Spinoza in His Time
The 17th-Century Religious Context
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22134233 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joke Spaans (0000-0002-2703-8346, Utrecht University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 27 |
| Publication date | 2021-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2409-9287 • E-ISSN: 2409-9287 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/philosophies6020027 |
| OpenAlex | W3140102268 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 6 |
In one of the last paragraphs of his Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670), Spinoza extolls the harmony between people of a diversity of faiths, maintained by the magistracy of Amsterdam. However, he also seems apprehensive about the possibility of the return of chaos, such as during the Arminian Controversies in the Dutch Republic in the 1610s and the English Civil War in the 1640s and 1650s. The so-called Wolzogen affair in 1668 probably rattled him. Spinoza’s fears would, however, prove groundless. Theological controversy in the public church was often fierce and bitter, but did not threaten the integrity of the State after 1619. Political and ecclesiastical authorities supported discussions and debate in which a new theological consensus could be hammered out. From the examples of Petrus de Witte’s Wederlegginge der Sociniaensche Dwaelingen and Romeyn de Hooghe’s Hieroglyphica, I will argue that such freedom was not limited to the universities, under the aegis of academic freedom, but that Spinoza’s call for free research and open debate was in fact everyday reality
Academic freedom · Art · Environmental ethics · Freedom of thought · Higher education · Political science · Politics · Religious freedom · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · The Republic · Theology · Franz Kafka Literary Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious studies · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought
| Citations per year | 0.2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2021 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |