Abstract:
The exchange of letters between Eric Voegelin and Alfred Schütz took place in between
1938, or the year in which both were forced to leave Vienna due to the annexation of
Austria by Nazi Germany, and 1959, when Schütz passed away. Several of the more
important letters were published previously in various contexts, and the project of
publishing them all goes back to the 1970s. The entire correspondence, in the original
German, only appeared in 2004. This book is a comprehensive selection and English
translation of that volume.
The book provides fascinating insights into the lives, times, works, and ideas of
two master thinkers – though mostly to those who are already reasonably familiar with
them. While the editors rightly state in their Introduction (the English version is a slightly
modified translation of the German text) that it was not the place for a comprehensive
reassessment of the work in light of this correspondence (p.5), more background details
for a volume like this would have been helpful. However, the size of the book, both in
English (261 pp.) and especially in German (579 pp.), might explain the limited space left
for the ‘Editor’s Introduction’ (5 pages of text, followed by 2 full pages of notes).
The most interesting part of the correspondence, without any doubt, are the
often quite long letters that touch upon the heart of the work of the two thinkers,
sparked by Voegelin’s first comments on reading Husserl’s Crisis. As both of them
considered the other a privileged interlocutor, the ideas expressed have particular
significance for the thinking of each. The exchange of letters is revealing not only
concerning the substance of their disagreement, but also the manner in which this was
addressed and handled. Here a central issue is played by the question of friendship.
