The argument of my paper can be summarized as follows: The first answer I want to
suggest to the question of how Eric Voegelin read texts is that he read them in two
substantially different ways. There are two different, yet dialectically related variants of his
hermeneutical method of interpretation discernable in his material studies which I want to call
his “open” and his “closed” method of interpretation, respectively. These two variants reflect
– on the “methodical” level – fundamental principles of Voegelin´s general theoretical
perspective. Secondly I want to argue that particularly his “open” method of interpretation, of
which his reading of Jean Bodin is a particularly distinct example, in turn has important
general theoretical implications. It seems to constitute a genuine form of Voegelinian
philosophical hermeneutics in which author and interpreter – the work to be interpreted and
Voegelin´s genuine interpretation of it – are intimately related in an intricate reciprocal or
“dialogical” complex of meaning. These peculiarities of Voegelin´s way of reading texts
appear to emphasize the importance of the “hermeneutical” traits within his philosophical
questioning and his conception of political science in general.
* * *
There are several reasons why it appears to be plausible to pick Voegelin’s reading of Jean
Bodin for an inquiry as intended here. Voegelin himself, first of all, explicitly states the
importance of his studies on Bodin for his own intellectual development.
That Bodin in fact
is somehow an important author for Voegelin, secondly, can be demonstrated by a collection
of the references to Bodin in Voegelin´s writings.
Such references appear for the first time in
the 1930s, in contexts particularly important for Voegelin´s intellectual development at that
2
Eric Voegelin, Autobiographical Reflections, ed. by Ellis Sandoz, Baton Rouge and London (Louisiana State
Univ. Press) 1996, p. 113 f.: “My careful study of the work of Bodin in the early thirties gave me my first full
understanding of the function of mysticism in a time of social disorder. I still remember Bodin’s Lettre à Jan
Bautru as one of the most important documents to affect my own thought.” See also Ellis Sandoz, The
Voegelinian Revolution. A Biographical Introduction, New Brunswick/London (Transaction Publishers)
2
2000,
p. 42.
3
See for such a collection Peter J. Opitz, Nachwort, in: Eric Voegelin, Jean Bodin, hrsg. von Peter J. Opitz,
Munich (Fink) 2003, p. 115 ff.
2
Convention