Eric Voegelin and Henri De Lubac: Reason Seeking Transcendence, Nature Longing for Grace

Abstract

Professor Eric Voegelin (1901-1985) and Father Henri de Lubac (1896-1991) had much in common, beyond the fact that their lives overlapped. Both men were not only concerned with, but had been personally affected by, the mass ideological movements of the twentieth century. Both men were profound thinkers, who analyzed the problems of personal and political order and disorder not on the level of institutional arrangements, but down to their spiritual roots. And each man, in a different way, was accused of adopting a heterodox approach to Christianity. Indeed, some believed that de Lubac had committed heresy, and others would have accused Voegelin of heresy had they been able to pigeonhole him in a confessional denomination in the first place. Each man saw certain developments in Christian theology in the Middle Ages as a source of modern secularism. The paper considers the fundamental similarities between Voegelin and de Lubac, and their differences.