Science, Politics and Gnosticism: Two Essays by Eric Voegelin

Author:Eric Voegelin [Voegelin, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Books & Bibles, Theology, Gnosticism, Politics & Social Sciences, Philosophy, Political, Politics & Government, Specific Topics, Commentary & Opinion, Religion & Spirituality, Political Science, Religious Studies & Reference
ISBN: 9781596983038
Amazon: B007NJOW14
Publisher: Gateway Editions
Published: 2012-03-26T22:00:00+00:00

The Hebrew word emeth means “truth.” If the first of its three consonants is crossed out (in Hebrew the initial sound of the word emeth is represented by a consonant), meth is left. Meth means “dead.” The adepts made the man “by means of the book Yezirah”—that is, by means of a magic operation with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This is essentially the same kind of operation as Marx’s creation of “socialist man” by means of gnostic speculation. The golem legend now sheds additional light on its nature. In view of the reality of the order of being in which we live, Marx’s prohibition of questions had to be characterized as an attempt to protect the “intellectual swindle” of his speculation from exposure by reason; but from the standpoint of the adept Marx the swindle was the “truth” that he had created through his speculation, and the prohibition of questions was designed to defend the truth of the system against the unreason of men. The curious tension between first and second reality, first and second truth, on the pneumopathological nature of which we have remarked, is now revealed to be the tension between the order of God and magic. But this tension, which results from magic’s will to power, can be eliminated. For what does the golem do, bearing, like Adam, the man whom God created, the seal of truth on its forehead? It erases the letter aleph in order to warn the adepts that the truth is God’s; the second truth is death: the golem dies.

The implications of the tension, as well as the means of its resolution, are set forth in greater detail in another version of the golem legend, which is to be found in an early thirteenth-century Cabbalistic text attributed to Juda ben Bathyra. The first part of the legend reads as follows:The prophet Jeremiah was alone, working with the book Yezirah. There came a voice from heaven saying, “Obtain for yourself a companion.” He went to his son Sira, and they studied the book for three years. Then they set to work on the alphabets, according to the Cabbalistic principles of combination, compilation, and word formation; and there was created unto them a man on whose brow were the words: YHWH Elohim Emeth. But there was a knife in the hand of that newly created man with which he scratched out the aleph from emeth; this left meth. Thereupon, Jeremiah rent his garments and said: “Why do you scratch out the aleph from emeth?”46

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.