Spinoza's Religion
eBook - ePub

Spinoza's Religion

A New Reading of the Ethics

  1. 256 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Spinoza's Religion

A New Reading of the Ethics

About this book

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.

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Yes, you can access Spinoza's Religion by Clare Carlisle in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Epistemology in Philosophy. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Contents
  7. Introduction: The Question of Religion
  8. Chapter 1. Philosophy and Devotion
  9. Chapter 2. What Is the Ethics?
  10. Chapter 3. Being-in-God
  11. Chapter 4. Whatever We Desire and Do
  12. Chapter 5. Participating in Divine Nature
  13. Chapter 6. Acquiescentia
  14. Chapter 7. How to Love God
  15. Chapter 8. Eternal Life
  16. Chapter 9. Spinoza’s Religion
  17. Afterword: ‘The path to these things’
  18. Acknowledgements
  19. Notes
  20. Works Cited
  21. Index