โ Scribed by Samuel J. Preus
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The first and most rigorous early modern discussion of anthropomorphism in religion was produced by Benedict Spinoza. The intellectual context for his consideration was the problem posed by biblical anthropomorphism for the philosophical reader. This problem had been treated by Muslim and Jewish philosophers and was the central issue for Maimonides in his Guide of the Perplexed. Spinoza's major contributions in two areas-biblical interpretation and the study of religion-can be understood from the starting-point of his critical reconsideration of anthropomorphism. By showing that the Bible's anthropomorphism is irreducible and therefore cannot be philosophically 'demythologized' without distorting the text's historical meanings, Spinoza established the presuppositions for both historical and literary interpretation. Further, by applying his general analysis of religion itself as intrinsically anthropomorphic to analysis of biblical religion, Spinoza brought the study of the Bible into the orbit of the modern study of religion as inherently comparative, historical and critical. 1 A man said to the universe: 'Sir, I exist!' 'However', replied the universe, 'The fact has not created in me 'A sense of obligation'.
No one in the early modern period published a more rigorous or relentless exposรฉ of anthropomorphism in religion than Benedict Spinoza (d. 1677). 1 The primary contemporary intellectual context of Spinoza's engagement with the issue, however, was not a theoretical analysis of religion in a vacuum but the great contention over biblical interpretation and biblical authority in post-Reformation Europe, most brilliantly in 17-century Holland.
Calvinist orthodoxy, the majority religion, was in power and intent on legitimating its rule and imposing God's law on society by appeal to biblical authority. This made issues of biblical interpretation political as well as theoretical, and that setting provides the context for considering Spinoza's engagement with anthropomorphism, especially in his Theological-Political Treatise (1670) and in relevant correspondence.
Spinoza introduces a unique perspective and competence to this inner-Christian debate, both because of his social marginality and vulnerability as a Marrano Jew and because of his insider's knowledge and exploitation of the Jewish tradition of exegesis and philosophy-a dimension mostly unknown and perceived as alien by his Christian contemporaries. Anthropomorphism was intensely debated in medieval Muslim and Jewish traditions, 2 the latter represented above all by Maimonides (d. 1204), whose Guide of the Perplexed is entirely occupied with the problem of biblical anthropomorphism. For the devout Jewish philosopher, this was a major problem, since it involved practically everything the Bible says about God.
We find nothing like this in the Christian literature of Spinoza's time, where scriptural anthropomorphism was not an issue. Most authors accepted the standard view
The essays in this symposium were originally presented in a session of the History of the Study of Religion Group at the meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Chicago in November 1994.
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