Spinozas Christian Project

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Spinoza's Christian Project

Author : Aldo Di Giovanni
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781501050121
Total Pages : 170 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Spinoza's Christian Project by : Aldo Di Giovanni

Download or read book Spinoza's Christian Project written by Aldo Di Giovanni and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-09-02 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spinoza was the 17th Century's philosopher of the Word of God: the philosopher of true Christian Salvation and Holiness. Within the corpus of Spinoza's work there are many references, to a significant and important place for Christ in the work of Spinoza. Actual texts and historical information readily affirms this. The textual and historical references are used extensively in this booklet to make a case that from a spiritual point view, Spinoza's life and works lose their mystery and make clear sense. Those references in turn point to a significant and important place for Christ in Spinoza's life. Based on his writings and information about his life, Spinoza had a bone fide spiritual experience of union with God of the kind that he describes as a “second birth” or as being “born again”, which resulted in his knowing what he came to refer to as “Christ after the spirit”. This is manifest in Spinoza's selective treatment of Christian churches and denominations. Spinoza does not treat all Christians the same way. He distinguishes between those of the “superstitious kind” and those who follow “Christ after the spirit”. It is puzzling that professional philosophers are reluctant to factor in Spinoza's use of Christ and the spirit of Christ into their understanding of Spinoza's life work and life's purpose. To date, Spinoza's critical work in regards to Christian thought and religion remains exceptionally relevant. Yet he is not recognized and acknowledged as a preeminent Christian thinker. Over many years, the responses to Spinoza's work varied, but two counterproductive and disconcerting trends are noteworthy. Some people, with little sense of the reality of God have tried in one way or another, to simply ignore or inadequately explain away Spinoza's spirituality and work, in particular his Christian spirituality and work. Others, mostly from established 'theo-political' churches, have largely viewed Spinoza from a crass materialist view, with materialistic proclivities. From their established church frameworks, the latter have found Spinoza an anathema. Their vitriol is born of their own materialism, and both a meagre and superficial grasp of what Spinoza calls “Christ according to the spirit” Spinoza personally knew God and the idea of God to be real. For Spinoza God is not part of a discussion or thesis. God and the spirit of Christ are the keystones or catalysts of Spinoza's life work. Denying their reality for Spinoza, or trying to explain them away from Spinoza's thought, keeps Spinoza's work from coming together or from sitting right. For Spinoza, God and Christ are real and to not 'get that' is to entirely miss the mark in regards to Spinoza and his work. Spinoza understood the relation of people to God: as animal creatures set in duration or time and place, and as spiritual creatures set “under the form of eternity”. The application of Spinoza's scientific method allows for the demonstration by reason and experiment of personal formation of the particular spiritual person, which is different from the formation of the animal (carnal or after the flesh) person. Spinoza is a major influence in western philosophy and theology. Spinoza had a significant and lasting influence on the Enlightenment. But, it may be his larger contribution is yet to come and it will be in the area of what Spinoza would call 'true' Christian Theology and Christology. This booklet, 'Spinoza's Christian Project: Chemistry, Christ & Salvation' is a modest study of Spinoza's theo-philosophical work, with some consideration of Spinoza's scientific experimental and scientific reasoning approach to piety or spiritual life. Spinoza was an outstanding and innovative 17th century scientist and a philosopher of scientific methodology. Given Spinoza's reliance on sense experience and his scientific method, Spinoza has an empiricist approach to demonstrating actually present existential epistemology and theology.

Spinoza's Christian Project

Author : Aldo Di Giovanni
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781500964689
Total Pages : 124 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (646 download)

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Book Synopsis Spinoza's Christian Project by : Aldo Di Giovanni

