INTRODUCTION.

Yet this book, or one like it, was almost a necessity for the advancing European Enlightenment. It is, in fact, the first fruits of religious criticism produced by the spirit of debate sparked by the Reformation—or rather, the spirit of free inquiry that the Reformation itself expressed. Once the chains of tradition had been cast off, and the prison of blind obedience to unaccountable authority had been broken, the Bible was made accessible to everyone in their own language original: "vulgar tongue" — the common language spoken by ordinary people, such as English or German, rather than Latin. As the sole record of the Christian religious system, this accessibility marked the first major step in the remarkable history of European progress.

However, it was only the first step. The same spirit of inquiry, born from doubt, which had challenged the Old way and led to the New, eventually attacked the new system in its turn. Before long, people began to ask if what had been gained was truly the End and the Ultimate Goal. Benedict de Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise original: "Tractatus Theologico-politicus" was the philosophical answer to this question. Nevertheless, the work should be seen as the result of the author's own private reflections and research, rather than as a reflection of any specific skeptical or critical mood common during his time.

With the Reformation, the world had merely shifted its loyalty from one system of rigid religious doctrine original: "dogmatic theology" to another. Although it was no longer necessary to pledge total obedience to the Church of Rome, and individuals were now considered significant within the structure of Christian society, it was still nearly as dangerous to hold what every era labels as unorthodox original: "heterodox" — beliefs that conflict with official church teachings opinions. Taking a more elevated view of God’s divine plan original: "providence" remained a risk, just as it had been in the time of Socrates, or for Jesus original: "One much greater than Socrates", for the long line of Christian martyrs, and for all those persecuted for their religious opinions up to the present hour. Although Spinoza's remarkable work was fundamentally a product of its era, it did not appear without warning. The minds of scholars and philosophers were not entirely unprepared for it, even though the information it provided and the views it proclaimed were strikingly new...