Gnosi e storia in Ernst Bloch e Eric Voegelin: per una indagine sulle fonti teologiche moderne

The contribution aims to identify some of the theological sources that are behind the interpretation of Gnosticism as a metahistorical phenomenon in Ernst Bloch and Eric Voegelin. The hypothesis underlying this contribution is that the difference between their respective visions of history also depends on the different interpretation of the Gnostic phenomenon derived from those sources. In particular, two interpretative tendencies of Gnosticism that seem to be at the origin of Bloch’s and Voegelin’s conceptions of history are examined: one that has its main exponents in Ferdinand Christian Baur and Eugen Heinrich Schmitt, the other that finds its most representative authors in Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac.