Eric Voegelin The People of God - Geschwister-Scholl-Institut für ...

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ERIC VOEGELIN: THE PEOPLE OF GOD a. The Problem aa. The two Planes of Western Civilization. Under this title we have to survey a field of phenomena which are fairly well known singly through monographic studies, but are rarely presented either in their historical connection or their systematic structure as a whole. Since the beginning of the 11 th century, the spiritual and intellectual history of Western Civilization is being acted on two different planes. On the upper plane which we have considered up to now exclusively, we find the evolution of the feudal system, the centralization of the incipient national monarchies, the feudal Church and the centralized Church, the ideas of the Empire, of the Corpus Mysticum, of the relations between the spiritual and temporal power; and we shall find, beginning with the 16 th century, the ideas of the national state, of the Reformation, of relations between Church and State, of the People and its representation, of natural law, individual rights and constitutional government. Under this surface unfolds the millennial drama of the sentiments and ideas which are in revolt against the institutional superstructure of our civilization. When we discussed the Hellenic a-politism, we had occasion to observe that the tension between the institution of the polis and the sentiments* of the a-political groups would recur in the Christian civilization in a more radical form because the Christian idea of the person in its immediacy to God would prove the permanent irritant against the institutions; the idea of the Christian person would have the double function of an agent of revolt against the institutionalization of the relations between the soul and God, and of an agent of regeneration of the institutions.
6 bb. The Category of Reformation. The interactions between the lower and the upper stratum of sentiments and institutions differ in principle from the relations between Hellenic a-politism and polis life. The surge of a-politism in Hellas, if successful, had to result in the disintegration of the polis because the politico-religious polytheism of the polisworld could react against the essentially monotheistic mysticism of the soul only with collapse. The fully developed Christian civilization, on the other hand, can absorb the outbreak of radical mystic movements and can draw new forces from them through repeated minor reformations. The category of reformation becomes thus an idea distinguishing medieval and modern Western Civilization from the Hellenic. The five centuries from 1000 to 1500 are characterized by the digestion of radical movements through a series of minor reformations and by the social, sometimes bloody suppression of the indigestible dregs of such movements. With the 16 th century begins a new phase, characterized by an increasing incapability of the traditional institutions of digesting the radical movements. This is the period of the Reformation written large which results in the split of the sacramental unit of the one Catholic Church. If we take this functional view of the absorptive capacity of traditional institutions, and are aware that we have to explain the change, we have found the essential approach to the understanding of the body of political ideas which may be called modern in a technical sense as against medieval. The new factor which has destroyed the digestive ability of the Sacred Empire is the growth of new mystical bodies, of the nations. The Reformation seems to be, therefore, primarily not a religious phenomenon, concerning the Church only, but the symptom of the political process which split the politico-religious unit of the Imperium into new politico-religious units, giving rise to such varied phenomena as the church-state and the state-church, the unworldly sectarian voluntary church and the secular state. Our civilization, however, has not ceased to be Christian because
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Page 8 and 9: 7 the Empire broke down; the tensio
Page 10 and 11: 9 which we mean by institutionaliza
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Page 14 and 15: 13 them first, before it is heard f
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Page 18 and 19: 17 movement leading personalities w
Page 20 and 21: 19 dd. The Disintegration in the Re
Page 22 and 23: 21 upheavals in this direction. Mor
Page 24 and 25: 23 civilizations which are based on
Page 26 and 27: 25 Julian of Palermo, a strong revi
Page 28 and 29: 27 shortly before the crusade. In t
Page 30 and 31: 29 or criminal in the case of an im
Page 32 and 33: 31 are distinguished; the first as
Page 34 and 35: 33 gorgeously garbed court. All thi
Page 36 and 37: 35 conviction is, of course, the th
Page 38 and 39: 37 reality, intellectually and mora
Page 40 and 41: 39 The question of world-content en
Page 42 and 43: 41 Anmerkungen des Herausgebers Abg
Page 44 and 45: 43 Inhaltsverzeichnis der Fassung v
Page 46 and 47: 45 PETER J. OPITZ: NACHWORT DES HER
Page 48 and 49: 47 Inhaltsverzeichnis“ jener Teil
Page 50 and 51: 49 tischen Ideengeschichten bis dah
Page 52 and 53: 51 tical Ideas und insbesondere der
Page 54 and 55: 53 neither become socially effectiv
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55 diese Entwicklungslinie zeitlich
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57 nicht die Generalkategorie, unte
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59 Sinne bildet diese frühe Versio
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- VII - Dante Germino: Eric Voegeli
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- XXV - Arpad Szakolczai: Stages of
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“Die Occasional Papers sind nicht
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