St Thomas Aquinas

On the History of Political Philosophy is a lively and lucid account of the major political theorists and philosophers of the ancient Greek, Roman, medieval, renaissance, and early modern periods. Topics include discussions concerning human nature, social justice, the origin of law and human rights, the rise and development of different forms of government, idealism and realism in international relations, the distinction between just and unjust war, and the sources of public authority and the nature of legitimate sovereignty. The organizing principle of the book is the idea that the great political thinkers were searching for the best political order and a criterion for human conduct in both domestic and international politics. Demonstrating the continued relevance of historical ideas to today's problems, the author traces ongoing discussions about politics by examining the ideas of key political theorists. The book is intended for use in courses on political philosophy or the history of political philosophy.
https://www.routledge.com/On-the-History-of-Political-Philosophy-Great-Political-Thinkers-from-Thucydides/Korab-Karpowicz/p/book/9780205119745

Reviews the historical origins and principal elements of Karl Rahner's critique of Thomas Aquinas and Bernard Lonergan. Argues that Rahner's critique fails to come to terms with the basic problematic of Trinitarian theology, and misunderstands the significance of Thomas Aquinas's achievement.

Two prominent scholars on the history of natural rights disagree sharply on many issues, but they agree in opining that Aquinas did not have such a doctrine: Michel Villey, La formation de la pensée juridique moderne: cours d'histoire de la philosophie du droit (Paris: Montcrestien

Quelques jours après le début du confinement imposé en Italie et ensuite dans beaucoup d’autres pays à cause la pandémie du COVID-19, le pape François a invité les catholiques empêchés d’aller la messe à adopter la pratique de la communion spirituelle. Alors, des milliers de sites internet à travers le monde ont publié des explications de ce qu’est la communion spirituelle. Nous allons voir, grâce à notre parcours dans l’histoire, toutes les richesses de la « communion spirituelle » pour aujourd’hui.

Biblia, pamięĆ i tomizm biblijny Dla św' Tomasza z Akwirru (1225'1274I wyrosłego w benedykty skie.| tradycji rnedytacji nad słowem Bożym i dominika skim <1uchu co:ntemplata aliis tradere' niezwykle znajomo brzmieć musiały słowa psalmu zachęcającego do tego, aby nie zapominać o dobrodzieistwach Boga (Ps 103,2).1 Historia zba_ wienia pełna jest przestr g i zachęt Jahwe' aby c'bae o pamięć ludtr wybranego, kt ry w obliczu nowych okoliczności historycznych często zapominał o swojej tożsamości i opatrznościowych interwencjach Boga w jego i.ieje, kt re zbu_ dowały go jako nar d. objawienie kryje w sobie tę -o. k-.rt"łtowania ludzkiej (zbiorowej i indywidualnej) osobowości.2 Izrael szybko przechodził nad nimi do porządku dziennego, skupiając się na chwilowych irobl.mach i wyzwaniach' Dlatego parniętan ie o rłtirabi/ia Dei wyznaczało swoisry projekt ducho-Biblia, parnięć i tonlizłtt biblijłly, wości: sprawianie, aby nie osrygła świadomość działania Jahwe na rzecz swego ludu, Jego przemieniająca obecrrość. 412 Por. M. I\ctssi, Methortological guide to interpreting the text of saint Thomas Aquinas, ,,Angelicunr" ll5l2008, s. 519-537. t M. Echavarria, Memoria e identidad segiln Santo Tomis,,,F.-Aquinas" 3(2005)1, s. 12-38. 8 Por. J. Anrras' Aristotle on L{enor1 and tłle SelJ, w: tcnżc (rcd.), Ancient Philosophy, r. 5: A Festschrjt for /.L. Ackrill, Oxfirr<{ I 9U6, s. 99-1 18. 4r3

