Zo’n bestrijder lijkt Yuval Jobani, Assistant Professor aan
de afdeling Hebreeuwse Cultuurstudies aan de School of Education aan de Tel-Aviv
University. Hij schreef al e.e.a. over Spinoza, zo bijvoorbeeld in het Hebreeuws:
Spinoza's Emendation of Religion: On the Status of
Contradiction in the Concept of God [Hebrew]; verder
Yuval Jobani, “Ethical or Political religion? on the
contradiction between two models of amended religion in Spinoza's
'Theological-Political treatise' [In: Hebraic
Political Studies, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Fall 2008), pp. 396-415, – een uitgave
van de Shalem Press] [html
en PDF]
Abstract: In his
‘Theological-Political Treatise’ (henceforth, the ‘Treatise’) Spinoza carries out
one of the boldest and most comprehensive attacks on traditional religion found
in modern philosophy. Spinoza did not seek to destroy existing religion, but merely
to re-form it in the model of an amended religion, for in his opinion, only the
latter can assure the stability of society, as it alone can guide the
irrational masses to adopt behavioral norms consistent with rationality.
However, the basic characteristics and organizing principles of the amended
religion Spinoza proposed as a substitute for existing religion, are veiled: in
addition to using an esoteric style in the ‘Treatise,’ Spinoza devoted the bulk
of the work to a poignant critique of existing religion without offering a
thematic and ordered discussion of amended religion. Contrary to the common
reading of the ‘Treatise,’ my central argument will be that in the ‘Treatise’ Spinoza
presents, if only implicitly, two different and contradictory models of amended
religion. In the first part (chapters 1–15), he presents an amended religion
founded upon the reduction of the religious to the ethical, wherein obedience
to God is reduced to obedience to the laws of morality. In the second part
(chapters 16–20), however, he presents an amended religion founded upon the
reduction of the religious to the political, wherein obedience to God is
reduced to obedience to political law. My discussion will focus on the
far-reaching consequences of this deep-seated contradiction between the two
models of amended religion that Spinoza offers in the ‘Treatise.’
