ABSTRACT
Revelatory experiences and their symbolizations form the empirical base of Voegelin’s exploration. In this chapter, the author follows the central speculative thread running through the initial three volumes of Order and History—that is, Voegelin’s attempt to trace the emergence of human consciousness through analysis of the experiences of the order of being and their attendant symbolic forms. The crucial event in this historical continuum of experience and articulation is represented in what Voegelin calls the leap in being by prophets in Israel and philosophers in Hellas, events which create the historical form of human existence. The author concentrates on the nexus as the one that dominates Voegelin’s philosophy of order and history in its first full formulation. The chapter discusses symbolic form of the myth, of basic importance to Voegelin’s analysis, and the form of philosophy.
