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This chapter considers how Spinoza’s treatment of scriptural origins in the Theological-Political Treatise is used to found his political argument. It argues that concepts of secularity and secularization have been inaccurately applied to Spinoza’s discussion of the Bible’s textual history, and that Spinoza cannot be viewed simply as a debunker of Scripture, even as his treatment of Scripture is theologically radical and has profound political implications. It shows how his claim that the Bible’s origins lie in the human imagination undergirds his argument that religious belief can be separated from religious conduct, a distinction not only central to his argument for the political state’s control over religion, but also central to the secular states associated with modernity. The chapter proceeds to show the oppressive and illiberal implications of Spinoza’s political-theological argument for religious minorities. Spinoza’s non-traditional account of the Bible and religion thus both founds a distinction which proved fundamental to modern secularity, even as, it is argued, Spinoza’s theological-political argument itself resists a straightforward identification as secular.
In the Theological-Political Treatise, Spinoza offers a secular account of sovereign authority. Scripture is full of examples in which sovereigns point to some supposed miracle in order to inspire awe and wonder in their subjects. This chapter argues that collective action problems in Spinoza's social contract theory cannot be solved via Spinoza's strong sense of reason without begging the question. All forms of religion are not problematic in Spinoza's view. Religion must be stripped of its metaphysical pretensions. The chapter shows that even if there is no explicit appeal to miracles and their attendant wonder, there is another way in which the structure of the miracle has been imported into Spinoza's political thinking at a key point. It claims that Spinoza re-establishes the structure of the miracle in his account of the lawmaker's will. The purpose of human law is to regulate those who are passionate and tend to conflict.
This chapter outlines the metaphysical views of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (TTP). It discusses two methodological principles (principle of sufficient reason and the priority of the infinite) that play a central role in motivating Spinoza's metaphysics. The chapter then delves into the metaphysical issues of Spinoza's alleged pantheism, the identity of God's essence and existence, substance and attributes, and finally, the conatus. Spinoza's main reason for demanding that the proper order of philosophizing is to begin with God is primarily the need to avoid an anthropomorphic conception of God. The critique of anthropomorphic and anthropocentric thinking is clearly one of the major underlying themes of the TTP. The essence of God is the cause of all things. An effect is a property of the cause. Hence, all things are just God's properties that follow from his essence. As a result, Spinoza can say that whatever we know is nothing but God.
Like Hobbes, Spinoza invokes promising and contract or covenant in his discussion of the foundations of the state: primarily in his Theological-Political Treatise. This chapter poses a set of related puzzles concerning the interpretation of Spinoza's claims about promises and contracts specifically as they relate to Hobbes. It compares the doctrines of Hobbes and Spinoza concerning several key topics: rights and powers, good and evil, reason and passion, and faith and deception. These doctrines are used to resolve the puzzles about the nature and significance of promising and contract in Spinoza's political philosophy. It seems surprising that Spinoza characterizes Hobbes as denying that reason urges peace in all circumstances, since Hobbes states that "the first, and fundamental law of nature", from which he derives the obligation to keep covenants, is "to seek peace and follow it", and he characterizes all of the laws of nature as "dictates of reason".
Spinoza's use of Jewish and Christian polemical literature was two-directional, namely he used Christian arguments against Judaism in order to undermine the religion in which he was born. However, he also relied upon well-known Jewish arguments against Christianity in order to criticize the religion to which he refused to convert. It is quite reasonable to assume that polemical literature in its different languages was easily accessible to Spinoza in Amsterdam, and there is no prima facie reason to think that he was unable to use it. For Spinoza in the Theological-Political Treatise, both the observance of the commandments and the chosenness of Israel came to an end with the destruction of the Jewish state. In Epistle 78, Spinoza referred to the story in the New Testament that Jesus was tortured, died, was buried, and rose from the dead, which he accepted in total except the resurrection.
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