The New Inquisitions: Heretic-Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern TotalitarianismThe only book of its kind, The New Inquisitions is an exhilarating investigation into the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. Arthur Versluis unveils the connections between heretic hunting in early and medieval Christianity, and the emergence of totalitarianism in the twentieth century. He shows how secular political thinkers in the nineteenth century inaugurated a tradition of defending the Inquisition, and how Inquisition-style heretic-hunting later manifested across the spectrum of twentieth-century totalitarianism. An exceptionally wide-ranging work, The New Inquisitions begins with early Christianity, and traces heretic-hunting as a phenomenon through the middle ages and right into the twentieth century, showing how the same inquisitional modes of thought recur both on the political Left and on the political Right. |
Contents
Heresy | 3 |
2 The Archetypal Inquisition | 13 |
3 Joseph de Maistre and the Inquisition | 19 |
4 Juan Donoso Cortés and the Sickness of the Liberal State | 27 |
The Emergence of Secular State Corporatism | 35 |
6 Carl Schmitt the Inquisition and Totalitarianism | 49 |
7 Communism and the Heresy of Religion | 61 |
8 Eric Voegelin AntiGnosticism and the Totalitarian Emphasis on Order | 69 |
11 Another Long Strange Trip | 105 |
12 High Weirdness in the American Hinterlands | 111 |
13 The American State of Exception | 127 |
14 Berdyaevs Insight | 135 |
Disorder as Order | 147 |
Notes | 157 |
179 | |
187 | |
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Common terms and phrases
accused Action Française Adorno American anti-gnostic anti-occultism anti-Semitism archetypal assertion astrology authoritarian authors Barre`s become Berdyaev Bolsheviks Bush Carl Schmitt Catholic Inquisitions Catholicism Charles Maurras Cheka Christianity Church claims Cohn Cohn’s Communism Communist demonic dictatorship dimensions dissent doctrines Donoso Corte´s Dostoevsky dynamic early modern emergence enemies enforce Eric Voegelin esoteric esotericism evangelical fact fascism fear Georges Sorel gnosis Gnosticism groups heresy heretics historicist human Ibid ideocracy ideology Illuminati Illuminatiphobia individual insistence institution intellectual Jews Joseph de Maistre kind LaHaye Lenin Maistre’s medieval Mike Warnke millennialism Milosz modern totalitarianism movements murder mystical National Nazi Nazism occultism occultists one’s orthodoxy period persecution phenomenon political Raschke Raschke’s religion religious represented reveals revolution revolutionary rhetoric Robertson Roman Russian Satanic panic secret secular social society Sorel Soviet Spanish Inquisition spiritual Stalin terror Tertullian thought torture traditions transcendence twentieth century various victims violence Voegelin Voegelinian Warnke witch-hunts writes