Beyond Dogmatomachy: Eric Voegelin’s Bodinian Understanding of Toleration and Symbolization

Abstract

Eric Voegelin’s intellectual project has typically been described as involved in the rehabilitation of classical political philosophy and in the diagnosis of Gnostic tendencies in modernity. In his work, however, he repeatedly points to the late-medieval/early modern concept of toleration as a necessary addition to the Platonic-Aristotelian legacy he was concerned with retrieving. This article explores Voegelin’s understanding of toleration, and especially its Bodinian origins. As the article demonstrates, his understanding of toleration is deeply intertwined with a Bodinian understanding of religion, and as such it may be more difficult to integrate with other elements of Voegelin’s thought than he himself believed.