The Common Structure of Religion, Philosophy and Politics in Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus

Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (TTP) is one of the first and most important theoretical justifications of the separation of religion from philosophy and from politics. The separation of church and state and the separation of theology from other scientific disciplines are of course defining moments of contemporary secularity. While it can easily appear from certain religiously conservative or atheistic viewpoints that religion and secularity are simply antagonistic forces in modern life, understanding the ways in which this independent secularity is originally explained and justified on a theological basis can offer a more historically comprehensive grasp of this opposition. For this reason it is worthwhile to revisit Spinoza’s TTP with a view to understanding this foundational and highly contentious justification for the limitation of religion’s influence in politics and philosophy. In this paper I hope to show that fully understanding Spinoza’s arguments in the TTP concerning religion, philosophy and politics requires a recognition of the common logical structure these arguments share with his metaphysical theology. Thus even Spinoza’s revolutionary argument for a radically independent secularity is grounded in and inseparable from a certain conception of the relation between God and nature.