5 - The Religion of the State

Summary

This chapter considers how Spinoza’s treatment of scriptural origins in the Theological-Political Treatise is used to found his political argument. It argues that concepts of secularity and secularization have been inaccurately applied to Spinoza’s discussion of the Bible’s textual history, and that Spinoza cannot be viewed simply as a debunker of Scripture, even as his treatment of Scripture is theologically radical and has profound political implications. It shows how his claim that the Bible’s origins lie in the human imagination undergirds his argument that religious belief can be separated from religious conduct, a distinction not only central to his argument for the political state’s control over religion, but also central to the secular states associated with modernity. The chapter proceeds to show the oppressive and illiberal implications of Spinoza’s political-theological argument for religious minorities. Spinoza’s non-traditional account of the Bible and religion thus both founds a distinction which proved fundamental to modern secularity, even as, it is argued, Spinoza’s theological-political argument itself resists a straightforward identification as secular.