En primer lugar, se enfrenta lo que corresponde a la naturaleza de la metáfora y su lugar en el discurso filosófico. Por ello, aparecen los estudios sobre el tema del filósofo alemán Hans Blumenberg, no sólo con la intención de reflexionar sobre metaforología, sino de considerar la posibilidad de asumir la luz natural como una metáfora absoluta. ¿Por qué en una labor de clara tendencia tomista aparece un autor fuera de esta tradición y no otros? La respuesta es muy simple. En el proceso de investigación se encontraron referencias por parte de los editores y traductores –al español– de la Suma de Teología, a la obra del filósofo alemán. Después de ello se aborda la perspectiva clásica –tomista– sobre la analogía, por lo que los trabajos del renacentista Cayetano y el del mexicano Mauricio Beuchot, hacen acto de presencia. Después de ello vienen los múltiples comentadores de santo Tomás que, ya sea de manera directa o indirecta, han dicho algo sobre la analogía del lumen naturale, de entre los que se destacan a los contemporáneos y jesuitas, Karl Rahner y Bernard Lonergan, y los dominicos Santiago Bañez –en la pluma del profesor José Ángel García Cuadrado– y Aníbal Fosbery. Al final, la reflexión se complementa con algunos textos de Tomás que cierran lo dicho por sus comentadores, incluyendo en ello los otros fenómenos a los que el Aquinate denomina como iluminación –y, de hecho, con mayor propiedad–: la luz de la fe y la luz de la gracia.

The encyclical Fides et ratio is based on Thomistic philosophical thought. It questions the relationship between faith and reason and emphasizes the necessity of philosophy for specific theological disciplines. However, in this research we show that the encyclical’s thinking reaches far beyond. The analysis of the text of chapter six has shown that the encyclical emphasizes that (1) faith cannot give up reason, which limits itself from fideism. Also (2) that reason by faith strengthens itself to reach the goals it could not achieve, which represents (a) moving away from rationalism and scientism, and (b) giving reason a dimension of openness to the divine nature, revealing it as a link between nature and the divine nature. However, on the line of Thomistic thought the encyclical adds (1) that there are some truths that can be learned naturally, on the independent path of rational inquiry that does not have to divert from one’s own principles and autonomy, and that (2) the knowledge of these truths necessarily precedes the acceptance of God’s revelation. These truths represent the path of preparation for faith. Furthermore, relying on Aquinas’s metaphysic, psychology and philosophy of mind, the encyclical stresses that grace perfects nature (FR, no. 75) and that there is distinction between two lines of cognition (FR, no. 54). But these two lines of cognition are not mutually exclusive, but complementary and revealing (a) that the search for a natural foundation of meaning is one of the most important points of this encyclical and (b) the necessity of a dialogue between theology and philosophy. However, among the autonomous natural paths of cognition, which are defined by the term »the path of preparation for the faith«, which refers to the medieval term »praeambula fidei« (FR, no. 67), we also recognize the sciences that aim at natural cognition. Thus, the reach of the encyclical is expanded. Therefore, we conclude that the encyclical Fides et ratio places all sciences (a) in a broader context, and points to their significance; and (b) emphasizes their autonomy in the search for truth; and (c) at the same time reveals them as needed participants in the dialogue with theology and philosophy. Every science with its autonomy is an antecedent to the faith and that fact is a call for dialogue, which is clearly defined in Gaudium et spes number 36. This dialogue should be realized on an ontological, epistemological and ethical level. The connection in dialogue between theology and other sciences is philosophy. This, however, stead Lambert, sets before us the task of designing higher education institutions which can be a space for dialogue between sciences, without abandoning the principles of one’s own path of inquiry. By recognizing the empirical sciences as a pathway to faith and pointing out the importance of dialogue of philosophy, theology and other sciences, we discover the depth of the encyclical Fides et ratio. On its pages, it offers solutions that bring meaning and hope to the present-day STEM mentality.

HR

Enciklika Fides et ratio, oslonjena na tomističku filozofsku misao, propituje od-nos vjere i razuma i ističe nužnost filozofije za specifične teološke discipline. No, misaoni dosezi enciklike sežu puno dalje. Cilj je ovoga rada pokazati da se sve znanosti mogu shvatiti kao praeambula fidei i da je enciklika u cjelini poziv na dijalog, ne samo između filozofije i teologije, već i s drugim znanostima. U tom se smislu, enciklika pokazuje važnom za današnje doba, tzv. STEM doba, jer otkriva važnost svih znanosti i smješta ih u širi kontekst, te ih, ističući autono-miju njihova traganja za istinom, pokazuje neizostavnim sudionicima dijaloga s teologijom i filozofijom.

