Spinoza's Religion : : A New Reading of the Ethics / / Clare Carlisle.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• VerfasserIn: Carlisle, Clare,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2021]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (288 p.) :; 2 b/w illus.

A bold re-evaluation of Spinoza that reveals his powerful, inclusive vision of religion for the modern ageSpinoza 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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction: The Question of Religion -- Chapter one Philosophy and Devotion -- Chapter two What Is the Ethics? -- Chapter three Being-in-God -- Chapter Four Whatever We Desire and Do -- Chapter Five Participating in Divine Nature -- Chapter Six Acquiescentia -- Chapter Seven How to Love God -- Chapter Eight Eternal Life -- Chapter Nine Spinoza’s Religion -- Afterword ‘The path to these things’ -- Acknowledgements -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index