Chapter 8 - Religion and the Civil State in the Tractatus Politicus

Summary

This chapter examines Spinoza’s recommendation that all the patricians in an aristocracy “should be of the same Religion, a very simple and most Universal Religion, such as we described in that Treatise.” What does Spinoza mean here by the “very simple and most Universal Religion?”, he asks. Garber argues against the view that Spinoza intends the dogmas of the TTP outlining a religion of reason to replace traditional religions. Religion for Spinoza, Garber argues, is practice, not faith, and it involves imperatives to be followed and not dogmas or beliefs to be held. The “very simple and most Universal Religion,” he argues, consists only of the imperative to love one’s neighbor as oneself, and to love God above all. The dogmas of Universal Faith are needed only for those not capable of attaining religion through reason: for the rational agent, the imperatives are not laws, given by a divine lawgiver, but eternal truths