In Search of Meaning: Politics and Religion in Eric Voegelin’s Thought

Harvard Abigail Adams Institute is hosting a weekend seminar on the thought of Eric Voegelin on September 27-28, 2019.

Eric Voegelin (1901–1985) was a German-American political scientist who created a comprehensive theory of human nature, society, and history. Although his writing is difficult to understand and categorize, Voegelin remains one of the most important contemporary political philosophers whose interdisciplinary approach provides unique insights into metaphysics, epistemology, and politics. Voegelin’s focus on the symbolic nature of politics as well as his incorporation of transcendence into human experience has placed his works with the likes of Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Leo Strauss (1899-1973), and Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002). These thinkers were concerned about the “crisis of modernity”; and preoccupied with the question of metaphysics (the question of “Being”) and hermeneutics (the interpretation of texts); and looked to ancient Greek philosophy to renew philosophical thinking.

In these sessions, we hope you will be able to walk away with a fundamental understanding of the main ideas and thoughts of Eric Voegelin and prompt you to do further reading of and about his work.