Abstract
The following paper elaborates on the compound character and the importance of an intellectual discussion regarding Modernity, secularisation and theology that raged within a cluster of German scholars during the 1950s and 1960s (Hans Jonas (1903-93), Hans Blumenberg (1920-96), Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) and Eric Voegelin (1901-85)). It argues that these scholars were united discursively owing to the appearance of the concept of Gnosis in their postwar debate. Challenging the thesis of Karl Lowith (1897-1973), in which he defined Modernity as secularised Christian theology, they connected Modernity with the Gnostic theology. By innovatively returning to late antiquity and re-introducing the obscure Gnostic theology, these scholars interwove the intellectual debates of the early twentieth century - in which the concept of Gnosis was redefined - into an acute post-1945 moral crisis, in order to make a case either for or against Modernity. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 591-608 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Totalitarian movements and political religions |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 3-4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2007 |
Keywords
- Church & state
- Cultural studies
- Debate
- Epistemology
- European history
- Germany
- Intellectual History
- Intellectuals
- Modernism
- Modernity
- Post-war history
- Secularism
- Secularization
- Theology