Between transcendence and necessity: Eric Voegelin, Martin Wight and the crisis of modern international relations

Abstract

This special issue has, as its central concern, the relevance of at least some aspects of theological discussion for international relations. That is, to say the least, an unusual concern in the modern field though it would once have been much more common. In this paper, I want to focus on the parallel arguments of two thinkers who shared a good deal in their analysis of the problems of modern international relations and who root those arguments in a reading that draws heavily on theological concerns, though they come at these concerns from slightly different perspectives: Eric Voegelin and Martin Wight. I will compare and contrast the readings of the modern crisis that Voegelin and Wight offer and their relevance to the contemporary literature of international relations, and I will suggest that there is an ambiguous aspect to their general position which raises important questions about their diagnosis of the ‘crisis of the modern’. Indeed, their perspectives are still worth revisiting today for dwelling on the kind of difficult questions that contemporary international relations scholars have a hard time even posing.