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Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy Carlos Fraenkel Frontmatter More Information Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19457-0 - Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy Carlos Fraenkel Frontmatter More information PHILOSOPHICAL RELIGIONS FROM PLATO TO SPINOZA Many pagan, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim philosophers from antiquity to the Enlightenment made no meaningful distinction between philosophy and religion. Instead they advocated a philosoph- ical religion, arguing that God is Reason and that the historical forms of a religious tradition serve as philosophy’s handmaid to promote the life of reason among non-philosophers. Carlos Fraenkel provides the first account of this concept and traces its history back to Plato. He shows how Jews and Christians appropriated it in antiquity, follows it through the Middle Ages in both Islamic and Jewish forms, and argues that it underlies Spinoza’s interpretation of Christianity in the early modern period. The main challenge to a philosophical religion comes from the modern view that all human beings are equally able to order their lives rationally and hence need no guidance from reli- gion. Fraenkel’s wide-ranging book will appeal to anyone interested in how philosophy has interacted with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious traditions. carlos fraenkel is Associate Professor, Department of Philoso- phy and Department of Jewish Studies, McGill University. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19457-0 - Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy Carlos Fraenkel Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19457-0 - Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy Carlos Fraenkel Frontmatter More information PHILOSOPHICAL RELIGIONS FROM PLATO TO SPINOZA Reason, Religion, and Autonomy CARLOS FRAENKEL © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19457-0 - Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy Carlos Fraenkel Frontmatter More information cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao˜ Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb28ru,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521194570 c Carlos Fraenkel 2012 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2012 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data Fraenkel, Carlos, 1971– Philosophical religions from Plato to Spinoza : reason, religion, and autonomy / Carlos Fraenkel. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-521-19457-0 1. Philosophy and religion. 2. Philosophy – History. 3. Religions. I. Title. bl51.f64 2012 210.9 –dc23 2012018820 isbn 978-0-521-19457-0 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19457-0 - Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy Carlos Fraenkel Frontmatter More information To Renato Fraenkel and Zeev Harvey © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19457-0 - Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy Carlos Fraenkel Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19457-0 - Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy Carlos Fraenkel Frontmatter More information Contents Preface page ix Acknowledgments xvii Translations, conventions, abbreviations xxi Introduction: what is a philosophical religion? 1 Introduction 1 The concept of a philosophical religion 5 Towards a history of philosophical religions 24 Reason, religion, and autonomy: revising the conventional wisdom 28 1 Reason, divine nomoi, and self-rule in Plato 38 Introduction 38 Socratic politics 40 The rule of God as Reason 48 Why the philosopher’s life is best 51 Guiding non-philosophers: the handmaid of philosophy 58 From coercion to self-rule 69 The wisdom of non-philosophers 78 From cultural revolution to philosophical reinterpretation 82 DivineLaw–oneormany? 85 2 Moses, Christ, and the universal rule of Reason in antiquity 87 Introduction 87 Appropriating the Platonic model: the evidence of Eusebius 91 Reinterpreting cultural traditions 100 From the divine nomoi of the Greeks to the divine nomoi of the Jews 103 Moses and Homer – philosopher-poets? 105 Judaism as a philosophical religion 108 Christianity as a philosophical religion 122 Philosophers in paradise 139 From Magnesia to a Christian world-state 141 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19457-0 - Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy Carlos Fraenkel Frontmatter More information viii Contents 3 Communities of Reason in the Islamic world 144 Introduction 144 Plato and Aristotle 146 Al-Far¯ ab¯ ¯ı on philosophy and the Divine Law 154 Averroes and Maimonides – disciples of al-Far¯ ab¯ ¯ı? 164 Islam as a philosophical religion 167 Judaism as a philosophical religion 175 Leading non-philosophers out of the cave 181 Theocracy and autonomy 194 Medieval Jewish Enlightenment 202 Between Maimonides and Spinoza: Elijah Delmedigo 205 4 Christianity as a philosophical religion in Spinoza 213 Introduction 213 Spinoza’s early dogmatism 218 The evidence of Lodewijk Meyer for Spinoza’s early dogmatism 229 The concept of a philosophical religion in Spinoza’s later writings 232 Religion and the freedom to philosophize 254 From God as Reason to Deus sive Natura 262 Interpreting Christianity as a philosophical religion 265 Were the prophets philosophers after all? 270 Spinoza’s critique of religion 275 Epilogue: did the history of philosophical religions come to an end? 282 Introduction 282 Disregarding Spinoza’s critique of religion from Lessing to Hegel 283 Philosophy’s new handmaid? Art as a pedagogical-political program 293 Making the handmaid redundant: equality as a moral-political value 295 Prospects of a philosophical religion 297 Bibliography 301 Index 319 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19457-0 - Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy Carlos Fraenkel Frontmatter More information Preface In this book I lay the groundwork for understanding and tracing the his- tory of what I call a philosophical religion. Proponents of a philosophical religion conceive the relationship between reason and religion in a way that at first looks unfamiliar. Since the Enlightenment religion’s critics claim that religion is an obstacle to the emancipation of reason. Instead of knowledge, religion promotes ignorance in form of fables and superstition. Instead of autonomy it preaches submission to God by rousing irrational fears of punishment and hopes for reward. If we choose to follow reason, religious beliefs and practices have no place in our life. To proponents of a philosophical religion these criticisms would sound strange. The projects of reason and religion, they hold, cannot be meaningfully distinguished at all. The core purpose of religion is to direct us to a life that is guided by reason towards the perfection of reason. For the best and most blissful life is the life of contemplation, culminating in knowledge of God. God himself, they argue, is the perfect model of this life. Being pure Reason, he eternally knows and enjoys the truth, unencumbered by hunger, pain, ignorance, and other afflictions that come with being embodied. The task of religion is to make us as much like God as possible. Plato marks the beginning: laws, he contends, are divine if they direct us to “Reason who rules all things” (Leg. 631d). The same idea is still echoed in Spinoza: while human laws aim only at prosperity and peace, divine laws aim at “the true knowledge and love of God” (TTP 4.3/50). Under ideal circumstances there would be no need for laws at all: everyone would know what is right andbemotivatedtodoitbythedesiretobecomelikeGodthroughcontem- plation. In the ideal religious community, therefore, God’s rule and self-rule coincide. At first view a philosophical religion seems to have little in common with the historical forms of religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. How can it accommodate their laws, stories, exhortations, and practices of worship? And how does the concept of God as Reason square with the ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19457-0 - Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza: Reason, Religion, and Autonomy
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