Eric Voegelin was a German-American émigré who wrote several volumes of high-toned philosophy in the 1950s which were read by approximately zero members of the American public—save a certain William F. Buckley, Jr. When the irrepressible founder and editor of National Review happened upon Voegelin’s first monograph, The New Science of Politics, he discovered a condemnation of utopian ambition in politics that delighted him. Politics turns totalitarian, Voegelin explained, “when a Christian transcendental fulfillment becomes immanentized. Such an immanentist hypostasis of the eschaton, however, is a theoretical fallacy.” Right. In short order, Buckley had converted that jumble of theory-speak into a whimsical political slogan: “Don’t let them immanentize the eschaton!” Or, broadly: Beware of all political programs that aim to create utopias.
Eventually Buckley had the phrase printed on t-shirts and buttons and it became a favorite of conservative political writers. But I wonder, ten days before a presidential election in which evangelicals will again be called upon to fulfill their duties as citizens: Isn’t immanentizing the eschaton precisely what Christians citizens should be doing?
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