Death is a reality that everyone experiences. We shall all die. Are human beings mortal or immortal? Do we fully die or merely exist differently? According to Thomas's view, these questions are going on a debate between two groups of Thomists (corruptionists and survivalists) on the status of human beings or persons after the death of their bodies. Both of those groups agree that for Aquinas, the soul still exists after the dead bodies. However, they differ in what happens to human beings. According to survivalists, St. Thomas Aquinas thought that human beings or persons cease to exist after the death of their bodies. The corruptionists view, on the other hand, believe that, according to Aquinas, persons continue to exist in the separated soul when their bodies die.

as a Negative Rule for Philosophy. For the rationalist Descartes, theology (sacred theology or supernatural theology) is not a science, which is the opposite of the position of someone like St. Thomas Aquinas, for whom theology (sacred theology or supernatural theology), philosophy, and the particular sciences, are all sciences. "Descartes was dedicated to the proposition that all sciences are one…all sciences are one owing to the unity of their common method…" 1 (the mathematical method). "Descartes regarded philosophy as the sole science 2 of which the others were but parts…For Descartes philosophy absorbs the other sciences-is the whole of science." 3 In spite of the fact of having studied with the Jesuits at La Flèche for many years, Descartes's new rationalist philosophy rejected the traditional harmonious relationship between reason and faith, philosophy and sacred theology (supernatural theology). With Descartes there emerged a rationalist and immanentist philosophy which was to be absolutely independent from theology; sacred theology or supernatural theology would not provide anymore a negative rule for philosophy. Regarding the father of modern philosophy's pivotal role in the tragic separation, and opposition or antinomy, between faith and reason, theology and philosophy, Maritain writes: "In the seventeenth century the Cartesian reform resulted in the severance of philosophy from theology, 4 the refusal to recognize the rightful control of theology and its function as a negative rule in respect of philosophy. This was tantamount to denying that theology is a science, or anything more than a mere practical discipline, and to claiming that philosophy, or human wisdom, is the absolutely sovereign science, which admits no other superior to itself. Thus, in spite of the religious beliefs of Descartes himself, Cartesianism introduced the principle of rationalist philosophy, which denies God the right to make known by revelation truths which exceed the natural scope of reason. For if God has indeed revealed truths of this kind, human reason enlightened by faith will inevitably employ them as premises from

This article examines how St. Thomas Aquinas developed rich theological insights to be used ultimately in his preaching ministry as a thirteenth century magister in sacra pagina. His exegetical approach deploys a careful divisio textus to arrive at the
literal meaning and doctrinal sense of the scriptural passage. The ambiguities of difficult passages are examined dialectically by short logical disputations that uncover the riches of the text. The fruits of these labors were then brought together in the master’s university sermon for the conversion and perfection of souls. Thus, the three duties of the medieval master codified in the statutes of the University of Paris – namely, to teach, to dispute, and to preach – contextualize the task of the medieval theologian, rooting him in the revealed Word of God and requiring him to care for the souls of his students and colleagues in his preaching by announcing and explaining the sense and practical import of sacra doctrina. This article also examines the proximate historical source for these three duties as the practice of lectio divina was brought out of the monasteries and into the public sphere of the academies in the great cities of medieval Europe. There is much we could learn today from recovering this robustly ecclesial and pastoral way of pursuing biblical theology.

