Spinoza: Atheist or Redeemer of Religion?

Dr Colin Marshall (University of Melbourne)

Abstract: Spinoza claims that God and Nature are the same thing. Many people have taken this to be an indirect statement of atheism: during his life, Spinoza was expelled and damned by religious authorities, and his books were condemned immediately after being published. The atheist reading of Spinoza is still widespread today. I will argue, however, that this reading is based on an overly-simple reading of Spinoza and an overly-simple understanding of theism. Properly understood, Spinoza offers an important challenge to both contemporary religion and atheism.