Totalitaryzm w myśli politycznej Erica Voegelina
Totalitarianism in the Political Thought of Eric Voegelin

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the views of Eric Voegelin (1901–1985) on the essence and genesis of totalitarianism. In its scope, the study covered both the pre-war, German-speaking period of the author’s work on Order and history, as well as the post-war period in which he was associated with the US and wrote in English. The most important sources on the matter discussed are Der autoritäre Staat [The Authoritarian State] from 1936, Die politischen Religionen [Political Religions] from 1938, and The New Science of Politics from 1952. Through them, the development of Voegelin’s thought can be seen, from perceiving totalitarianism as having an economic-social genesis to it being primarily connected with the spiritual dimension of humanity. Analysing his pre-war writings, especially Der autoritäre Staat, one can notice significant influences of Carl Schmitt and Maurice Hauriou on the adopted concepts. The terminological confusion became emphasised, preventing Voegelin from clearly distinguishing between the concepts of authoritarianism and totalitarianism. Efforts were also made to present the practical dimension of the theories advocated, aimed at justifying the actions of Chancellor Dollfuß. From the publication of Die politischen Religionen, the research field in which Voegelin worked changed drastically. From then on, until the end of his life, cultural, even spiritual, causes began to play a crucial role in explaining contemporary phenomena. The article emphasises the evolution from Die politischen Religionen to The New Science of Politics and Order and History, which involved abandoning the initial idea of identifying totalitarian movements with neopaganism in favour of interpreting them as distortions of Christianity. To explain the genesis of totalitarianism in these terms, Voegelin constructed his philosophy of history in which the key role was played by the experience of transcendence and then humanity’s inability to cope with its intensity. Ultimately, it was Christianity as the most developed expression of this philosophy that was supposed to lead to the belief in the possibility of transforming the earthly world, which, when secularized, became the substrate for totalitarian movements. Voegelin referred to this phenomenon as political gnosis. The thesis put forward by the author of the article is to recognize Voegelin’s philosophy of history to be the result of his search for the genesis of totalitarian movements, as well as to distinguish his later, original concepts, developed from the 1940s onwards, from the earlier ones, considered secondary and common to most conservatives.

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