Artykuł analizuje, w jaki sposób bogaty dorobek teologiczny św. Tomasza
z Akwinu jest wykorzystywany w jego praktyce kaznodziejskiej jako XIII-wiecznego
“magister in sacra pagina”. Jego egzegetyczne podejście wyraża się w ostrożnym “divisio textus”, aby dotrzeć do dosłownego i doktrynalnego sensu danego tekstu biblijnego.  Ambiwalentne interpretacje trudnych tekstów są dialektycznie analizowane za pomocą krótkich, logicznych dysput odkrywających bogactwo tekstu. Owoce tej pracy były niejako zbierane w kazaniu średniowiecznego mistrza ukierunkowanym na nawrócenie i doskonalenie dusz. Trzy obowiązki średniowiecznego mistrza wyrażone w statutach Uniwersytetu Paryskiego – nauczanie, prowadzenie dysput oraz kaznodziejstwo – wskazują na zadania średniowiecznego teologa, zakorzeniając go w objawionym Słowie Boga i wymagając od niego troski o dusze swoich studentów i kolegów wyrażane w głoszenie sensu i praktycznych implikacji sacra doctrina. W artykule przeanalizowano także zródła historyczne dotyczące wspomnianych trzech obowiązków takie jak “lectio divina” przeprowadzana poza klasztorami, w publicznej sferze akademii w największych miastach Europy. Ten model eklezjalnej i pastoralnie ukierunkowanej teologii biblijnej może stanowić również wzór dla współczesnej jej kontynuatorki.

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  Samuele Pinna
Presentazione di Piero Viotto
         
SINTESI
Il volume è un’introduzione al Vaticano II, nata da una rielaborazione di quanto papa Benedetto XVI ha scritto o insegnato, in diverse occasioni, sul Concilio. Il Papa emerito ha più volte richiamato la necessità di ritornare al dato conciliare e di leggere con attenzione i testi. In queste pagine, pertanto, sono riportate alcune riflessioni sul Vaticano II, così come espresse da papa Ratzinger a prescindere dalla loro data di pubblicazione, poiché il suo pensiero procede con continui approfondimenti senza soluzione di continuità e senza contraddizioni. In alcune occasioni le sue parole rappresentano un resoconto su quel grande evento di Chiesa rappresentato dal Concilio, del quale è stato testimone diretto.

This MRP explores the concept of the will in the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, and explains how his theory of the will influenced his ethical thought concerning nonhuman animals. Part one considers four theories of the will prior to Schopenhauer: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas. This review enables the reader to understand the dramatic shift in the interpretation of the will and the role it plays in Schopenhauer’s metaphysics and ethics. Part two focuses on Schopenhauer’s interpretation of the will, which led to a dramatically enlightened animal ethic when compared to his predecessors. The final section of the MRP explores the question of why Schopenhauer’s thought has lacked receptivity, and posits further questions to be pursued regarding this topic.

While we all seem to talk about politics, few of us actually know how today’s issues fit into the framework of political history. Indeed, as contemporary French philosopher Philippe Nemo points out, much of our Western secondary education is increasingly compartmentalized and provides no overarching framework for thought or any chronological bearings. With this engaging and comprehensive volume, Nemo provides just such context, as he traces the origins of political thinking from the earliest prestates through subsequent eras to allow us to better understand today’s super states.

Nemo sets forth the premise that the beginnings of political thought - our political science - can be traced to three primary sources: the philosophers and thinkers of the Greek city-state, Roman law, and the Christian Gospels. He analyzes the pre-Greek prepolitical societies and, leaning on the work of anthropologists, shows that while these societies may have had organizing principles, they did not have the concept of an evolving jurisdiction that governed the people - a concept that is the foundation of political thought. From the Greeks - Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, and the Stoics - Nemo moves on to the Romans. He demonstrates how Cicero, Seneca, and Tacitus added that sense of evolving jurisdiction and shaped political thought for generations to come.

Finally, the impact of Christian thought is examined, including a discussion of the “political” ideas present in biblical texts and the attitudes of Christians living under the Roman Empire. Tracing the birth and development of canon law and the influence of numerous Christian thinkers and writers - including Saints Paul, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas - Nemo reveals the additional layer these have added to the history of political organization.

By including little-known details and fascinating stories, Nemo makes these historical figures and their thought come alive for us - and, in the process, provides us with an understanding of the foundations upon which the contributions of modern (and postmodern) political thinkers continue to build.

