SPINOZA ON GOD AND JESUS I. A Letter (73) to Henry Oldenburg (c.

November or December 1675) Most noble Sir, I received your very short letter, dated 15 November, last Saturday. In it you merely indicate those passages of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus which have proved a stumbling-block to readers, whereas I had also hoped to learn from it what were those passages which appeared to undermine the practice of religious virtue, of which you had previously made mention. However, in order to disclose to you my attitude concerning the three heads which you single out, I say in the first place that I entertain an opinion on God and Nature far different from that which modern Christians are wont to uphold. For I maintain that God is the immanent cause, as the phrase is, of all things, and not the transitive cause. All things, I say, are in God and move in God, and this I affirm together with Paul and perhaps together with all ancient philosophers, though expressed in a different way, and I would even venture to say, together with all the ancient Hebrews, as far as may be conjectured from certain traditions, though these have suffered much corruption. However, as to the view of certain people that the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus rests on the identification of God with Nature (by the latter of which they understand a kind of mass or corporeal matter) they are quite mistaken. Next, as to miracles, I am on the contrary convinced that the certainty of divine revelation can be based solely on the wisdom of doctrine, and not on miracles, that is, on ignorance, as I have shown at some length in Chapter 6, On Miracles. Here I will add only this, that the chief distinction I make between religion and superstition is that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on wisdom. And this I believe is the reason why Christians are distinguished from other people not by faith, nor charity, nor the other fruits of the Holy Spirit, but solely by an opinion they hold, namely, because, as they all do, they rest their case simply on miracles, that is, on ignorance, which is the source of all wickedness, and thus they turn their faith, true as it may be, into superstition. But I doubt very much whether rulers will ever allow the application of a remedy for this evil. Finally, to disclose my meaning more clearly on the third head, I say that for salvation it is not altogether necessary to know Christ according to the flesh; but with regard to the eternal son of God, that is, Gods eternal wisdom, which has manifested itself in all things and chiefly in the human mind, and most of all in Christ Jesus, a very different view must be taken. For without this no one can attain to a state of blessedness, since this alone teaches what is true and false, good and evil. And since, as I have said, this wisdom has been manifested most of all through Jesus Christ, his disciples have preached it as far as he revealed it to them, and have shown themselves able to glory above all others in that sprit of Christ. As to the additional teaching of certain Churches, that God took upon himself human nature, I have expressly indicated that I do not understand what they say. Indeed, to tell the truth, they seem to me to speak no less absurdly than one who might tell me that a circle has taken on the nature of a square. This, I think, suffices to explain what is my opinion on those three heads. As to whether it is likely to please the Christian of your acquaintance, you will know better than I. Farewell. II. An Excerpt from Another Letter (78) to Oldenburg (February 7, 1676) The passion, death and burial of Christ I accept literally, but his resurrection I understand in an allegorical sense. I do indeed admit that this is related by the Evangelists with such detail that we cannot deny that the Evangelists themselves believed that the body of Christ rose again and ascended to heaven to sit at Gods right hand, and that this could also have been seen by unbelievers if they had been present at the places where Christ appeared to the disciples. Nevertheless, without injury to the teaching of the Gospel, they could have been deceived, as was the case with other prophets. But Paul, to whom Christ also appeared later, rejoices that he knows Christ not after the flesh, but after the spirit. (Baruch Spinoza, The Letters, translated by Samuel Shirley [Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1995)], pp. 332-334, 348) *** III. Excepts from the Theological-Political Treatise (1670), chapter 3 [18] Although we clearly understand that God can communicate with men directly (for he communicates his essence to our minds without the use of any physical means), nevertheless, for a person to know things which are not contained in the first foundations of our knowledge and cannot be deduced from them, his mind would necessarily have to be vastly superior, far surpassing the human mind. I do not believe that anyone has reached such a degree of perfection above others except Christ, to whom the decrees of God which guide men to salvation were revealed not by words or visions but directly; and that is why God revealed himself to the Apostles through the mind of Christ, as he did, formerly, to Moses by means of a heavenly voice. Therefore the voice of Christ may be called the voice of God, like the voice which Moses heard. In this sense we may also say that the wisdom of God, that is, the wisdom which is above human wisdom, took on human nature in Christ, and that Christ was the way of salvation. [19] Here I must point out that I am not speaking at all of the things that certain churches affirm of Christ nor do I deny them; for I freely admit that I do not understand them. What I have just said, I infer from Scripture. Nowhere have I read that God appeared to Christ or spoke with him, but that God was revealed to the Apostles through Christ, and that he is the way of salvation, and finally that the old Law was given through an angel and not directly by God, etc. Therefore if Moses spoke with God face to face as a man with his friend (that is, through the mediation of two bodies), Christ communicated with God from mind to mind. [20] We assert therefore that, apart from Christ, no one has received revelations from God except by means of the imagination, namely by means of words or visions, and therefore prophecy does not require a more perfect mind but a more vivid imagination. (Benedict de Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise, edited by Jonathan Israel, translated by Micahel Silverthorne and Jonathan Israel [New York: Cambridge, 2007], pp. 19-20)