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32. - Charity

from C

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2025

By
Clare Carlisle
Edited by
Karolina Hübner  and
Justin Steinberg
Karolina Hübner
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Justin Steinberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

Spinoza treats religion (religio) as a virtue rather than a system of beliefs or an affiliation to a social institution. In the Ethics he associates religion with “fortitude” – a broad virtue encompassing both courage and generosity – but in the TTP he consistently associates “true religion” with two core virtues: justice and charity (charitas or caritas). Edwin Curley translates charitas as “loving-kindness”; it can also be translated simply as “love.” In emphasizing these virtues, Spinoza adopts an ethical conception of religion that overrides sectarian doctrinal disputes, which in his day – as in ours – could cause bitter social divisions and violent conflict.

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Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon , pp. 83 - 84
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Recommended Reading

Carlisle, C. (2021). Spinoza’s Religion: A New Reading of the Ethics. Princeton University Press. Chapter 9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, S. (2012). Spinoza on Philosophy, Religion and Politics: The Theologico-Political Treatise. Oxford University Press. Chapter 8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lærke, M. (2021). Spinoza and the Freedom of Philosophising. Oxford University Press. Chapter 9.Google Scholar

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