Transcendence and History: The Search for Ultimacy from Ancient Societies to Postmodernity (Volume 1)

by Glenn Hughes

Transcendence and History is an analysis of what philosopher Eric Voegelin described as “the decisive problem of philosophy”: the dilemma of the discovery of transcendent meaning and the impact of this discovery on human self-understanding. The world’s major religious and wisdom traditions are built upon the recognition of transcendent meaning, and our own cultural and linguistic heritage has long since absorbed the postcosmological division of reality into the two dimensions of “transcendence” and “immanence.” But the last three centuries in the West have seen a growing resistance to the idea of transcendent meaning; contemporary and “postmodern” interpretations of the human situation—both popular and intellectual—indicate a widespread eclipse of confidence in the truth of transcendence.

In Transcendence and History , Glenn Hughes contributes to the understanding of transcendent meaning and the problems associated with it, assisting in the philosophical recovery of the legitimacy of the notion of transcendence. Depending primarily on the treatments of transcendence found in the writings of twentieth-century philosophers Eric Voegelin and Bernard Lonergan, Hughes explores the historical discovery of transcendent meaning and then examines what it indicates about the structure of history. Hughes’s main focus, however, is on clarifying the problem of transcendence in relation to historical existence . Addressing both layreaders and scholars, Hughes applies the insights and analyses of Voegelin and Lonergan to considerable advantage.

Transcendence and History will be of particular value to those who have grappled with the notion of transcendence in the study of philosophy, comparative religion, political theory, history, philosophical anthropology, and art or poetry. By examining transcendent meaning as the key factor in the search for ultimate meaning from ancient societies to the present, the book demonstrates how “the decisive problem of philosophy” both illuminates and presents a vital challenge to contemporary intellectual discourse.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2003

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became interested in this book after reading Quentin S. Crisp's endorsement here on Goodreads. Crisp has consistently steered me toward interesting and valuable material, and his writing has broadened my awareness of an oppressive scientism, to which this book offers an opposing perspective. Unfortunately, I was unable to read this volume in full before having to return it to the university library, so I skimmed through some of the latter sections before reading the conclusion. Because of this, I consider my review a place-holder. My rating is meant to reflect my experience of reading the book rather than an estimation of its intellectual or scholarly worth.

Although Hughes's argument made intuitive sense to me and was laid out in lucid prose, I do not feel like I completely understood all of the premises supporting his thesis. His work draws heavily on Eric Voegelin's Order and History, Volume 4 (CW17): The Ecumenic Age, and I think that my comprehension would have been aided greatly by reading that book beforehand. In fact, Hughes's purpose in writing this book seems to have been to highlight certain aspects of Voegelin's thought and connect them with other works: Lonergan's Insight and Pound's Cantos primarily.

Hughes's justification for the truth of transcendence seems to hinge on the idea that the sense of a grand human drama unfolding throughout history relies on a transcendent reality to frame it and give it meaning. At times this seems to be an argument from consequences: what is there left to hope for if there is no transcendence, no grand human drama? I feel like missed a lot of the logical scaffolding for this thesis, or that it was glossed over in terms too vague for me to fully internalize. I did get a sense that this sort of scaffolding exists, at least in Voegelin's work, and Hughes has succeeded in sparking my desire to seek it out.

One of the things I found most intriguing is the fact that Hughes (or Voegelin via Hughes) emphasizes the essential mystery of transcendence and rejects any totalizing description of it. The human drama is defined as an engagement with this mystery, an engagement in which symbolic images are necessary but must not be allowed to stagnate. Art is of vital importance in creating new images of this sort, or reanimating old ones. These ideas gesture toward a spiritual grounding of the weird fiction that I admire and wish to emulate.

[Jeremy Yunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding work. The best one on Voegelin I've encountered yet. Read this along with some Tillich and you've begun to touch the depths of life.