The Real Origins of Just War Theory
If you are a man who leads, Who controls the affairs of the many, Seek out every beneficent deed, That your conduct may be blameless. Great is…
In Praise of Eccentricity
In recent weeks, I have been vexed by distinct, if brief, moments of discomfort about the roughly one thousand books in my possession. While escorting a plumber…
In the Piazza of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
Now I begin Semper incipiens, To sit and drink my wine Beneath this obelisk, the son of pride. Nor mind nor will incline To know how I…
The Concept of “Mentality” in Mircea Eliade’s Philosophy
In a previous article published in VOEGELINVIEW, “On The Philosophy of Mircea Eliade,” I showed that although deeply influenced by the Indian metaphysics he studied in his…
Period Instruments, Reimagined
References to the use of “period instruments” are usually reserved for recordings of Baroque music. This is to be expected, given the substantial differences between modern instruments…
Michelangelo Antonioni’s Trilogy of Decadence and the Conundrum of Alienation
Who then devised the torment? Love. Love is the unfamiliar Name Behind the hands that wove The intolerable shirt of flame Which human power cannot remove. We…
Glass Stained
High rafters, vaulted ceiling, Light streaming through the wall, Beaming inside through angels, From outside where gargoyles crawl. Falling on the baptismal font, A shimmer is thereby…
The Problem of AI and Churchill’s Scientific Optimism
In our time, people react to questions of the nature of consciousness and the factor of Artificial Intelligence in the same way that previous generations reacted to…
Looking Back: Eric Voegelin Week
The completion of our recent Eric Voegelin week, looking back at Voegelin's thought through previously published essays, articles, and book reviews, was a great success. It is…
Political History Through the Eyes of Eric Voegelin
In his Autobiographical Reflections, Eric Voegelin recounted the moment when he had abandoned writing a history of political ideas to write a history of political order rooted…
Eric Voegelin and Hannah Arendt on the Nature of Totalitarian Regimes
Hannah Arendt and Eric Voegelin are two of the greatest political thinkers of the 20th century. With similar background and stories (both Germans who fled from Nazism…
The Indelible Presence of the Divine: Eric Voegelin on the Meaning of Symbols
One of the big takeaways of Voegelin’s philosophy is the insight that our symbolizations of divinity emerge not as the affirmation of a fact, but as the…
Eric Voegelin’s Philosophy and Its Significance for a Catholic University
In The Australian, July 22-23, 2023, there was an article by John Carroll titled Death of the Humanities. Carroll began by observing that in some American universities,…
Eric Voegelin and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany at 75
Introduction[1] The constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany was adopted on May 23, 1949, about four years after the end of World War II.[2] Its official…
Confronting the Gnostic Cosmos: Understanding Eric Voegelin
On March 12, 1938, German soldiers began crossing the border between Germany and Austria. It was an invasion. The Austrian government was in total disarray. Pro-Nazi sympathizers…