Introduction

Spinoza wrote two main works: the Ethics, and the Tractatus theologico-politicus. Both are about salvation, but in very different ways: one is about reason, the other about revelation, one is about individuals and how they should live, the other is about the way we should live together. For the most part, the scholarly literature is dominated by books and articles that focus on one or another of these two works. In Spinoza: Reason, Religion, Politics, a diverse international group of scholars, senior and junior, confront both of these works together, and attempt to understand the many ways in which they are related to one another. The volume is organized into six parts. Part I, “Two Intertwined Texts,” Part II, “God and Atheism,” Part III, “Laws: Natural, Human, and Divine,” Part IV, “Wonder, Final Causes, and Miracles,” Part V, “Revelation, Reason, and Salvation,” and Part VI, “Political Philosophy.”