Download or read book Spinoza's Christian Project written by Aldo Di Giovanni and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-08-27 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If any thinker can be described as theo-philosophical, it is Spinoza. Spinoza will not be understood theologically without his philosophy, nor will he be understood philosophically without his theology. Properly understood, Spinoza was the 17th Century's philosopher of the Word of God: the philosopher of Christian Salvation and Holiness. Within the corpus of Spinoza's work there are many references to a significant and important place for Christ in the work of Spinoza, which in turn points to a significant and important place for Christ in Spinoza's life. Many of those references are utilized in this book to make a case that from a spiritual point view, Spinoza's life and works lose their mystery and make clear sense. To date, his work in regards to Christian thought remains exceptionally relevant. Yet he has not been acknowledged as a preeminent Christian thinker. Why? Over many years, the responses to Spinoza's work have been varied, but two counterproductive and disconcerting trends are noteworthy. Some people, with little sense of the reality of God have tried in one way or another, to explain away Spinoza's spirituality and work, in particular his Christian spirituality and work. Others, mostly from established 'theo-political' churches, have largely viewed Spinoza from a materialist view and with materialistic proclivities. From their established church frameworks, the latter have found Spinoza an anathema. Their vitriol is born of their materialism and both a meagre and superficial grasp of what Spinoza calls “Christ after the spirit”. For their part, a number of the former, seem to find Spinoza's confessions of spiritual things, especially Christian spiritual existence, an embarrassment to their 'learned pride'. Spinoza knew God and the idea of God to be real. For Spinoza God is not part of a discussion or thesis. For Spinoza, God and Christ are real and to not 'get that' is to entirely miss the mark in regards to Spinoza and his work. God and the spirit of Christ are the keystones or catalysts of Spinoza's work. Denying their reality for Spinoza, or trying to explain them away from Spinoza's thought, keeps Spinoza's work from coming together or from sitting right. Spinoza understood the relation of people to God both as animal creatures set in duration or time and place, and as spiritual creatures set “under the form of eternity”. The application of Spinoza's scientific method allows for the demonstration by reason and experiment of personal formation of the particular spiritual person (and civic transformation of society along spiritual lines), which is different from the formation of the animal (carnal or after the flesh) person. Spinoza is a major influence in western philosophy and theology. Spinoza had a significant and lasting influence on the Enlightenment. But, it may be his larger contribution is yet to come and it will be in the area of Christian Theology and Christology. This booklet, 'Spinoza's Christian Project: Chemistry, Christ & Salvation' is a modest and admittedly limited study of Spinoza's theo-philosophical work, with some consideration of Spinoza's scientific experimental and scientific reasoning approach to religion and piety or spiritual life.

Spinoza's Religion

Author : Clare Carlisle
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691224196
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Spinoza's Religion by : Clare Carlisle

Download or read book Spinoza's Religion written by Clare Carlisle and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-06-13 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold reevaluation of Spinoza that reveals his powerful, inclusive vision of religion for the modern age Spinoza is widely regarded as either a God-forsaking atheist or a God-intoxicated pantheist, but Clare Carlisle says that he was neither. In Spinoza’s Religion, she sets out a bold interpretation of Spinoza through a lucid new reading of his masterpiece, the Ethics. Putting the question of religion centre-stage but refusing to convert Spinozism to Christianity, Carlisle reveals that “being in God” unites Spinoza’s metaphysics and ethics. Spinoza’s Religion unfolds a powerful, inclusive philosophical vision for the modern age—one that is grounded in a profound questioning of how to live a joyful, fully human life. Like Spinoza himself, the Ethics doesn’t fit into any ready-made religious category. But Carlisle shows how it wrestles with the question of religion in strikingly original ways, responding both critically and constructively to the diverse, broadly Christian context in which Spinoza lived and worked. Philosophy itself, as Spinoza practiced it, became a spiritual endeavor that expressed his devotion to a truthful, virtuous way of life. Offering startling new insights into Spinoza’s famously enigmatic ideas about eternal life and the intellectual love of God, Carlisle uncovers a Spinozist religion that integrates self-knowledge, desire, practice, and embodied ethical life to reach toward our “highest happiness”—to rest in God. Seen through Carlisle’s eyes, the Ethics prompts us to rethink not only Spinoza but also religion itself.

Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza

Author : Carlos Fraenkel
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 0521194571
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (211 download)

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Book Synopsis Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza by : Carlos Fraenkel

Download or read book Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza written by Carlos Fraenkel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-22 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking account of the concept of a philosophical religion traces its history from antiquity to the Enlightenment.

