قاعة القراءة

Theological-Political Treatise

Baruch Spinoza

A defence of the freedom to philosophise in twenty chapters. The first fifteen subject the Bible to historical and philological examination: prophecy as imagination, the election of the Hebrews as political prosperity, miracles as ignorance of causes, the authorship of the Pentateuch and the historical books, the method of interpreting Scripture by Scripture itself. The last five ground the state in natural right, identified with power, analyse the Hebrew theocracy and conclude that the end of the state is freedom and that everyone must be able to think what he wishes and say what he thinks. It is one of the founding works of modern biblical criticism and of liberal and democratic political thought.