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BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

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<strong>Theological</strong>-<strong>Political</strong> <strong>Treatise</strong><br />

impossible for the Apostles to accomplish, because the Gospel was<br />

unknown to people at that time and hence, to avoid o¡ending them too<br />

much with the novelty of its teaching, they adapted it, so far as they could,<br />

to the minds of their contemporaries (see the First Epistle to the<br />

Corinthians 9.19^20), and built upon the basic principles that were most<br />

familiar and acceptable at the time. That is why none of the Apostles<br />

engaged with philosophy more than Paul who was summoned to preach to<br />

the gentiles while the others, who preached to the Jews, the despisers of<br />

philosophy, likewise adapted themselves to their minds (see the Epistle to<br />

the Galatians 2.11 etc.), and taught a religion devoid of philosophical theory.<br />

How happy our own age would surely be, were we to see it also free<br />

from all superstition. 3<br />

3 I.e. via total separation of theology and philosophy.<br />

162

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