Among the European “mirrors of the princes,” the work of Thomas Aquinas, On Kingship; or, On the Government of Princes, has a special place. Thanks to the author’s reputation, this text has become one of the most famous and influential in both European Late-Medieval Philosophy and Modern Political Philosophy. Among other things, this treatise has become a model for two famous works, both titled On the Government of Princes, and written by Ptolemy of Lucca, and Egidio Colonna. St. Thomas’ thought on tyranny, along with Bartolo’s concept presented in On the Tyrant, underlies the Modern European theory of tyranny. Within the frames of this article, the first book of Aquinas’ work is published in Russian for the first time. This book, which researchers often name The Theory of the Monarchy, contains the description of the good king and the tyrant, and both are part of a Thomistic analysis of a monarchy’s advantages. Chapters 7–9, where Aquinas discusses the worthy king’s reward for ruling in a true manner, occupies a special place in this book. The translation is accompanied by an extensive commentary which contains an explanation of the primary categories of Thomist political and social philosophy, such as the Multitude, Community, Kingship, Rulership, the City, etc.

Kant and Aquinas: who can doubt they are different? And however, there are some who equate Aquinas and Kant in doctrines in which they are actually opposed; some attribute to St. Thomas Aquinas approaches that are Kantian and by no means Thomistic. They make those mistakes by misinterpreting or misusing Aquinas’ texts. This paper intends to clarify a little bit the radical difference between the approaches of Aquinas and Kant to human knowledge. In my view, we need first of all to understand the problem of the universals, which is the basic problem of human understanding and, in a sense, the only problem of philosophy. Second, we need to understand the stance of both philosophers in front of this same problem. Only then will we be able to see what and how radical is the difference between Aquinas and Kant.

It is commonly assumed that for Thomas Aquinas, intentionality (the characteristic of mental states such that they are “about” an object) has to do merely with mental representation (the characteristic of a mental state such that it is “like” an object). I contend, however, that this account ignores the role of attention, in the everyday sense of actively focusing on or taking interest in something.  In order to uncover Aquinas's view of how attention factors into intentionality, this chapter focuses on Aquinas treatment of the problem of mind-reading in "De Malo" 16.8.  There, under the heading of “whether the demons cognize our thoughts," he raises a version of what I will call the “mind-reading question”: namely, if Person A could directly observe the inner workings of Person B’s mind, would A be able to see what B is thinking about, i.e., read B’s mind?  His answer reveals the role of attention in determining the intentional direction of a thought.  This text also offers an interesting approach to navigating contemporary questions about “reading minds” through neuroimaging, and shows that he distinguishes between cognition as a certain metaphysical reality in a cognitive power that is observable "from the outside", vs. as a psychological phenomenon with a subjective perspective that can only be experienced "from the inside."

A presente obra pretende aprofundar, a partir de São Tomás de Aquino (1224/25-1274), o que se entende por amor de Deus. A obra de São Tomás de Aquino escolhida é o Comentário ao Evangelho de São João, uma das obras da maturidade do Doutor de Aquino e que oferece, no estilo próprio de comentário bíblico medieval, muitos elementos doutrinais. Depois de se compreender o que são os comentários bíblicos medievais e o seu enquadramento na produção teológica da Idade Média (I capítulo), oferece-se ao leitor o contacto com o próprio texto de São Tomás, a partir de algumas temáticas que ajudam a aprofundar o que se entende pela caridade divina (II capítulo). Finalmente, ensaia-se uma síntese a partir de alguns temas mais relevantes, assim como se coloca a doutrina de São Tomás em diálogo com a reflexão contemporânea (III capítulo).

