
The Politics of the Soul
Eric Voegelin on Religious Experience
Glenn Hughes(Editor)
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published on 23. December 1998
Book
Hardback
244 pages
978-0-8476-9232-3 (ISBN)
Description
The Politics of the Soul includes eight essays examining one of the most profound studies of religious experience to appear in the last century: that of the political philosopher Eric Voegelin. Voegelin is increasingly recognized as a political theorist of exceptional scope and erudition and the most important philosopher of history since Toynbee, and his treatment of religious experience is a crucial part of his overall analysis of existence and history. This collection of essays by prominent Voegelin scholars is the first book to explore the relevance of that analysis to the contemporary understanding of political theory, theology, history, and philosophy of consciousness, and as such it constitutes a significant contribution not only to Voegelin scholarship but to the current quest for theoretical foundations.
Reviews / Votes
The editor has done an excellent job . . . blending the mix together in such a way as to allow the general reader access to a scholarly world that is both complex and fascinating. . . . The most thorough canvas of the core issue of Voegelin's political philosophy by an array of experts to be published to date. -- Ellis Sandoz, director, Eric Voegelin Institute for American Renaissance Studies, Louisiana State University The authors of this collction of eight essays will be familiar to scholars of Voegelin's work. All eight are established and competent interpreters of his work, as this volume attests. It has a uniform clarity and quality not always found in published collections. The editor's ordering of the topics makes good sence, and his introduction is helpful. "Religious experience" may have an esoteric ring to modern ears, but this collection gives a significant introductory glimpse into Voegelin's work as a whole, because the question of religious experienceor experience of transcendence was fundamental to Voegelin's understanding of the basics of political order and disorder. Addressing quite different topics of analysis, these essays separately and together show how Voegelin's interpretation of religious experience fits intoand anchors his larger project. * Journal of Religion *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
494 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8476-9232-3 (9780847692323)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Glenn Hughes is associate professor of philosophy at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.
Content
Part 1 Religious Experience and the Human Condition Chapter 2 Voegelin, Religious Experience, and Immortality Chapter 3 Grounding Public Discourse: The Contribution of Eric Voegelin Chapter 4 The Epiphany of Universal Humanity Part 5 The Priority of Meditation Chapter 6 The Person as Imago Dei: Augustine and Max Scheler in Eric Voegelin's Herrschaftslehre and Political Religions Chapter 7 Philosophy and Meditation: Notes on Eric Voegelin's View Part 8 Spiritual Sources of Order and Disorder Chapter 9 Brothers Under the Skin: Voegelin and the Common Experienctial Wellsprings of Spiritual Order and Disorder Chapter 10 Balanced and Imbalanced Consciousness Chapter 11 Voegelin's Challenge to Modernity's Claim to be Scientific and Secular: The Ancient Theology and the Dream of Innerwordly Fulfillment