Op 9 maart had ik een blog over het lijstje van vijf aan te bevelen ideeënromans dat Rebecca Goldstein in The Wall Street Journal publiceerde.
Op 17 april 2010 had The Wall Street Journal weer een lijstje van vijf. Nu gaf hoogleraar kerkgeschiedenis Diarmaid MacCulloch zijn lijstje van vijf boeken die zich in het verleden onderscheidden wat betreft godslasterlijkheid.
Hij noemt, naast notabene de Talmoed, de Antichrist van Friedrich Nietzsche, de Duivelsverzen van Salman Rushdie, de Tractatus Theologico-Politicus van Benedictus de Spinoza (of, zoals ze in de Angelsaksische landen altijd liever blijven zeggen: Baruch Spinoza).
Hier neem ik zijn motivering bij de TTP over:
Baruch Spinoza was condemned for blasphemy by Jews and Christians alike, yet his early death, in 1677 at age 44, resulted not from religious persecution but from either his fondness for tobacco or the effect of his work as a lens-grinder. His "Tractatus"—a good version, translated by Samuel Shirley, was published by E.J. Brill in 1989—proposed treating the Bible as critically as any other text, particularly in its description of miracles. Sacred texts, he said, are human artifacts, and venerable religious institutions are "relics of man's ancient bondage." His whole argument is designed to promote freedom, since religion is designed "to cloak the fear" by which people "must be held in check." The rationalist Spinoza and his "Tractatus" heralded the adventure of the Western Enlightenment.