A Book Forged in Hell

Author : Steven Nadler
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 069113989X
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis A Book Forged in Hell by : Steven Nadler

Download or read book A Book Forged in Hell written by Steven Nadler and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-09 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it appeared in 1670, Baruch Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise was denounced as the most dangerous book ever published. Religious and secular authorities saw it as a threat to faith, social and political harmony, and everyday morality, and its author was almost universally regarded as a religious subversive and political radical who sought to spread atheism throughout Europe. Steven Nadler tells the story of this book: its radical claims and their background in the philosophical, religious, and political tensions of the Dutch Golden Age, as well as the vitriolic reaction these ideas inspired. A vivid story of incendiary ideas and vicious backlash, A Book Forged in Hell will interest anyone who is curious about the origin of some of our most cherished modern beliefs--Jacket p. [2].

Augustine and Spinoza

Author : Milad Doueihi
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674050630
Total Pages : 131 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Augustine and Spinoza by : Milad Doueihi

Download or read book Augustine and Spinoza written by Milad Doueihi and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Election and grace are two key concepts that not only have shaped the relations between Judaism and Christianity, but also have formed a cornerstone of the Western philosophical discourse on the evolution and progress of humanity. Though Augustine and Spinoza can be shown to share a methodological approach to these concepts, their conclusions remain radically different. For the Church Father Augustine, grace defines human nature by the potential availability of divine intervention, thus setting the stage for the institutional and political legitimacy of the Church, the Christian state, and its justice. For Spinoza, on the other hand, election represents a unique but local form of divine intervention, marked by geography and historical context. Milad Doueihi maps out the consequences of such an encounter between these two thinkers in terms of their philosophical heritage and its continued relevance for contemporary discussions of religious diversity and autonomy. Augustine asserts a theological foundation for the political, whereas Spinoza radically separates philosophy, and thus authority, from theology in order to solicit a political democracy. In this sharply argued and deeply learned book, Milad Doueihi shows us how interconnections between the two thinkers have come to shape Western philosophy.

Spinoza's Lament in the Wilderness

Author : Aldo Di Giovanni
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781985717671
Total Pages : 96 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (176 download)

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Book Synopsis Spinoza's Lament in the Wilderness by : Aldo Di Giovanni

Download or read book Spinoza's Lament in the Wilderness written by Aldo Di Giovanni and published by . This book was released on 2018-02-21 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, "Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?"But we have the mind of Christ. (Paul's letter 1 Cor 2:15-16 NIV)" Hiding in plain view, Spinoza uses a robust and intellectually sustainable Christology to articulate our union with God and the effects of that union. He describes our knowledge of that union and its effects, as well as the means of our acquiring such knowledge. Such knowledge enables people to piously follow true plans of living based on their intuited conceptions formed in their union with God. More importantly, Spinoza shows how we substitute a "godly" essence for our ""earthly". This study shows that Spinoza picked up the mantle of Paul, and, in regards to the explication of the mind of Christ, furthered that project substantially. Spinoza's work is, if not the first and perhaps only, then the most substantive philosophical development of the role of the mind of Christ in Christian religion, since the writing of Paul's authenticated letters.This study considers Spinoza's critique of superstitious Imagination-knowledge based Christian thinking in light of Spinoza's Intellect-knowledge based Christian thinking. After considering Spinoza's lament of the largely abandoned "old Religion" found at the opening of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, the study suggests some reasons why Spinoza's Christian writings and thinking have been neglected or rather mis-construed. Not the least of these reasons is that readers have failed to distinguish what Spinoza believed, in particular about the spirit of Christ, from what he could "Mathematically Demonstrate". The point is made that Spinoza's approach to religion involved more than biblical interpretation using historical and textual criticism. Pressured by the accelerating advancement of critical thinking, including the sciences, Christian theologies founded on Imagination-knowledge such as words, images and historical narratives, acquired through the body's interaction with other bodies are faltering. Spinoza offers an intellectually sustainable alternative.

