Eric Voegelins Rassenbücher, both published in Germany only a few months apart in the tumultuous year of 1933, had until recently received relatively limited attention. These works were often considered merely a youthful episode preceding Voegelins American exile. However, this perception has dramatically changed in recent times. On the one hand, the systematic analysis carried out in these works has finally been acknowledged for its complexity and has been integrated into the larger, never-completed project of a Theory of Government. The unconventional aims of this project remained pivotal to Voegelins later work. On the other hand, the renewed importance of corporeality and the concept of race in contemporary political thought encourages a closer investigation of the role played by bodily ideas in the formation of political communities. This prompts the question of whether Voegelins concepts can be applied to broader geographical and historical contexts.

Nicoletta Scotti Muth teaches History of Ancient Metaphysics at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Milan. Her research focuses on Plato, Aristotle and Neoplatonism. Bernat Torres Morales teaches Ancient Philosophy and Philosophical Anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities of the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya. His research focuses on Plato.