PhD Scholarship Faculty Theology and Religious Studies
The Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and the Faculty of Arts offer a four-year scholarship to complete a PhD within a joint interdisciplinary project. The proposed PhD scholarship will be embedded in the department of Jewish, Christian and Islamic Origins at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and in the Department of History at the Faculty of Arts and will be supervised by Prof. Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta (f.l.roig.lanzillotta@rug.nl), Prof. Christoph Jedan (c.jedan@rug.nl), Dr Rik Peters (r.g.p.peters@rug.nl) and Prof. Dirk Jan Wolffram (d.j.wolffram@rug.nl).
The project proposed here focuses on the work of Eric Voegelin, one of the key political philosophers of the 20th century. His work is still a point of reference in political theory, political science, histories of the (post)secular, and the history of 19th and 20th-century ideologies. Voegelin argued famously that Gnosticism is a key driver behind secular modernity and especially the radical ideologies of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Marxism and National Socialism. The proposed project is focused on a fresh examination of Voegelin’s position, his interpretation and appropriation of ancient Gnosticism as well as his philosophy of history. The project aims to contribute to an analysis of the ‘revival’ of ancient philosophies and theologies in modern times.