Freedom to understand and serve: The contribution of Spinoza to biblical research

 

 

Pieter de Villiers

Department of New Testament, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

 

 

---

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the contribution of Spinoza to the interpretation of the Bible. After an introduction setting his research on the Bible within his time and context, it investigates several facets of his hermeneutics. The article then focuses on his methodology, the application of reason, his historical approach to the Bible and the way in which he understands both the human and divine nature of the Bible. A brief conclusion points out Spinoza's interpretation of the Bible as an attempt to promote freedom of thought.

---

 

 

“Full text available only in PDF format”

 

 

WORKS CONSULTED

Bagley, P J 1995. On the unity of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. Jewish Political Studies Review Abstracts.         [ Links ]

Bentley, J 1983. Humanists and Holy writ: New Testament scholarship in the Renaissance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.         [ Links ]

Cross, G 1995. Reading the Bible with Spinoza. Jewish Political Studies Review Abstracts.         [ Links ]

Curley, E M 1993. Spinoza and the science of hermeneutics, in G Hunter (ed.), Spinoza: The enduring questions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.         [ Links ]

Curley, E M 1994. Notes on a neglected masterpiece (I): Spinoza and the science of hermeneutics, in G Hunter (ed.), Spinoza: The enduring questions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.         [ Links ]

De Jonge?

De Villiers, P G R 2002. Renaissance and religion: The Bible in a time of radical change. Acta Theologica 22, 19-46.         [ Links ]

De Villiers, P G R. 2007. Rethinking the contribution of Spinoza to Theology and Biblical Studies. Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 33(1), 251-271.         [ Links ]

Den Uyl, D J 1995. Power, politics and religion in Spinoza's political thought. Jewish Political Studies Review Abstracts.         [ Links ]

Ebels-Hoving, B & Ebels, E J 1988. Erasmus and Galen, in Weiland, J S & Frijhoff, W Th M (eds.), Erasmus of Rotterdam: The man and the scholar. Proceedings of the Symposium Held at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 9-11 November 1986. Leiden: Brill.         [ Links ]

Elazar, D J 1995. Spinoza and the Bible. Jewish Political Studies Review Abstracts.         [ Links ]

Feuer, L S 1958. Spinoza and the rise of liberalism. Boston: Beacon.         [ Links ]

Funk 1964

Gregory, B S 1989. Introduction, in Spinoza, B. Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. (Gebhardt Edition, 1925). Tr. by S. Shirley. Leiden: Brill.         [ Links ]

Harrisville R S & Sundberg, W 2002. The Bible in modern culture: Theology and historical-critical method from Spinoza to Käsemann. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.         [ Links ]

Israel, J I 1995. The Dutch Republic: Its rise, greatness, and fall, 1477-1806. Oxford: Clarendon Press.         [ Links ]

Israel, J I 2001. Radical enlightenment: Philosophy and the making of modernity 1650-1750. Oxford: Oxford University Press.         [ Links ]

Krop, W & Van Bunge, W 1997. De draagbare Spinoza. Amsterdam: Prometheus.         [ Links ]

Kümmel, W G 1970. Das Neue Testament: Geschichte der Erforschung seiner Probleme. 2^e ed. München: Verlag Karl Alber.         [ Links ]

Kümmel. W G 1973. The New Testament: The history of the investigation of its problems. London: SCM.         [ Links ]

Metzger 1992?

Piccinini, I A 2004. Leo Strauss and Hermann Cohen's "arch-enemy": A Quasi-Cohenian apology of Baruch Spinoza. Journal of Textual Reasoning 3.         [ Links ]

Popkin, R H 2003. The history of scepticism: From Savonarola to Bayle. New York: Oxford University Press.         [ Links ]

Porter, R 2000. Enlightenment: Britain and the creation of the modern world. London: Allen Lane.         [ Links ]

Savan, D 1986. Spinoza: Scientist and theorist of scientific method, in Grene, M & Nails, D (eds), Spinoza and the sciences. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 91, 95-123.         [ Links ]

Shirley, S 1989. Spinoza, B: Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. (Gebhardt Edition, 1925.) Leiden: Brill.         [ Links ]

Shuger, D K 1994. The Renaissance Bible. Berkely: The University of California Press.         [ Links ]

Shulman, H 1995. The use and abuse of the Bible in Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-politicus. Jewish Political Studies Review Abstracts.         [ Links ]

Stewart, M 2006. The courtier and the heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza and the fate of God in the modern world. New Haven: Yale University Press.         [ Links ]

Trapnell 1988

Yaffe, M. 1995. The histories and successes of the Hebrews: The demise of the Biblical polity in Spinoza's theologico-political treatise. Jewish Political Studies Review Abstracts.         [ Links ]