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In Transcendence and History, Glenn Hughes contributes to the understanding of transcendent meaning and the problems associated with it and assists 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. ... Read more

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Widely acclaimed in Europe and now available in English for the first time, How World Politics Is Made blends primary research and interviews with key actors in France and Germany to take readers behind the scenes of world governments as a new Europe was formed. Schabert had unprecedented, exclusive access to French presidential archives and here focuses on French diplomacy not only to dispel the notion that Mitterrand was reluctant to accept reunification but also to show how successful he was in bringing it about. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Good Blend of Political Theory and Terrorism Studies -With Some Wrong Conclusions
Cooper does a great job of applying the theories of two fascinating political theorists, Arendt and Voegelin, with modern day terrorism.The incorporation of Voegelin's pneumopathology and second reality is quite correct.

However, where this work loses credibility is its implication that this "spiritual disease" is the cause of modern day Salfi/Takfiri extremists.This "spiritual disease" is the product of various other social-cultural factors.While Voegelin's work is perfect for describing Takfiri ideology, it does not properly describe the causes of Takfiri terrorism.Voegelin would agree that Islam, like any other religion, is what you make of it.

A Psychological View of Religious Based Terrorism
This book is a psychological look into modern religious based terrorism.

While it attempts to explain and understand todays Islamic terrorists, it does so with a long history of struggles that have been religious based. Of course the Palestinian/Israeli struggles are discussed, but so is the more general concepts of what happens to any religious based 'government.' The trouble with the 'Rule of God' is that it is administered by mere humans. God's word as handed down in documents from a thousand or two years ago don't reflect everything that can go wrong in today's world. Acid rain, for instance, caused by a power plant a thousand miles away in another country is not to be found in the Bible or the Koran. When men speak, then, with God on their side and no questioning allowed, the result isn't freedom but tyranny. Galileo and the catholics for instance show just one example.

His conclusions are not happy. The situations that created the terrorists in the past continue. The regions of the world from which they come are not improving, and do not seem to have an improving future. He says that heis not directly interested in the 'clash of civilizations' made famous by Sam Huntington, but to me the situations he describe seem to fit Huntington's work very well.

A philosophical inquiry into modern terrorism
Cooper's book draws on Voegelin's analysis of the ideologically driven movements of the 20th century (Marxism, Nat'l Socialism). He applies this to Islamic terrorism and does a good job of tracing the roots of the movement. He ultimately points to the pneumopathology of the terrorists as the main "cause" of their tactics. This disease of the spirit allows for a second reality to be created, which suppresses common sense reality. This is what allows the terrorists to justify the slaughter of innocents and to ultimately try to "perfect the world." Cooper gets beyond the superficial motivations often attributed to terrorism and shows us why it is impossible to reason with them. I found the book to be very enlightening and easily the best on modern terrorism that I have come across.

At last we have real Insight into Islamic Terrorism
Barry Cooper has a new book this year entitled NEW
POLITICAL RELIGIONS, OR AN ANALYSIS OF MODERN TERRORISM,
(University of Missouri Press, Columbia, 2004).The title puts
the reader in mind of Eric Voegelin's POLITICAL RELIGIONS, which
originally appeared in 1938anddealt with the murderous mass
political movements of that era.In this work, Dr. Cooper has
brought his understanding of political theory to bear on what he
calls "Islamism,"that fraction ofMuslim society which
believes it has a God-given task to bring the world under Islamic
control, using murder and suicide as routine instruments for
conquest.

One of the epigrams for the volume is from Graham Greene, "They
won't believe the world they haven't noticed is like that"- and
it was certainly true for this reader!I thought in the years
following 9/11that I had acquired a good grasp of the problems
faced by the West and particularly the US, but it soon became
evident to me on reading this book that I knew too little.

