Abstract

This paper outlines the Dutch background of the Tractatus theologico-politicus (TTP) and aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the Theological-Political Treatise. It reads Spinoza’s first main work published anonymously as an intervention in the many political-religious controversies, which began in 1579 and ravaged the Dutch Republic during the first century of its history. The three main topics of these controversies are also the focus of the TTP: I. the freedom to philosophize; II. the relation between Church and State, and III. the nature of public religion, which is defined by a minimal creed. These topics were familiar to the contemporary Dutch reader. The TTP appears to give a theoretical account of what theological-political practice was in the days of Spinoza.

Highlights

  • The relation between Church and State, and III. the nature of public religion, which is defined by a minimal creed

  • In 1947, the Dutch historian Pieter Geyl concluded that the Tractatus theologico-politicus (TTP) was merely “a piece of propaganda upholding the view of the States [Republican] Party” [2] (p. 40)

  • In the preface of the TTP, Spinoza maintains that the state he lives in is an ideal state: “since, we happen to have that rare good fortune —that we live in a Republic in which everyone is granted complete freedom of judgment and is permitted to worship God according to his mentality, and in which nothing is thought to be dearer or sweeter than freedom.”

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Summary

Introduction

In Spinoza en zijn kring (Spinoza and his circle), the nineteenth-century biographer of Spinoza, K.O. By reading Spinoza’s first main work as an intervention in the many political-religious controversies that ravaged the Dutch Republic from its inception in 1579 to the end of “First Era without Stadholder” in 1672, known as “The Year of Disaster”, which saw Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, executed by the mob and William III reinstated as a new Stadholder, we may be able to assess the extent to which the TTP transcends ordinary polemics During this century, the Orangists, supporters of the Stadholder, a position traditionally held by the Prince of Orange, fought with the Republicans.

The Freedom to Philosophize
The Relation between Church and State
The Confession of the Public Church
Conclusions
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