Published Essays, 1966-1985, Vol. 12

Published Essays, 1966-1985 includes some of the most trenchant and compelling of Eric Voegelin's work and is an indispensable companion to his Anamnesis and to the fourth and fifth volumes of Order and History, which were prepared for publication during the same period, the last two decades of the author's life. These essays are quintessential Voegelin.

Voegelin was an essayist at heart, and the pieces gathered here bear on almost every aspect of his philosophy. They range in subject matter and tone from a scalding critique of the German intellectual establishment during the Hitler period and a satire upon contemporary vulgarian culture to magisterial analyses of immortality, reason, and consciousness. The essays also embrace Voegelin's elaboration of the theory of equivalent experiences and symbolizations over human history and his meditation upon the lure of extremes in the rebellion of magic against reason in various modernist attacks on culture. The scope of Voegelin's work is magnified by the collection's final essay, a touching and profound deathbed reflection on God.

Running through all the material is Voegelin's conviction that the truly scientific or philosophical life is ordered through an Anselmian fides quaerens intellectum, a faith in search of understanding. Thus, the assertion that "all men by nature desire to know," which opens Aristotle's Metaphysics, is rightly completed by the words the divine Ground of being. It is the search of the Ground by a mystic philosopher-consciously indebted to such great contemplatives as Plato, Anselm, of Canterbury, jean Bodin, and Henri Bergson-that distinguishes Voegelin's own pilgrimage through time in partnership with God. Nowhere does this come more powerfully and luminously clear than in the pages of Published Essays, 1966-1985.

Published Essays, 1966-1985 includes some of the most trenchant and compelling of Eric Voegelin's work and is an indispensable companion to his Anamnesis and to the fourth and fifth volumes of Order and History, which were prepared for publication during the same period, the last two decades of the author's life. These essays are quintessential Voegelin.

Voegelin was an essayist at heart, and the pieces gathered here bear on almost every aspect of his philosophy. They range in subject matter and tone from a scalding critique of the German intellectual establishment during the Hitler period and a satire upon contemporary vulgarian culture to magisterial analyses of immortality, reason, and consciousness. The essays also embrace Voegelin's elaboration of the theory of equivalent experiences and symbolizations over human history and his meditation upon the lure of extremes in the rebellion of magic against reason in various modernist attacks on culture. The scope of Voegelin's work is magnified by the collection's final essay, a touching and profound deathbed reflection on God.

Running through all the material is Voegelin's conviction that the truly scientific or philosophical life is ordered through an Anselmian fides quaerens intellectum, a faith in search of understanding. Thus, the assertion that "all men by nature desire to know," which opens Aristotle's Metaphysics, is rightly completed by the words the divine Ground of being. It is the search of the Ground by a mystic philosopher-consciously indebted to such great contemplatives as Plato, Anselm, of Canterbury, jean Bodin, and Henri Bergson-that distinguishes Voegelin's own pilgrimage through time in partnership with God. Nowhere does this come more powerfully and luminously clear than in the pages of Published Essays, 1966-1985.

Booknews

**** Earlier volumes of this great set appear in BCL3. Translated and annotated by R.A.B. Mynors, these are the second 500 of the more than 4000 adages gathered and commented on by Erasmus (sometimes in a few lines and sometimes in full-scale essays). The first 500 appeared as volume 31 in this monumental work of scholarship. The 12th of some 34 volumes that will make up a uniform edition of all of Voegelin's major writings. These late essays (he died in 1985) range from a critique of the German intellectual establishment during the Hitler period and a satire upon contemporary vulgarian culture to analyses of immortality, reason, and consciousness. The final essay is a deathbed reflection on God. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About the Author

Eric Voegelin (1901-1985) was one of the most original and influential philosophers of our time. Born in Cologne, Germany, he studied at the University of Vienna, where he became a professor of political science in the Faculty of Law. In 1938, he and his wife, fleeing Hitler, emigrated to the United States. They became American citizens in 1944. Voegelin spent much of his career at Louisiana State University, the University of Munich, and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. During his lifetime he published many books and more than one hundred articles. The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin will make available in a uniform edition all of Voegelin's major writings.

About the Editor

Ellis Sandoz, Hermann Moyse Jr. Distinguished Professor of Political Science, is Director of the Eric Voegelin Institute for American Renaissance Studies at Louisiana State University. He is the general editor of Voegelin's History of Political Ideas and author or editor of numerous books, including Republicanism, Religion, and the Soul of America, A Government of Laws: Political Theory, Religion,
and the American Founding and The Politics of Truth and Other Untimely Essays: The Crisis of Civic Consciousness.