Voegelin’s discontent with positivism in modern social science is related to his diagnosis of the mental disorder in modern Western civilization. In

The New Science of Politics

， Voegelin’s criticism on Weber is a starting point to reveal the problem of internalism or Gnosticism in modern revolutions. Due to a departure from the experience of

metaxy

between humanity and divinity in the pre-moder

n spiritual order， the spiritual inclination of modern Gnosticism cannot move towards a comprehensive representation on reality， but can only return to inner dimensions such as faith and conscience. When this orientation turns to religious radical practice， it inevitably requires a set of political techniques with positive implications as a guarantee for the revolution of order. Such a representative system indeed extends to the principles of constitution of modern sovereign states and provides a prototype for modern ideological politics. Voegelin believes that from the perspectives of causes， internal mechanisms and historical effects， the modern Positivism and Gnosticism are inseparable faces of Janus.