Para Tomás de Aquino, a alma humana é uma forma substancial capaz de subsistir por si, ou seja, de existir por si e não por causa de outro. Todavia, isto traz dificuldades ao seu pensamento. Geralmente, a subsistência é atribuída aos compostos hilemórficos e não às suas partes. Assim, se a alma humana é parte de um composto, ou seja, é a sua forma substancial, então não poderá subsistir por si. Para evitar esta conclusão, Tomás defende que a subsistência se atribui a dois grupos: (a) às coisas com natureza completa, ou seja, aos compostos; (b) às coisas sem natureza completa, ou seja, às partes corpóreas dos compostos. Ora, se a alma humana não tem natureza completa, então ela será subsistente no sentido (b).
Nesta resposta, parece-se atribuir o mesmo nível de subsistência à alma humana e às partes corpóreas. Entretanto, há um problema nesta solução: a subsistência consiste na capacidade de existir por si, de modo que as propriedades da subsistência e da existência separada parecem estar intimamente relacionadas. Contudo, a alma e as partes corpóreas não parecem satisfazer o mesmo nível de subsistência, pois a alma continua existindo quando separada do corpo e as partes corpóreas deixam de existir quando separadas do composto.
Nesta comunicação, procuraremos responder a duas perguntas: a subsistência possui o mesmo sentido quando atribuída à alma humana e às partes corpóreas? A subsistência e a existência separada estão sempre relacionadas?

The Influences of the Dominican Order in the Middle Ages
Taylor Institute, Lincoln College, and Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University

September 10-12, 2015

This interdisciplinary conference will explore the influences of the Dominican Order on all aspects of medieval life, encompassing the large-scale influences of the Order and the legacy of its prominent figures, as well as the impact that the Order had on those that came into contact with it.

The keynote paper will be delivered by Mary Rouse, on ‘The Vital Impact of the Dominicans on Books at the University of Paris, 1217-1350’.  The program will feature papers on the Dominican influence in England, Northern Europe, Italy, Eastern Europe, and the Byzantine world; the influence of Friars on other movements and communities; Dominican influence on architecture, art, books, music and liturgy; and influential Dominican philosophers and theologians.

Confirmed speakers are from the UK, the USA, Canada, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.  In addition, the conference will include a walking tour of medieval Oxford, and a concert of music that can be associated with the Dominican Order. 

http://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/influences-dominican-order-middle-ages

This paper discusses the theme of "personal justice" in the Summa theologiae, a concept inherited from the Nicomachean Ethics wherein Aristotle says that a man is just toward himself only metaphorically, insofar as the parts of man are appropriately ordered with the higher ruling the lower and the body subjugated to the soul. This paper demonstrates how Aquinas extensively utilizes this concept of metaphorical justice across the tripartite division of the Summa in his accounts of original justice in the prima pars, the humanity of Christ in the tertia pars, and justification of the sinner in the secunda pars. As a response to critiques that Thomistic moral theology is not properly centered in the person of Christ, I will show that, for Aquinas, Christ's personal justice both fulfills the right ordering of humanity lost through sin and restores that integrity to mankind in the grace of justification—the root of the Christian's entire moral life.

This paper seeks to defuse two claims. On the one hand, I confront the Hildebrandian claim that Thomism, by placing the principium of love in the needs and desires of the lover rather than in the beloved, denies the possibility of transcendent love; on the other, I seek to refute the Thomistic objection that Hildebrand lacks a sufficient understanding of nature and its inherent teleology. In order to accomplish this, a distinction must be made between different kinds of principium or "for-its-own-sakeness." Using St. Thomas' theory of friendship-love, I show how every affective movement in fact has two fundamentally different principia: an "enddesired," and an "end-for-whom" the former is desired.

This research seminar focuses on Aquinas’ treatise on human acts (Summa theologiae I-II.6-21), which represents one of the finest and most complex and sophisticated discussions of the principles of ethics in medieval philosophy. After briefly examining the psychological presuppositions to the treatise, which Aquinas lays out in Summa theologiae I.80-83, the course moves on to the treatise of human acts itself, starting with a detailed study of voluntariness in general (qq. 6-7) and a survey of the different aspects of the movement of the will (qq. 9-10), then passing on to a survey of the different psychological acts involved in a moral act (qq. 11-17), and ending with a study of the moral evaluation of human acts (qq. 18-21). Special attention will be given to both Aquinas’ commentators and to recent scholarship on the field. The course will involve significant research contribution on the part of the students, including the development of a student presentation and the submission of a research paper.

