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No, I cheerfully acknowledge that I know very little about Voegelin. It is certainly possible that somewhere he has said something useful or worth reading. I invite you to tell me in a reply one such thing. My impression is based on what I read, in the excerpt posted by boop, and on the V. website. And, sorry, my judgment stands. It is true that philosophers use special terminology to convey their thoughts. But not everyone who writes in a dense and impenetrable style is a philosopher. And deep learning is no guarantee that someone is a philosopher. The Sophists, after all, were the university professors of their time. I have no animus against Voegelin; I had had a vague idea that it would be worth reading something of his at some point in time. Then, I read the excerpts alluded to above, and became quite disgusted. I am willing to change my mind; why don't you persuade me that there is something there.

I asked for my post to be pulled because I thought I was unfair in my criticism. It was late at night and I was tired when I posted it. Sometimes my tongue can be a little too tart. I had hoped it would be pulled before you read it. I shouldn't have called you a dilettante. The condescension inherent in the term was uncalled for.

Suffice it to say that calling Voegelin a "nihilist" caused my reaction. Voegelin may be many things, but a nihilist is certainly not one of them. Neither is he a sophist. As for learning about him, BB can do much better than I on that score. The New Science of Politics is considered his most influential work.

The Sophists, after all, were the university professors of their time.

Your analogy may be even more apt than you realize, maro.

Voegelin is, as beckett said, a rather difficult read. I can certainly attest to the truth of that! I've been studying EV since 1985, the year of his death at age 84. He died on January 27th, at about 8 a.m. But he was still working the night before, feverishly trying to complete the essay "Quod Deus Dicitur," having left notes for his still-unfinished volume 5 of Order and History: The Search for Order on his desk. Both were eventually published posthumously, in unfinished form, thanks to his devoted friend and assistant, Paul Caringella, and his wife, Lisse.

I was only half-joking when I told a friend recently that I didn't understand Voegelin for the first 15 years I'd been reading him. But I stayed with him, because I sensed the truth of his method and his analysis. You know what they say: "No pain, no gain!"

BTW, he didn't have much use for Heidegger (He excoriates him as an intellectual collaborator of Hitler's Third Reich in his essay on the German University.) And if you'd like to see an absolutely fascinating analysis of Hegel, see "Wisdom and the Magic of the Extreme" and "Hegel" -- all three essays can be found in Volume 12 of his published works, available at amazon.com. ("Quod Deus Dicitur" is in there, too....)