The book is divided into five chapters.The first, "Context,"
brings in Hannah Arendt and Voegelin on totalitarianism, terror
and spiritual disease in light of 9/11.The second, "Concepts,"
explains "pneumopathology" and"second reality" and discusses
them in relation tothe Japanese revolutionary movement Aum
Shinrikyo.This lends needed emotional distance for the analysis
because it is not about9/11 directly.The third chapter,
"Genealogy of Salafism," explores the history of Islam and the
related topics of Ibn Taymiyya, Wahhabism, the Muslim
Brotherhood, etc.The fourth chapter, "Genesis of a New
Ideology," explores the source of the modern problem in the
writings of Qutb in Egypt, the enshrining of scriptural
ignorance, and the heating of the pot by Khomeini and other
Shiites.Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and the theological problem of
suicide complete the chapter.

The last chapter, entitled "Counternetwar," explores the need to
modify traditionalmilitary methods in order to deal with the
elusive networking of the enemy, made possible in large part by
modern cyber technology.There is an astonishing appendix on
history and the Koran in which the historiogenesis of Islam is
explored as is the problem arising for fundamentalists that there
are now severalvarying manuscripts of the Koran which have not
been acknowledged, because while the bible has various texts
which cause problems, this is seen to be impossible for the Koran
since it was handed down directly by God. Both Voegelin and Leo
Strauss are used to set the argument.

Here are a few choice quotations from the book:

". . . societies that are not organized as states do not have
armies; rather, they are armies.In principle, therefore, where
armed force is directed by organizations that are not states,
against organizations that are not armies, by people who are not
soldiers, modern Clausewitzian categories are, if not eclipsed,
then cast into doubt as the only way that conflict can be
understood."p. 28.

"There is, therefore, an inherent friction between commonsense
reality, the common reality of worldly existence, within which
the terrorist like everybody else must live, and the occult
reality within which the terrorist lives imaginatively, an
imaginary reality where killing the innocent to impress others is
understood to be heroic, altruistic self-sacrifice." P.40

Quoting Heimito von Doderer in THE DEMONS:"A revolutionary,
said Doderer, is 'someone who wants to change the general
situation because of the impossibility or untenability of his own
position,' or rather, 'of the fundamentals of life in general.'
In fact, however, 'a person who has been unable to endure himself
becomes a revolutionary; then it is others who have to endure
him'."Here Dr. Cooper expands on Voegelin's Famous essay, "The
Eclipse of Reality."p.44

"The chief practical consequence of taking part in a cosmic
struggle with a satanic enemy is that the enemy must be
extinguished.The sentiments expressed by Hussein Mussawi, the
found of Hezbollah, are typical:'We are not fighting so that
the enemy recognizes us and offers us something.We are fighting
to wipe out the enemy.'" P.57

Following a lengthy exposition of Voegelin's ISRAEL AND
REVELATION, Dr. Cooper brings the same type of analysis to Muslim
history. He carries the political and spiritual developments
forward tomodern times, and along the way, tells us that after
the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1258 andkilling of the
last Abbasid Caliph, that"the appropriate response to God's
scourge, both then and now according to the Muslim vulgate, has
been to recover the purity of the early companions [Salafs] of
the Prophet [return to origins being a common theme in Judaism
and Christianity as well]. . .Central as well was the importance
of jihad....It was an important constituent element in the
spiritual complex of the terrorist attack of [9/11]." pp 95-96.
Dr. Cooper terms this belief"Salafism" after the term for the
"venerable forefathers," the "early companions."

There is a related discussion of Wahhabism, a kind of militant
Islamic purity unifying politics and religion-Augustine's two
cities becoming one.On its growth and dominancein Saudi
Arabia: "[The British were]powerless to prevent the spread of
sentiments of great approbation for Wahhabi achievements.Chief
among them was the undeniable fact that Saudi Arabia was formally
independent of foreign, and thus infidel rule.Because Saudi
Arabia had experienced neither Western colonization nor rule by a
Westernized elite, the Saudi rulers could easily and genuinely
believe that [Wahhabi] Islam was socially, morally, and
religiously superior." p. 101

After Kemal created a secular state in Turkey and Nasser created
one in Egypt, the Salafists emerged with a doctrinal complex
which included the notion that the Koran is a complete guide to
individual and communal action, abandonment of the pure ways of
the ancestors brought about Western dominance, science can be
used so long as Westernization is not imported and lastly "jihad
is centralto the revival of Islam and the conquest of the world
for God and against Satan." P.109.

