Spinoza's Religion: A New Reading of the Ethics (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
During his lifetime, the 17th century philosopher Benedict de Spinoza drew the ire of Amsterdam’s religious authorities with his iconoclastic views on theology. Today, scholars are divided over how exactly to interpret Spinoza’s ideas concerning God and religion. Some contend that Spinoza was essentially an atheist for denying the existence of an anthropomorphic deity who makes choices regarding human affairs, while others object to that label and point out that Spinoza emphasized the importance of an intellectual love of God and our participation in divine nature. In this illuminating book, Clare Carlisle constructs a persuasive argument for how we might orient Spinoza’s perspective by magnifying several key, interlocking facets of his system’s ontology and ethics. I found her analysis to be both clear and remarkably engaging, which isn’t always the case in the published writing of philosophy academics. I read Spinoza’s Religion shortly after reading Ethics and found that it worked wonderfully as a companion to the text. That said, I think that those who have an interest in these subjects but haven’t read any Spinoza will certainly find much to appreciate about the book. In either case, it will deepen and refine your understanding of his project. Carlisle has provided a thoughtful reflection on a central component of Spinoza’s work and one potential path for living a balanced and virtuous life.
— Keith RutowskiDescription
A bold reevaluation of Spinoza that reveals his powerful, inclusive vision of religion for the modern age
Spinoza is widely regarded as either a God-forsaking atheist or a God-intoxicated pantheist, but Clare Carlisle says that he was neither. In Spinoza's Religion, she sets out a bold interpretation of Spinoza through a lucid new reading of his masterpiece, the Ethics. Putting the question of religion centre-stage but refusing to convert Spinozism to Christianity, Carlisle reveals that "being in God" unites Spinoza's metaphysics and ethics. Spinoza's Religion unfolds a powerful, inclusive philosophical vision for the modern age--one that is grounded in a profound questioning of how to live a joyful, fully human life. Like Spinoza himself, the Ethics doesn't fit into any ready-made religious category. But Carlisle shows how it wrestles with the question of religion in strikingly original ways, responding both critically and constructively to the diverse, broadly Christian context in which Spinoza lived and worked. Philosophy itself, as Spinoza practiced it, became a spiritual endeavor that expressed his devotion to a truthful, virtuous way of life. Offering startling new insights into Spinoza's famously enigmatic ideas about eternal life and the intellectual love of God, Carlisle uncovers a Spinozist religion that integrates self-knowledge, desire, practice, and embodied ethical life to reach toward our "highest happiness"--to rest in God. Seen through Carlisle's eyes, the Ethics prompts us to rethink not only Spinoza but also religion itself.
