History of Political Ideas, Volume 1: Hellenism, Rome, and Early Christianity

Collected Works of Eric Voegelin #19

by Eric Voegelin, Athanasios Moulakis (Editor)

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, Voegelin never intended it to be a conventional "synthesis." He sought instead an original comprehensive interpretation, founded on primary materials and taking into account the most advanced specialist scholarship—or science as he called it—available to him. Because of this, the book grew well beyond the confines of an easily marketable college survey and until now remained unpublished.

In the process of writing it, Voegelin himself outgrew the conceptual frame of a "History of Political Ideas," turning to compose Order and History and the other works of his maturity. History of Political Ideas became the ordered collection of materials from which much of Voegelin's later theoretical elaboration grew, structured in a manner that reveals the conceptual intimations of his later thought. As such, it provides an unparalleled opportunity to observe the working methods and the intellectual evolution of one of our century's leading political thinkers. In its embracing scope, History of Political Ideas contains both analyses of themes Voegelin developed in his later works and discussions of authors and ideas to which he did not return or which he later approached from a different angle and with a different emphasis.

In Hellenism, Rome, and Early Christianity, Voegelin demonstrates that the "spiritual disintegration" of the Hellenic world inaugurated a long process of transition in the self- understanding of Mediterranean and European man. The reflections that emerge remain universal concerns regarding the order of human existence in society and history. Although one may come to different conclusions, Voegelin's responses to the problems of the period suggest avenues of investigation that are still little traveled.

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Nonfiction, History

296 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1997

About the author

German-born American political philosopher. He taught political theory and sociology at the University of Vienna after his habilitation there in 1928. While in Austria Voegelin established the beginnings of his long lasting friendship with F. A. Hayek. In 1933 he published two books criticizing Nazi racism, and was forced to flee from Austria following the Anschluss in 1938. After a brief stay in Switzerland, he arrived in the United States and taught at a series of universities before joining Louisiana State University's Department of Government in 1942. His advisers on his dissertation were Hans Kelsen and Othmar Spann.

Voegelin remained in Baton Rouge until 1958 when he accepted an offer by Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität to fill Max Weber's former chair in political science, which had been empty since Weber's death in 1920. In Munich he founded the Institut für Politische Wissenschaft. Voegelin returned to America in 1969 to join Stanford University's Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace as Henry Salvatori Fellow where he continued his work until his death on January 19, 1985. He was a member of the Philadelphia Society.

Reviews

[Anderson Paz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A História das Ideias Políticas de Voegelin propõe uma interpretação crítica da realidade política expressa por meio de símbolos conceituais ao longo da história. Voegelin busca compreender o "cosmion", isto é, o mundo da ordem política ou as comunidades organizadas ao longo da história. O cosmion é uma versão do cosmos em pequena escala que muda de época a época.
Voegelin se preocupa em compreender as evocações, a saber, as ideias vivas da experiência expressas na história da ordem política. As evocações expressam as atitudes e sentimentos civilizacionais. Ele busca por meio da investigação das evocações ou ideias vivas chegar a uma teoria da totalidade.
Apesar de Voegelin ter abandonado o projeto da "história das ideias" posteriormente por considerar que as ideias distorcem a realidade e passar a se concentrar na filosofia da consciência, o texto de História das Ideias Políticas, escrito ao longo de mais ou menos quinze anos, contendo mais de duas mil páginas, é uma obra titânica do pensamento político.

Nesse primeiro volume, publicado em 1939, Voegelin investiga as ideias políticas do declínio da pólis a Agostinho de Hipona. De início, Voegelin trata de como a Hélade se desintegrou espiritualmente.
A partir disso, Voegelin avança para tratar da ascensão imperial macedônica com Alexandre, da filosofia estoica, da monarquia helenística no século III a.C. Ele, então, faz uma digressão para o pensamento político de Israel, com especial preocupação escatológica em Daniel e nos profetas. Voegelin ainda trata do pensamento de Cícero e do início do período imperial romano a partir de 49 a.C.
Na segunda parte, Voegelin discute a ascensão do cristianismo, destacando a consciência escatológica de Jesus e apocalíptica de Paulo. (O tratamento literário da Bíblia leva Voegelin a uma leitura um tanto teológico-liberal sobre Jesus). Depois ele trata da dificuldade da relação entre cristianismo e outras nações e também da influência romana e grega na formação das concepções imperial e jurídica da época. Por fim, Voegelin discute a teoria política de Agostinho em sua obra "Cidade de Deus". Um primeiro volume titânico.

[Solomon Selah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Look at you！For Voegelin, language has a certain function of concreting reality. This is the magical power of language. However when reality exceeds the capacity of language, language and ideas themselves immediatelly lose their magic power. This interaction between concepts and reality, although this theory is not new, is spectacular when it is applied by Voegelin in his historical analysis.

The impact of Eastern culture on Greece as a "political microcosm" shifted the Greek model from the political to the religious, and it was this shift that led to the disintegration of the Greek spirit. After the disintegration, the vacuum left by the city-state was eventually filled by Eastern religious movements. These fillings suppressed the impulses of spiritualism, such as the spiritual healing of Epicurus and the psychological studies of Aristippus. And politically it was the concept of Rome as a world city-state after the influence of the Stoicism. This spiritual closure and political expansion completely subverted the Greek tradition and instead conformed to Christianity's claims in both the spiritual and the secular. Christianity ultimately achieved a comprehensive coverage of society: the influence of Augustine's theory of unity obscured the secular history of the imperia. What Voegelin does is a kind of historical retrospection, focusing on "disintegration" but really seeking the truth of "constitution".