Politics And Transcendence: Eric Voegelin's Analysis Of Gnosticism And Modernity

The thesis is an examination of Eric Voegelin's judgment “The nature of modernity is Gnosticism”.In general,Gnosticism is a religious doctrine or theological principle that is against politics and secular values.By contrast,modernity,in the widely-accepted sense,is marked by disenchantment and secularity.Thus,there exists tension in Voegelin's judgment that we mentioned above.This thesis attempts to argue that Voegelin tried to analyze the issue outside the “divine-secular” dualistic framework,thereby demonstrating the great and crucial effect religion imposes on politics,and the religious dimension of politics as well.That is why the pro-secularity modernity could be explained by the anti-secularity Gnosticism.Specifically,Voegelin tried to construct a theory of consciousness,in which he identified tension in the “in-between”(metaxy)as the existential truth.It is precisely based on this insight,Voegelin argued that Gnosticism,which abolishes the tension,opens the way for the derailment from “Beyond” to “immanence”.However,this critical interpretation of modernity ignores the complexity and diversity of modernity itself,and at the same time treats Gnosticism to some extent unfairly.In addition to critically interpreting modernity through Gnosticism,Voegelin also attempted to develop a constructive political theology that not only constitutes a critique of the political theology of Gnosticism,but also shows the possibility and necessity of political life based on religion or theology.