Reaching from the decline of the Greek Polis to Saint Augustine, this first volume of Eric Voegelin's eagerly anticipated History of Political Ideas fills the gap left between volumes 3 and 4 of Order and History. The heart of the book is the powerful account of Apostolic Christianity's political implications and the work of the early church fathers. Voegelin's consideration of the political philosophy of Rome and his unique analysis of Greek and early Roman law are of particular interest.
Although History of Political Ideas was begun as a textbook for Macmillan,...
Reaching from the decline of the Greek Polis to Saint Augustine, this first volume of Eric Voegelin's eagerly anticipated History of Political I...
Voegelin's magisterial account of medieval political thought opens with a survey of the structure of the period and continues with an analysis of the Germanic invasions, the fall of Rome, and the rise of empire and monastic Christianity. The political implications of Christianity and philosophy in the period are elaborated in chapters devoted to John of Salisbury, Joachim of Flora (Fiore), Frederick II, Siger de Brabant, Francis of Assisi, Roman law, and climaxing in a remarkable study of Saint Thomas Aquinas's mighty thirteenth-century synthesis.
Although "History of Political Ideas"...
Voegelin's magisterial account of medieval political thought opens with a survey of the structure of the period and continues with an analysis of t...
In The Later Middle Ages, the third volume of his monumental History of Political Ideas, Eric Voegelin continues his exploration of one of the most crucial periods in the history of political thought. Illuminating the great figures of the high Middle Ages, Voegelin traces the historical momentum of our modern world in the core evocative symbols that constituted medieval civilization. These symbols revolved around the enduring aspiration for the sacrum imperium, the one order capable of embracing the transcendent and immanent, the ecclesiastical and political, the...
In The Later Middle Ages, the third volume of his monumental History of Political Ideas, Eric Voegelin continues his exploration of...
Examining the emergence of modernity within the philosophical and political debates of the sixteenth century, "Religion and the Rise of Modernity" resumes the analysis of the "great confusion" introduced in Volume IV of "History of Political Ideas." Encompassing a vast range of events ignited by Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, this period is one of controversy, revolution, and partiality.
Despite the era's fragmentation and complexity, Voegelin's insightful analysis clarifies its significance and suggests the lines of change converging at a point in the future: the medieval Christian...
Examining the emergence of modernity within the philosophical and political debates of the sixteenth century, "Religion and the Rise of Modernity" ...
Volume VI of Voegelin's account of the history of Western political ideas continues from the point reached in the previous volume with the study of the mystic-philosopher Jean Bodin. Voegelin begins with a discussion of the conflict between Bishop Bossuet and Voltaire concerning the relationship between what is conventionally identified as sacred history and profane history. Bossuet maintained the traditional Christian position, the origin of which may be traced to Saint Augustine's "City of God." Voegelin shows, however, that while Bossuet may have been heir to an adequate understanding...
Volume VI of Voegelin's account of the history of Western political ideas continues from the point reached in the previous volume with the study of...
In The New Order and Last Orientation, Eric Voegelin explores two distinctly different yet equally important aspects of modernity. He begins by offering a vivid account of the political situation in seventeenth-century Europe after the decline of the church and the passing of the empire. Voegelin shows how the intellectual and political disorder of the period was met by such seemingly disparate responses as Grotius's theory of natural right, Hobbes's Leviathan, the role of the Fronde in the formation of the French national state, Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus,...
In The New Order and Last Orientation, Eric Voegelin explores two distinctly different yet equally important aspects of modernity. He begin...
Reaching into our own time, Crisis and the Apocalypse of Man confronts the disintegration of traditional sources of meaning and the correlative attempt to generate new sources of order from within the self. Voegelin allows us to contemplate the crisis in its starkest terms as the apocalypse of man that now seeks to replace the apocalypse of God. The totalitarian upheaval that convulsed Voegelin's world, and whose aftermath still defines ours, is only the external manifestation of an inner spiritual turmoil. Its roots have been probed throughout the eight volumes of History of...
Reaching into our own time, Crisis and the Apocalypse of Man confronts the disintegration of traditional sources of meaning and the correlat...
By closely examining the sources, movements, and persons of the Renaissance and the Reformation, Voegelin reveals the roots of today's political ideologies in this fourth volume of his History of Political Ideas. This insightful study lays the groundwork for Voegelin's critique of the modern period and is essential to an understanding of his later analysis.
Voegelin identifies not one but two distinct beginnings of the movement toward modern political consciousness: the Renaissance and the Reformation. Historically, however, the powerful effects of the second have overshadowed...
By closely examining the sources, movements, and persons of the Renaissance and the Reformation, Voegelin reveals the roots of today's political id...