See also pp. 33–34, 62–64.

27. Order and History, 4: 227.Google Scholar

28. Ibid., p.248.

29. See, for example, Altizer, Thomas J.j., “A New History and a New but Ancient God? A Review Essay,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 43 (1975): 757–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Douglass, Bruce, “A Diminished Gospel: A Critique of Voegelin's Interpretation of Christianity,” in McKnight, Eric Voegelin's Search for Order in History, pp. 139–54Google Scholar; and Rhodes, “Voegelin and Christian Faith.”

30. Order and History, 4: 239–40.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., p. 268.

32. Ibid., p. 270.

33. Even before his discussion of St.Paul, (and early Christianity generally) in Order and History, 4: 239–71Google Scholar, Voegelin identified the origin of what he calls “metastatic expectations” in the prophet Isaiah. See Order and History, 1:431–87Google Scholar, especially pp. 447–58.

34. The thesis that the Greek and Hebraic worldviews are incompatible is, for political theorists, usually associated with Leo Strauss. Others who make such an argument, not necessarily on the same grounds as Strauss, include Löwith, Karl, Meaning in History (Chicago: Phoenix Books, University of Chicago Press, 1949)Google Scholar; Niebuhr, Reinhold, The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation, vol. I: Human Nature (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1941)Google Scholar; Boman, Thorlief, Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek, trans. Moreau, Jules C. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1960)Google Scholar; and Poteat, William H., Polanyian Meditations: In Search of a Post-Critical Logic (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1985).Google Scholar

35. See the discussion and references in Federici, Michael P., “Voegelin's Christian Critics,” Modern Age 36 (1994): 331–40.Google Scholar