BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Theological-Political Treatise
179 prophets and of the common people of their time, and in the same
manner everyone in our day must adapt faith to their own views so that
they may accept it without any mental reservation or hesitation. For
faith, as we showed, requires not so much truth as piety; and since faith is
pious and apt for salvation only by way of obedience, no one is faithful
except on the ground of obedience. It is, therefore, not the man who
advances the best reasons who necessarily manifests the best faith
but rather the man who performs the best works of justice and
charity. How salutary and necessary this doctrine is in a society if we wish
people to live in concord and peace with each other! How many of the
causes of wrongdoing and disorder it abolishes, I submit to everyone’s
judgment.
[12] Before going any further, it is worth noticing that we can, from what
we have just shown, readily answer the objections mentioned in chapter 1
where we referred to God speaking to the Israelites from Mount Sinai. For
while the voice heard by the Israelites could yield no philosophical or
mathematical certainty about God’s existence, still it su⁄ced to overwhelm
them with awe of God, such as they had formerly known Him, and
rouse them to obedience, which indeed was the purpose of this awesome
display. For God did not intend to teach the Israelites the absolute attributes
of His essence (for on that occasion he revealed none), but rather
break their wilful spirit and bring them to obedience; and hence He
approached them not with reasons but with the roar of trumpets, thunder
and lightning (see Exodus 20.20).
[13] It remains only to show that there is no interaction and no a⁄nity
between faith or theology, on the one side, and philosophy, on the other. By
now this must be obvious to anyone who knows the aim and the foundations
of these two disciplines, which are certainly as di¡erent from each
other as any two things could be. For the aim of philosophy is nothing but
truth, but the aim of faith, as we have abundantly demonstrated, is simply
obedience and piety. The foundations of philosophy are universal concepts,
and philosophy should be drawn from nature alone. But the foundations
of faith are histories and language and are to be drawn only from
Scripture and revelation, as we showed in chapter 7. Faith therefore allows
180 every person the greatest liberty to think, so that they may think whatever
they wish about any question whatever without doing wrong. It only
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