Johannes Althusms has enjoyed the good fbrtune m recent nmes of frequent nonce in pohdcal, theological, sociological, and historical wrmngs. This has been true ever since Otto Glerke in the latter part of the nineteenth century, recovered Althusms from two centuries of relanve obscurity, and attributed to his Politica (Politica methodtce digesta) the &stinctlon of making one of the plvotal contribunons to Western pohtical thought. He saw m Althusms a seminal thinker who was enabled by an exceptional learning in law, theology., polmcs, and history to formulate a pohtical theory that served assomething ofa culmmanon of medieval soclal thought and a watershed of modern pohtical ideas. The chmf features of this theor), Gierke felt, were to be found m its contractual and natural law- principles. The renewal of interest m Althusms was given further _mpetus by the labors of Carl Joachim Frlednch, who m 1932 not only repubhshed the largest part of the 1614 edmon of the Politica m its original language, but also provided for it an introduction that considerably advanced our knowledge of Althusms' hfe as well as his thought. Friednch focused attention on the concept of the symbmtlC association as the foundation of Althusxan theory, and on the Calvinist rehgmn as interpretive of this concept. In so doing, he differed qmte nonceably from Glerke in his understanding ofAlthuslus poliucal theory Nevertheless, he shared with Gierke a very high estimate of Althusius' _mportance, even to the extent of considering him to be "the most profound polmcal thinker between Bodm and Hobbes.'"