Spinoza's Short Treatise on God, Man, and Human Welfare

Author : Benedictus de Spinoza
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Spinoza's Short Treatise on God, Man, and Human Welfare by : Benedictus de Spinoza

Download or read book Spinoza's Short Treatise on God, Man, and Human Welfare written by Benedictus de Spinoza and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Think Least of Death

Author : Steven Nadler
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691233950
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Think Least of Death by : Steven Nadler

Download or read book Think Least of Death written by Steven Nadler and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-10 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The seventeenth-century Dutch-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza has long been known - and vilified - for his heretical view of God and for the radical determinism he sees governing the cosmos and human freedom. Only recently, however, has he begun to be considered seriously as a moral philosopher. In his philosophical masterpiece, the Ethics, after establishing some metaphysical and epistemological foundations, he turns to the "big questions" that so often move one to reflect on, and even change, the values that inform their life: What is truly good? What is happiness? What is the relationship between being a good or virtuous person and enjoying happiness and human flourishing? The guiding thread of the book, and the source of its title, is a claim that comes late in the Ethics: "The free person thinks least of all of death, and his wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life." The life of the free person, according to Spinoza, is one of joy, not sadness. He does what is "most important" in life and is not troubled by such harmful passions as hate, greed and envy. He treats others with benevolence, justice and charity. And, with his attention focused on the rewards of goodness, he enjoys the pleasures of this world, but in moderation. Nadler makes clear that these ethical precepts are not unrelated to Spinoza's metaphysical views. Rather, as Nadler shows, Spinoza's views on how to live are intimately connected to and require an understanding of his conception of human nature and its place in the cosmos, his account of values, and his conception of human happiness and flourishing. Written in an engaging style this book makes Spinoza's often forbiddingly technical philosophy accessible to contemporary readers interested in knowing more about Spinoza's views on morality, and who may even be looking to this famous "atheist", who so scandalized his early modern contemporaries, as a guide to the right way of living today"--

Spinoza's Short Treatise on God, Man and His Wellbeing

Author : Benedictus de Spinoza
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 394 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Spinoza's Short Treatise on God, Man and His Wellbeing by : Benedictus de Spinoza

Download or read book Spinoza's Short Treatise on God, Man and His Wellbeing written by Benedictus de Spinoza and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The God of Spinoza

Author : Richard Mason
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521665858
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (658 download)

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Book Synopsis The God of Spinoza by : Richard Mason

Download or read book The God of Spinoza written by Richard Mason and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-07 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the fullest study in English for many years on the role of God in Spinoza's philosophy. Spinoza has been called both a 'God-intoxicated man' and an atheist, both a pioneer of secular Judaism and a bitter critic of religion. He was born a Jew but chose to live outside any religious community. He was deeply engaged both in traditional Hebrew learning and in contemporary physical science. He identified God with nature or substance: a theme which runs through his work, enabling him to naturalise religion but - equally important - to divinise nature. He emerges not as a rationalist precursor of the Enlightenment but as a thinker of the highest importance in his own right, both in philosophy and in religion.

Betraying Spinoza

Author : Rebecca Goldstein
Publisher : Schocken
ISBN 13 : 030751417X
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (75 download)

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Book Synopsis Betraying Spinoza by : Rebecca Goldstein

Download or read book Betraying Spinoza written by Rebecca Goldstein and published by Schocken. This book was released on 2009-01-16 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the Jewish Encounter series In 1656, Amsterdam’s Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza, and, at the age of twenty–three, he became the most famous heretic in Judaism. He was already germinating a secularist challenge to religion that would be as radical as it was original. He went on to produce one of the most ambitious systems in the history of Western philosophy, so ahead of its time that scientists today, from string theorists to neurobiologists, count themselves among Spinoza’s progeny. In Betraying Spinoza, Rebecca Goldstein sets out to rediscover the flesh-and-blood man often hidden beneath the veneer of rigorous rationality, and to crack the mystery of the breach between the philosopher and his Jewish past. Goldstein argues that the trauma of the Inquisition’ s persecution of its forced Jewish converts plays itself out in Spinoza’s philosophy. The excommunicated Spinoza, no less than his excommunicators, was responding to Europe’ s first experiment with racial anti-Semitism. Here is a Spinoza both hauntingly emblematic and deeply human, both heretic and hero—a surprisingly contemporary figure ripe for our own uncertain age. From the Hardcover edition.

Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise

Author : Theo Verbeek
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 135189854X
Total Pages : 333 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (518 download)

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Book Synopsis Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise by : Theo Verbeek

Download or read book Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise written by Theo Verbeek and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the first accessible analysis of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-politicus, situating the work in the context of Spinoza’s general philosophy and its 17th-century historical background. According to Spinoza it is impossible for a being to be infinitely perfect and to have a legislative will. This idea, demonstrated in the Ethics, is presupposed and further elaborated in the Tractatus Theologico-politicus. It implies not only that on the level of truth all revealed religion is false, but also that all authority is of human origin and that all obedience is rooted in a political structure. The consequences for authority as it is used in a religious context are explored: the authority of Scripture, the authority of particular interpretations of Scripture, and the authority of the Church. Verbeek also explores the work of two other philosophers of the period - Hobbes and Descartes - to highlight certain peculiarities of Spinoza's position, and to show the contrasts between their theories.

Radical Protestantism in Spinoza's Thought

Author : Graeme Hunter
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351906917
Total Pages : 179 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (519 download)

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Book Synopsis Radical Protestantism in Spinoza's Thought by : Graeme Hunter

Download or read book Radical Protestantism in Spinoza's Thought written by Graeme Hunter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spinoza is praised as a father of atheism, a precursor of the Enlightenment, an 'anti-theologian' and a father of political liberalism. When the religious dimension of Spinoza's thought cannot be ignored, it is usually dismissed as some form of mysticism or pantheism. This book explores the positive references to Christianity presented throughout Spinoza's works, focusing particularly on the Tractatus Theologico-politicus. Arguing that advocates of the anti-Christian or un-Christian Spinoza fail to look beyond Spinoza's ethics, which has the least to say about Christianity, Graeme Hunter offers a fresh interpretation of Spinoza's most important works and his philosophical and religious thought. While there is no evidence that Spinoza became a Christian in any formal sense, Hunter argues that his aim was neither to be heretical nor atheistic, but rather to effect a radical reform of Christianity and a return to simple Biblical practices. This book presents a unique contribution to current debate for students and specialist scholars in philosophy of religion, the history of philosophy and early modern history.

Spinoza

Author : Steven M. Nadler
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521002936
Total Pages : 442 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis Spinoza by : Steven M. Nadler

Download or read book Spinoza written by Steven M. Nadler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-04-23 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Complete biography of Spinoza based on detailed archival research.

Spinoza: Theological-Political Treatise

Author : Jonathan Israel
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781139463614
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (636 download)

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Book Synopsis Spinoza: Theological-Political Treatise by : Jonathan Israel

Download or read book Spinoza: Theological-Political Treatise written by Jonathan Israel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-03 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise (1670) is one of the most important philosophical works of the early modern period. In it Spinoza discusses at length the historical circumstances of the composition and transmission of the Bible, demonstrating the fallibility of both its authors and its interpreters. He argues that free enquiry is not only consistent with the security and prosperity of a state but actually essential to them, and that such freedom flourishes best in a democratic and republican state in which individuals are left free while religious organizations are subordinated to the secular power. His Treatise has profoundly influenced the subsequent history of political thought, Enlightenment 'clandestine' or radical philosophy, Bible hermeneutics, and textual criticism more generally. It is presented here in a translation of great clarity and accuracy by Michael Silverthorne and Jonathan Israel, with a substantial historical and philosophical introduction by Jonathan Israel.

Spinoza's Revelation

Author : Nancy K. Levene
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139453963
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis Spinoza's Revelation by : Nancy K. Levene

Download or read book Spinoza's Revelation written by Nancy K. Levene and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-08-12 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nancy Levene reinterprets a major early modern philosopher, Benedict de Spinoza - a Jew who was rejected by the Jewish community of his day but whose thought contains, and critiques, both Jewish and Christian ideas. It foregrounds the connection of religion, democracy, and reason, showing that Spinoza's theories of the Bible, the theologico-political, and the philosophical all involve the concepts of equality and sovereignty. Professor Levene argues that Spinoza's concept of revelation is the key to this connection, and above all to Spinoza's view of human power. This is to shift the emphasis in Spinoza's thought from the language of amor Dei (love of God) to the language of libertas humana (human freedom) without losing either the dialectic of his most striking claim - that man is God to man - or the Jewish and Christian elements in his thought. Original and thoughtfully argued, this book offers fresh insights into Spinoza's thought.