I am planning a history of the notion of philosophical nonsense and naturally difficult historical and exegetical questions have come up.  Charles Pigden has argued that the notion goes back at least as far as Hobbes and that Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant (on some interpretations) and pragmatists such as William James, as well as numerous Twentieth-Century philosophers make use of it.  In this ‘paper’ I put forward for general discussion such questions as whether Hobbes was the first 'nonsensicalist', whether Kant was a 'nonsensicalist' at all, which philosophers if any have considered contradictions to be meaningless and whether Wittgenstein thought that his concept of criterion could legitimately be used verificationistically.  I shall continue to add further questions as they occur to me.

Étienne Gilson and Thomas Langan note Spinoza's rationalist-determinist-monistpantheist rejection of miracles in their Modern Philosophy: Descartes to Kant: "What are the Scriptures for Spinoza? There were no real prophets writing under God's dictation, but poor and simple men, using to the hilt their gift for metaphor to cover over the poverty of their thought, invoking imaginary miracles to bolster their authority. How could there be miracles when the infinite order of nature is immutable and necessary? Spinoza did not hesitate to apply the rules of 'criticism' to the Bible, nor to contest the authorship of the Sacred Books, and to declare its origins purely and humbly human. Finally, he concludes that the Christian religion is only a historical phenomenon, product of its time, enjoying only a relative, a transitory value." 1 "Da tutti gli storici Spinoza è considerato il fondatore della critica della religione. E su questo punto non c'è dubbio alcuno. Infatti Spinoza è un perfetto razionalista che di Dio e della religione intende accettare soltanto quanto può passare attraverso il filtro della ragione, che è l'unica «conoscenza adeguata» delle cose. "Spinoza distingue due tipi di religione: quella del volgo che consiste nell'obbedienza alla legge, e quella del filosofo che consiste nella conoscenza della verità. Però, in definitiva, egli riconosce valore razionale soltanto alla religione del filosofo, cioè alla religione naturale, mentre assegna un valore pedagogico, politico e morale alla religione soprannaturale (degli ebrei e dei cristiani). Tutto questo viene lucidamente argomentato da Spinoza nel Tractatus theologicopoliticus, che è il primo chiaro esempio di un'esegesi estremamente critica e liberale della Sacra Scrittura. "Già nella Prefazione l'autore, in contrasto con l'atteggiamento che ritiene fonte di empietà l'uso della ragione, dichiara di essersi indotto ad esaminare «con integro e libero animo la Scrittura», essendo convinto che «la Scrittura lascia assolutamente libera la ragione» e che «religione e filosofia sono indipendenti», reggendosi «ciascuna su una propria base». Spinoza's Rejection of Miracles in Chapter 6 of His 'Tractatus Theologico-Politicus' (1670): "Chapter 6 (Of Miracles) "As men are accustomed to call Divine the knowledge which transcends human understanding, so also do they style Divine, or the work of God, anything of which the cause is not generally known: for the masses think that the power and providence of God are most clearly displayed by events that are extraordinary and contrary to the conception they have formed of nature, especially if such events bring them any profit or convenience: they think that the clearest possible proof of God's existence is afforded when nature, as they suppose, breaks her accustomed order, and consequently they believe that those who explain or endeavour to understand phenomena or miracles through their natural causes are doing away with God and His providence. They suppose, forsooth, that God is inactive so long as nature works in her accustomed order, and vice versa, that the power of nature and natural causes are idle so long as God is acting: thus they imagine two powers distinct one from the other, the power of God and the power of nature, though the latter is in a sense determined by God, or (as most people believe now) created by Him. What they mean by either, and what they understand by God and nature they do not know, except that they imagine the power of God to be like that of some royal potentate, and nature's power to consist in force and energy. "The masses then style unusual phenomena 'miracles,' and partly from piety, partly for the sake of opposing the students of science, prefer to remain in ignorance of natural causes, and only to hear of those things which they know least, and consequently admire most. In fact, the common people can only adore God, and refer all things to His power by removing natural causes, and conceiving things happening out of their due course, and only admires the power of God when the power of nature is conceived of as in subjection to it.