"For Islamists, the issue is simple: in Muslim terms, the five
pillars of Islam (profession of faith, prayer, the fast of
Ramadan, pilgrimage, and charity) amount to a spiritual
preparation for war against the enemies of God. . . . the
limitations on what can be achieved by worldly action or on what
that worldly action may mean, which is established by the world-
transcendent dimension of Muslim spirituality, tends to be
eclipsed."p 119

The transformation of the prohibitions against suicide in the
hadiths to the granting of the six privileges of martyrdom to
suicides is characterized as a perversion. P138 and, "As with the
question of the black-eyed houris, the simplifiers and
vulgarizers clearly dominated the current popular debate.It is
now dogmatically established and lies beyond question self-
martyrdom, istishad, is not suicide, intihar, but indeed the
highest form of martyrdom." P 141

This book represents a synthesis of enormous historical,
religious, and philosophical scholarship by Dr. Cooper who is a
professor of political science; it is the kind of work Voegelin
did so well.I know of no other political scientist who brings
such a level of philosophical penetration to Islamism as does the
author.Of course Dr. Cooper read voraciously to prepare himself
to write this work and he generously gives tribute in the text
and footnotes to his sources.He particularly thanks Peter von Sivers,
a well known Voegelinian scholar who specializes inIslamic problems,
for guidance through the intricacies of Islamic culture.

A book-length argumentcan scarcely be reduced to a review and I
didn't attempt it.And an appreciation written by a non-
specialist must be taken with a grain of salt.Nevertheless one
can hope that enough has been shown here to lead the reader to
the original.It must be said too that it is a lively read.My
attention never wandered.Dr. Cooper is also the author of ERIC
VOEGELIN AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN
POLITICAL SCIENCE, (U. of Missouri Press, Columbis, 1999)
and ACTION INTO NATURE, An Essay on the Meaning of
Technology, (U. of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame 1991). ... Read more

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Eros, Wisdom, and Silence is a close reading of Plato's Seventh Letter and his dialogues Symposium and Phaedrus, with significant attention also given to Alcibiades I. A book about love, James Rhodes's work was conceived as a conversation and meant to be read side by side with Plato's works and those of his worthy interlocutors. It invites lovers to participate in conversations that move their souls to love, and it also invites the reader to take part in the author's dialogues with Plato and his commentators. ... Read more

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A thoughtful interpretation of the American Founding
Dr. Sandoz provides insight to the philosophical foundations of the American Founding. He points to several main influences including John Locke, Medieval Christianity, and Classical Philosophy. Sandoz shows the importance of political obligation as instilled through a sense of common moral virtue. He ultimately commends the common sense of the founders and shows us why other systems have failed. A key point is the differentiation found between religion and the secular matters of government. In stark contrast to "political religions" the founders set their sights on the obtainable goal of toleration and liberty without claiming to be able to perfect the world (marxism, communism). Overall, Sandoz rejects the secular interpretation of the founding and gives strong evidence that the founders valued religion quite highly and thought it an important foundation for society. He does not fall into the trap of finding a "single strand" of thought to explain the founding, but instead points to several key influences. Sandoz is able to make his case in common sense terms and offers humor throughout, while still maintaining a deep level of insight. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in American Founding and especially the philosophical influences that brought it about.


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Jerry Day brings to light the need for an extensive reinterpretation of the mature philosophy of Eric Voegelin, based on Voegelin's published and unpublished appreciation for nineteenth-century German philosopher F. W. J. Schelling. He gathers an impressive array of evidence to interpret Voegelin's little-known support for Schelling's achievements, while offering detailed analyses and helpful summaries of a vast body of literature that has yet to be translated into English. ... Read more