Immanentize the eschaton
Encyclopedia
In political theory and theology
, to immanentize the eschaton means trying to bring about the eschaton
(the final, heaven-like stage of history) in the immanent
world. It has been used by conservative critics
, foremost William F. Buckley
, as a pejorative
reference to certain utopia
n projects, such as socialism
, communism
and transhumanism
. In all these contexts it means "trying to make that which belongs to the afterlife happen here and now (on Earth)" or "trying to create heaven here on Earth."
, writing in National Review Online:
Buckley was the most notable of many US conservative
readers of Voegelin's work.
Voegelin identified a number of similarities between ancient Gnosticism
and the beliefs held by a number of modernist political theories, particularly communism
and Nazism
.
He identified the root of the Gnostic impulse as alienation
, that is, a sense of disconnection from society and a belief that this lack of concord with society is the result of the inherent disorder, or even evil, of the world. This alienation has two effects:
One of the more oft-quoted passages from Voegelin's work on Gnosticism is the following:
The book Fire in the Minds of Men
explores the idea further.
and work to hasten the Second Coming of Jesus
and consequently the end of the world.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
makes an oblique reference to the desire to "Immanentize the Eschaton" in article 676:
, and appears fifteen times in Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's The Illuminatus! Trilogy
, the first of which is the first line of the novel, "It was the year when they finally immanentized the Eschaton."
The phrase is also used in issue four of Warren Ellis' comic, Doktor Sleepless
. It appears to be the goal of the main character, Doktor Sleepless, to bring about the end of the world, driven by disappointment over how the future of the past has transpired. Sleepless wants to end the world to keep it from getting worse. The phrase is quoted several times, and can been regarded as the driving force behind the comic. According to the Doktor Sleepless Wiki, this concept is the inspiration for the fictional group blog 'imminent.sea'.
In Ken Macleod
's science fiction novel The Stone Canal, one of the chapters is called, 'Another crack at Immanentising the Eschaton'.
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, to immanentize the eschaton means trying to bring about the eschaton
Eschatology
Eschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
(the final, heaven-like stage of history) in the immanent
Immanence
Immanence refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence, in which the divine is seen to be manifested in or encompassing of the material world. It is often contrasted with theories of transcendence, in which the divine is seen to be outside the material world...
world. It has been used by conservative critics
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
, foremost William F. Buckley
William F. Buckley, Jr.
William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for...
, as a pejorative
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
reference to certain utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n projects, such as socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and transhumanism
Transhumanism
Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...
. In all these contexts it means "trying to make that which belongs to the afterlife happen here and now (on Earth)" or "trying to create heaven here on Earth."
Origin
According to Jonah GoldbergJonah Goldberg
Jonah Jacob Goldberg is an American conservative syndicated columnist and author. Goldberg is known for his contributions on politics and culture to , of which he is editor-at-large...
, writing in National Review Online:
In modern parlance, the phrase was coined by Eric VoegelinEric VoegelinEric Voegelin, born Erich Hermann Wilhelm Vögelin, was a German-born American political philosopher. He was born in Cologne, then Imperial Germany, and educated in political science at the University of Vienna. He became a teacher and then an associate professor of political science at the...
in The New Science of Politics in 1952. In the 1950s and 1960s, thanks largely to William F. Buckley's popularization of the phrase, Young Americans for FreedomYoung Americans for FreedomYoung Americans for Freedom is a 501 non-profit organization and is now a project of Young America's Foundation. YAF is an ideologically conservative youth activism organization that was founded in 1960, as a coalition between traditional conservatives and libertarians...
turned it into a political slogan.
Buckley was the most notable of many US conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
readers of Voegelin's work.
Voegelin identified a number of similarities between ancient Gnosticism
Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
and the beliefs held by a number of modernist political theories, particularly communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
He identified the root of the Gnostic impulse as alienation
Social alienation
The term social alienation has many discipline-specific uses; Roberts notes how even within the social sciences, it “is used to refer both to a personal psychological state and to a type of social relationship”...
, that is, a sense of disconnection from society and a belief that this lack of concord with society is the result of the inherent disorder, or even evil, of the world. This alienation has two effects:
- The first is the belief that the disorder of the world can be transcended by extraordinary insight, learning, or knowledge, called a Gnostic Speculation by Voegelin (the Gnostics themselves referred to this as gnosisGnosisGnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge . In the context of the English language gnosis generally refers to the word's meaning within the spheres of Christian mysticism, Mystery religions and Gnosticism where it signifies 'spiritual knowledge' in the sense of mystical enlightenment.-Related...
). - The second is the desire to implement a policy to actualize the speculation, or as Voegelin described to Immanentize the Eschaton, to create a sort of heaven on earth within history.
One of the more oft-quoted passages from Voegelin's work on Gnosticism is the following:
The problem of an eidosTheory of FormsPlato's theory of Forms or theory of Ideas asserts that non-material abstract forms , and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. When used in this sense, the word form is often capitalized...
in history, hence, arises only when a Christian transcendentalTranscendence (religion)In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature which is wholly independent of the physical universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways...
fulfillment becomes immanentized. Such an immanentist hypostasis of the eschatonEschatologyEschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
, however, is a theoretical fallacy.
The book Fire in the Minds of Men
Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith
Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith is a book about the spread of ideas written by James H. Billington, the current Librarian of Congress.-Synopsis:...
explores the idea further.
Christianity
The term has been used in reference to Christian sects that subscribe to dispensationalismDispensationalism
Dispensationalism is a nineteenth-century evangelical development based on a futurist biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants.As a system,...
and work to hasten the Second Coming of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
and consequently the end of the world.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the official text of the teachings of the Catholic Church. A provisional, "reference text" was issued by Pope John Paul II on October 11, 1992 — "the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council" — with his apostolic...
makes an oblique reference to the desire to "Immanentize the Eschaton" in article 676:
The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.
Popular culture
The phrase is cited in the Discordian text Principia DiscordiaPrincipia Discordia
Principia Discordia is a Discordian religious text written by Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley . It was originally published under the title "Principia Discordia or How The West Was Lost" in a limited edition of 5 copies in 1965...
, and appears fifteen times in Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's The Illuminatus! Trilogy
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magick-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both...
, the first of which is the first line of the novel, "It was the year when they finally immanentized the Eschaton."
The phrase is also used in issue four of Warren Ellis' comic, Doktor Sleepless
Doktor Sleepless
Doktor Sleepless is a monthly comic book series written by Warren Ellis with art by Ivan Rodriguez that is published by Avatar Press, launched in July 2007...
. It appears to be the goal of the main character, Doktor Sleepless, to bring about the end of the world, driven by disappointment over how the future of the past has transpired. Sleepless wants to end the world to keep it from getting worse. The phrase is quoted several times, and can been regarded as the driving force behind the comic. According to the Doktor Sleepless Wiki, this concept is the inspiration for the fictional group blog 'imminent.sea'.
In Ken Macleod
Ken MacLeod
Ken MacLeod , is a Scottish science fiction writer.MacLeod was born in Stornoway. He graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in zoology and has worked as a computer programmer and written a masters thesis on biomechanics....
's science fiction novel The Stone Canal, one of the chapters is called, 'Another crack at Immanentising the Eschaton'.
External links
- "Diversity, Diversity" in The Religion & Society Report (Volume 17 Number 9 September 2000) from The Howard Center.
- "The Once and Future Heresy": The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount by Gershom Gorenberg, Reviewed by Thomas J. Herron.