A Theologico-Political Treatise

Summary

A Theologico-Political Treatise (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus) was published anonymously in Latin in Amsterdam in 1670, under a false Hamburg imprint, by the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Its title page announces its purpose: to show that freedom to philosophize can be granted without harm to piety or the peace of the commonwealth, and cannot be withheld without destroying both. The work has twenty chapters. The Preface argues that fear breeds superstition, that rulers and preachers can use religious passion to divide and govern a people, and that disputes over speculative doctrine have turned churches into scenes of quarrelling. Spinoza proposes to examine Scripture afresh, taking nothing from it that it does not plainly teach. Chapters I and II treat prophecy: the prophets, he argues, were distinguished by vivid imagination and moral seriousness rather than by superior knowledge of nature, and their revelations were adapted to their own temperaments and opinions. Chapter III holds that the election of the Hebrews concerned their social order and temporal prosperity, not a special intellectual or moral superiority. Chapters IV and V distinguish the divine law, the knowledge and love of God, from the ceremonial law, which he regards as given for the Hebrew state. Chapter VI argues that nature keeps a fixed and unchangeable order, so that miracles are events whose natural causes are unknown to us, and that God is better known from the order of nature than from exceptions to it. Chapter VII sets out a method of interpreting Scripture from Scripture itself, through its language, the history of its books and the circumstances of its authors, in the way one studies nature. Chapters VIII to XI apply the method to questions of authorship, arguing among other things that Moses did not write the whole Pentateuch and that the historical books were compiled later. Chapters XII to XV conclude that the Word of God taught in Scripture is simple, obedience to God through justice and charity; that faith requires pious dogmas that move the heart to obey; and that theology and philosophy have separate domains, neither serving the other. Chapters XVI to XX turn to politics. Natural right extends as far as power; people form a state by transferring their right to a sovereign for security, and democracy is the most natural form. Spinoza examines the Hebrew commonwealth as a historical example, argues that the sovereign holds authority over the outward practice of religion, and concludes in Chapter XX that in a free state every person may think what he likes and say what he thinks, since the true aim of government is liberty. The book was condemned by Reformed synods and banned by the States of Holland in 1674. The library text is R. H. M. Elwes's 1883 English translation.

Top Lessons

• Freedom of thought and the peace of the state

  Spinoza's central political claim is that a state is safest when it allows its citizens to think what they like and say what they think, punishing deeds rather than opinions. He argues that attempts to control thought teach people to dissemble, embitter honest people and strengthen faction. His defence of toleration belongs to the same century as Milton's Areopagitica and Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration, though it rests on different grounds.

• A method for reading Scripture

  Spinoza proposes that Scripture be interpreted from its own text, language and history, rather than by reading philosophical doctrines into it or forcing it to agree with reason. His method influenced the later historical study of the Bible. Readers who reject his conclusions, including the denial of Mosaic authorship and of miracles as he defines them, can still examine how his method works and where its assumptions lie.

• The separation of faith and philosophy

  Spinoza holds that Scripture's aim is not to teach philosophy but obedience, expressed in justice and charity, and that faith should be judged by works rather than by speculative opinion. Philosophy, in turn, seeks truth by reason alone. He intends this separation to end persecution over doctrine. His critics have argued that it reduces revealed religion to morality.

• Natural right and the origin of the state

  In Chapter XVI Spinoza, like Hobbes, describes natural right as extending as far as power, and the state as formed when individuals transfer their power for the sake of security. Unlike Hobbes, he prefers democracy as the most natural form and insists that no one can transfer the right to judge for himself.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

Not a medical work, but it contains early psychological observations of interest to the history of psychiatry: the Preface's account of how fear and uncertainty make people credulous and prone to superstition, and the account in Chapters I–II of prophecy as an activity of a vivid imagination varying with temperament (Spinoza notes that a cheerful prophet received revelations of victory and a melancholy one of evils). These are philosophical readings of the mind, not clinical descriptions. Spinoza's fuller theory of the passions appears in the Ethics.

• Preface

  Fear and hope as the sources of superstition, and the exploitation of fearful minds by those in power.

• Chapter II, Of Prophets

  Revelation varying with each prophet's imagination and temperament, cheerful or melancholy.

• Chapter I, Of Prophecy

  Discussion of the phrase "spirit of the Lord" in Hebrew usage, including the melancholy of Saul, relieved by a musician, which Spinoza reads as a natural deep melancholy rather than something supernatural.