Theology and Politics

Author: (Dutch) Spinoza, translated by Wen Xizeng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1963-11-01
Features: This book is one of the major works of the outstanding 17th-century Dutch materialist philosopher and atheist Spinoza. The author used this book to engage in a sharp struggle with the church. In contrast to contemporary theologians who cited various "miracles" to prove the sanctity of the Bible, the author, for the first time in history, proposed that the study of the Bible could only be based on the Bible itself, namely exploring who the authors of the sacred scriptures were, under what conditions they wrote, and why they wrote them, etc. Using this method in the book, the author conducted a detailed examination, thereby refuting the various mystical doctrines of the theologians and destroying the foundation of church rule. The author presented all arguments in this book. Ultimately, they were aimed at arguing for his bourgeois political philosophy, advocating for the doctrine of natural human rights, the social contract theory, freedom of belief and freedom of speech, and believing that "democratic government," i.e., bourgeois democratic politics, is the best government. During the struggle against the church and scholasticism in the period of the rise of the bourgeoisie, this part of the work played a progressive role.