San Agustin en Eric Voegelin: historia simbólica, politica profana y la intentio Dei

Voegelin found in St.Augustine a perennial source of inspiration, as it is testified by the great number of references to Augustinian topics and terminology contained in the indices of the Collected Works volumes. This situation urges to accomplish a double task. The first consists in verifying to what extent Voegelin took up Augustinian insights in his own thought. The second task, which I considered preliminary to the accomplishment of the first, aims at a scrutiny of the extended passages expressly devoted by him to an exposition of Augustinian texts. These are only three in number and two of them, respectivedy dedicated to an analysis of civ.dei XI-XXII and conf. X-XI, remained unpublished until the posthum publication of Voegelin's Collected Works. Their interest consists in giving a glance both in Voegelin's characteristic reference to "experiences of transcendence", and in his understanding of political science as resting on a theory human nature. Moreover, these texts offer a stimulating modern reading of Augustine's political insights in their relation with historia sacra.