Eric Voegelin Book Collection

Date range: 20th-21st centuries

Medium: Printed

Number of items: 180 items

The Eric Voegelin Collection comprises printed materials gathered by Dr. Geoffrey L. Price as part of The Centre for Voegelin Studies, a former Research and Documentation Centre in the Department of Religions and Theology. It includes copies of the published primary works of Voegelin, some secondary materials and doctoral dissertations. Around one third of the collection is in European languages other than English, including German, French, Italian and Portuguese.

Eric Voegelin (1901-85) was a political philosopher, born in Cologne and educated at the University of Vienna before emigrating to the United States after the Nazi invasion of Vienna. In 1944, he became a US citizen. Much of his academic career was spent at Louisiana State University, the University of Munich and the Hoover Institution (Stanford University).

Voegelin's work considered the political violence of the 20th century and the totalitarian regimes which bore many similarities to religious movements. He developed a concept of 'gnosticism' which disputed the power of knowledge to transform reality, advocating the power of human consciousness to reveal truth.

Further information:

Recorded in Library Search.

Other information:

Geoffrey L. Price, 'Eric Voegelin: a classified bibliography', Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 76, no. 2 (1994), pp. 3-180.