Gnosis and Modernity – a Postwar German Intellectual Debate on Secularisation, Religion and ‘Overcoming’ the Past
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...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
2007
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| In: |
Totalitarian movements and political religions
Year: 2007, Volume: 8, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 591-608 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | 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 Löwith (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. |
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| ISSN: | 1743-9647 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Totalitarian movements and political religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/14690760701571213 |