The sense of history: On the political implications of karl löwith's concept of secularization

History and Theory

Volumn 37, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 69-82

  Barash, Jeffrey Andrew ^a  

^a Universite d'Amiens   (France)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 1642264644     PISSN: 00182656     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2303.00038     Document Type: Review

References (14)

1. Karl Löwith, "Preface," Meaning in History (Chicago, 1949), v; Weltgeschichte und Heilsges-chehen. Zur Kritik der Geschichtsphilosophie. Samtliche Schriften (Stuttgart, 1983), II, 608
2. In my opinion it is precisely Löwith's discretion concerning the political ramifications of his idea of secularization that accounts for a certain confusion in Hans Blumenberg's analysis, in Legitimitdt der Neuzeit, of Löwith's interpretation of this historical phenomenon. Since emphasis placed on the role of secularization would seem to presume that modern times are merely an off shoot of Christianity, Blumenberg criticized the use of this concept by Löwith and other authors for placing in doubt the legitimacy of modern times on their own terms. Among the authors criticized for their use of the concept of secularization, Blumenberg includes Carl Schmitt who, while voicing the "strongest expression of secularization theorem," nonetheless represents a similar tendency. On the contrary, Lowith's concept of secularization, as I will have occasion to demonstrate below, engages a particularly sharp critique of the decisionist theory of Carl Schmitt. See Hans Blumenberg, Legitimität der Neuzeit (Frankfurt am Main, 1983), 35-41, 102
3. Wilhelm Dilthey advances a similar argument in Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften, Gesammelte Schriften (Stuttgart, 1973), I, 254-267, 334, 349. Dilthey's interpretation of the contribution of Christianity to the development of Western historical consciousness, above all through Saint Augustine's idea of the advent of salvation, provided a target for sharp criticism by the young Martin Heidegger in his course lectures of 1921, Augustinus und der Neuplatonismus. Heidegger, Gesamtausgabe (Frankfurt am Main, 1995), LX, 159-173. Although Lowith attended these lectures, the critical analysis of Western historical thought that he developed in Meaning in History had a very different aim
4. Löwith, Meaning in History, 59.
5. Dilthey, Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften, Gesammelte Schriften, I, 91-92.
6. Lowith, Meaning in History, 207.
7. Löwith, "Die Dynamik der Geschichte und der Historismus," Sämtliche Schriften, II, 308
8. Lowith, "Mensch und Geschichte" [1960], Sdmtliche Schriften, II, 368.
9. Löwith, "Mensch und Geschichte," Sdmtliche Schriften, II, 368.
10. Ernst Bloch, Erbschaft dieser Zeit [1935] (Frankfurt am Main, 1985), 70-75
11. ; translated as Heritage of Our Times by N. and S. Plaice (Berkeley, 1990), 64-69
12. for an English translation of this text, see Karl Lowith, "The Occasional Decisionism of Carl Schmitt" in Martin Heidegger and European Nihilism, ed. R. Wolin, transl. G. Steiner (New York, 1995), 137-169
13. Karl Lovwith, "Der Okkasionnelle Dezisionismus von Carl Schmitt " [1935], in Sdmtliche Schriften, VIII, 70.
14. Carl Schmitt, "Vorbemerkung zur zweiten Ausgabe" Politische Theologie [1933] (Berlin, 1985),7.