For those who have not visited VoegelinView this
week:

NEW

The Frailty of Language: Derrida and Voegelin
We begin this week Lee Trepanier's comparison of Jacques Derrida
and Eric Voegelin. He finds that the common ground is
considerable. This first part offers a lucid summary of
Voegelin's philosophy of consciousness: "The philosopher must not
allow his investigation of reality to degenerate into an
"intentionalist" desire to know the whole of reality, as if it
were some object on his epistemological horizon.." Read part 1
of "Jacques Derrida and the Paradoxes of Participatory Reality."

A Mundane Mystical Body for England--
Ellis Sandoz gives further consideration to the politcal
principles prescribed by Sir John Fortescue for a well governed
society: stability through wide consultation, the practice of
personal virtue, the limitation of contentiousness and the
consent of those governed: "[The community] and its members must
be inculcated by habit, instruction, and true laws with the
virtues of human and divine excellence as the attributes of
living well." Read part 2 of "Sir John Fortescue: Securing
Liberty through Law."

Scary Ignorance and Spiritual Disease--
We continue the hitherto unpublished Eric Voegelin lecture
delivered at Hillsdale College in 1977. Among his penetrating
observations: "Not the existence of God is at stake, please, but
the existence of man and his truth or falsehood. Not the
propositions [standing] against each other but the response and
the non-response to the divine appeal. The propositions have no
autonomous truth of their own." Read this week part 2 of
"Deformations of Faith."

The day-by-day step-by-stepness of things--
We welcome the return of Max Arnott with his review of a big new
book on a favorite subject, G.K. Chesteron: " [Author Ian Ker],
who has a sincere admiration and affection for his subject, would
like to make Chesterton respectable among Ker's own tribe of
academics and among the nomenklatura. But the people reading
Chesterton don’t care about his academic respectability. Nor, I
suspect, did Chesterton." Read this week part 1 of "A Big Round
Subject."

on the Inside

". . . he was washing the world"
Poetry Editor Thomas D'Evelyn has approached the boundaries of
compact expression in a poem by the late Paul Celan which
expresses awe for his Creator. Though it is short, it is not
short of fame. Read this week in Poetry: "Once."

Music as Metaphor--
We welcome the return of Lee Trepanier who reviews for us Roger
Scruton's new book that offers his philosophical insights into
music: "Scruton’s theory of expression for aesthetic meaning
navigates between theories of formalism and representation and
enriches our theoretical understanding of music, even for those
who may disagree with him." Read this week in Book Reviews "Music
as Metaphor."

Pope Benedict Reprimands the US Government--
It has been brought to our attention that a few days ago Pope
Benedict gave a speech that can only be construed as a reprimand
to the present administration in Washington. Read in Commentary
"The Pope Reprimands the Obama Administration."

Recovering the Participatory Mode--
We welcome Sarah Shea to VoegelinView. She reviews for us Lee
Trepanier and Steven F. McGuire's Eric Voegelin and the
Continental Tradition: "Overall the book is . . . a hopeful step
forward in acknowledging Voegelin as an active participant in the
great philosophical conversation." Read this week in Book Reviews
"Diagnosing Modernity."


The URL is www.voegelinview.com

Best,

Fritz Wagner