Gottesmord and modernity: Voegelin on the order of history

Autor: Gergely EGEDY
Cuvinte-cheie: modernity, political religion, Gnostic thinking, immanentization of history, dreamworld, Gottesmord.

This study makes an attempt to outline the critique of modernity by Eric Voegelin. The noted German-born American philosopher of history analyzed in his works the nature of modernity and came to the conclusion that the conception of order in modernity differed essentially from the understanding of order in Classical Greek and Judeo-Christian thought. His major assumption is that the responsibility for the crisis of modernity lies with the triumph of “gnostic thinking” which aims to transform human nature. In Voegelin’s reading this attempt represents the “fallacious immanentization of the Christian eschaton”, offering spiritual salvation in this world.